Highlander II – The Quickening

The time travellers with a flair for decapitation and swordplay are back, though this time Mulcahy's slick visuals merely serve to emphasise how vacuous the concept has become. It's the 21st century, and the ozone layer has been replaced by a protective shield built by what rapidly becomes the world's most powerful, corrupt corporation. The shield's original creator is Connor MacLeod (Lambert), now an old man who has opted to end his days in peaceful oblivion on Earth. But back home on the planet Zeist, evil dictator Katana (Ironside) has other plans for him... The film-makers opt this time for plenty of comic-strip gore, with the irredeemably wicked Katana leering his way through a series of spine-shattering escapades. 'This is going to be fun,' he mutters before a particularly tedious sequence in which subway train passengers endure a bloody ride to hell. Leaden, laden with effects, short on imagination.