Crimes:
Too many to recount in full. In summary: Terrible acting, plotting, dialogue, special effects, music, action sequences, continuity, story logic, and jokes.
Defenders: Director Russell Mulcahy, producers Peter Davis and Bill Panzer
Tone of commentary: Jolly, slightly forced. A featurette on the Renegade Version disc briefly explains how, after Highlander II went over budget, its insurance company seized control, shutting down production and stitching together a cut the filmmakers hated. Four years later, Mulcahy and company shot additional footage and constructed this version. Panzer and Davis spend most of their time boasting about how different and improved this edition is. Mulcahy is noticeably quieter throughout.
What went wrong: Pay-scale tensions among the multinational crew, wounded stars, technical difficulties, a lost camera. (Mulcahy: "I think it fell off in Japan, onto someone.") Also, the fans loathed the first version.
Comments on the cast: Davis: "Christopher [Lambert] and Virginia [Madsen] were, uh, quite magical." Panzer: "Is magical the right word?" "Yeah, that's the right word." "'Lustful'?" "I mean, when actors get down on a distant location like that, people become friends, and I think we could say that they certainly… became friends."
Inevitable dash of pretension: Slathered throughout, though at its most hilarious during the awkward strip-club chitchat accompanying Lambert and Madsen's cheesy, abrupt public-sex scene: "So… as we see in this scene, MacLeod has not lost his Scottish virility." "His love of life." "Passion for life." [Pause.] "They definitely seem to be into this."
Commentary in a nutshell: After a battle scene stitched together from footage shot in two different countries years apart, Mulcahy points out the visual discontinuities. The other two pause, then laugh awkwardly. Panzer: "Russell, you always know what to say… We had to finish the sequence. And we did." Mulcahy: [Pause.] "And. Quite well. Done." Davis: "That is true."