Incannerax What a waste of my time!!!

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

brendanfoy I like a lot of 80s B movie Fantasies and decided to check out the Deathstalker films after I watched The Barbarians on youtube, which I LOVED.I picked up the Roger Corman Sword and Sorcery Collection and watched the first film last night and was not impressed. To me what makes a Sword and Sorcery B film so great is when the cast and crew are aware that they are making a sub par film and are in on the joke, but with Deathstalker I felt like they were trying to make a decent movie and just gave up when it became clear they were too incompetent to do so. The Barbarians was hilarious because the tongue in cheek tone was present throughout the film, but I didn't get that vibe with Deathstalker. I like seeing boobs and ass as much as the next guy, but this film was gratuitous in the way they showed it and often not in a funny or sexy way. I like blood and gore but when the sorcerer was feeding that boy's eye and fingers to his pet creature, that was just a little too far for me when it comes to a movie I want to laugh at (or with).The biggest surprise I had while watching Deathstalker is that some scenes actually look very good when trying to replicate Boris Vallejo's imagery, they were held back only by the anemic production budget, but the rest of the movie is plain old bad film making. I just found very little charm to the movie which I find essential to enjoy trash cinema. The last 20 or so minutes are genuinely funny with some hilarious moments in the sorcerer's castle, and the end is pretty satisfying, but getting to that last half hour was a long hard slog.Maybe this can be enjoyed as a bad movie you can laugh at with friends over a few beers, but most of the people I know would rather I just shut it off.UPDATE:OK so I guess I have to eat my words about improving the first one because they did everything I suggested they do for the first to make the sequel better, place tongue in cheek and just have fun, but still failed miserably. It just wasn't funny yet they tried so hard. Army of Darkness is funny, Flesh + Blood is funny, The Barbarians is funny, but Deathstalker 2 was full of cringe inducing puns. I think I might prefer the first over the second, but the sequel does do a better job at portraying the Deathstalker character by turning him into a swashbuckling scoundrel instead of a thuggish brute like in the first. Aside from a fun sword fight at the end, the sequel just didn't do it for me. I like how the first had imagery which tried to capture the magic of Boris Vallejo's art style, the sequel attempted none of this. The bloopers for Deathstalker 2 should have been kept in the final cut because they were genuinely funny, and the acting was better when they didn't think the cameras were rolling. If you're going for comedy, you need some genuinely talented or charismatic people in your film, but Deathstalker 2 failed at this. I actually have the urge to watch the first again, at least certain scenes, so maybe that one might grow on me.

zardoz-13 If the Spaghetti spear and sandal movies of the late 1950s and early 1960s were an acquired taste, the sword and sorcery movies of the 1980s qualify as an even greater acquired taste. 'Greater,' in this instance, is used in a pejorative sense. Sword and sorcery movies are lowest denominator adventure epics that fixate on bared breasts, bloody swords, and beefy biceps. Some infamous tyrant rules a kingdom without right and a hero must challenge his dominance. Many classify these "Hercules" movies as 'guilty pleasures.' Nobody takes them seriously. After all, they are ancient, larger-than-life hokum about mesomorphic men and wicked villains pitted against each other in a life or death struggle in fantasy settings. Witches and a plethora of phantasmagoric creatures lurking about in caves fleshed out these movies. John Frankenheimer protégé James Sbardellati made his directorial debut with the colorful but cheesy R-rated opus "Deathstalker," an amusing 81-minute spectacle lensed on location in Argentina, South America. Like "The Sword and The Sorcerer" and "Ator, The Fighting Eagle," "Deathstalker" and its three sequels sought to cash in on the success of John Milius' "Conan the Barbarian" with Arnold Schwarzenegger. "Conan" depicted the exploits of a mighty, muscle-bound troubleshooter who battled wizards, demons, and witches. The Milius film boasted a big budget, thanks to its indulgent producer Dino De Laurentiis. Schlockmeister Roger Corman produced "Deathstalker" and it looks bargain basement priced. Kentucky native Rick Hill, who later appeared in "The Devastator" and "Warrior Queen," provides the brawn as the eponymous macho man. Hill brings his sardonic perspective to this relatively thankless, one-dimensional role. Initially, his conduct appears less than heroic. In the first scene, Deathstalker rescues a damsel-in-distress from loathsome adversaries. He slays these plug-ugly opponents, who apparently have have incest as well as leprosy in their genes, with skill and dexterity. Ironically, Deathstalker resumes theire depredations where they had left off, only to be distracted by a courier from a deposed monarch. King Tulak (George Sorvic) pleads for Deathstalker to rescue his comely daughter Princess Codille (Playboy Playmate Barbi Benton of "Hospital Massacre") from the evil sorcerer Munkar (Bernard Erhand of "Firefox") who used his magic to depose Tulak and plans to make her his wife. Deathstalker turns down Tulak's request.Later, a crone of a witch, Toralva (Lillian Ker), appeals to Deathstalker. "With your strength and courage, Deathstalker, you can use the power of the sword to get the amulet. He who wears it cannot die. With the sword and the amulet, you can get the chalice and reunite the three powers of creation." Moreover, he will be able to destroy Munkar, the source of all evil in the kingdom. Toralva explains that Munkar possesses the amulet of life and the chalice of magic, but lacks the crucial third component: the sword of justice. In fact, Munkar sought to steal the sword from Toralva,but Deathstalker rode to her rescue. Clearly, our protagonist liked her better than Tulak. The witch assures Deathstalker that he is the only man with enough courage and strength to wield the sword and consolidate the powers of life, magic, and justice. Before Deathstalker can embark on his journey, he has to burrow into a cave, locate a creature, Salmaron (Augusto Laretta of "The Official Story"), who Munkar had turned into a monster and confined in the earth for 30 years without a glimpse of sunlight. Deathstalker clashes with a giant that accosted him in the cave and defeats him after Salmaron slings him the magic sword. Later,Salmaron takes advantage of the sword's magical powers to convert him back into a human being.Not long afterward, Deathstalker teams up with the two warriors, the agile Oghris (Richard Brooker) and the lovely Kaira (Lana Clarkson of "Barbarian Queen") on their way to Munkar's kingdom. Kaira has no qualms about baring her breasts and responds to Deathstalker's lusty inclinations. The trio ride off to compete in an "Enter the Dragon" style combat tournament hosted by the nefarious Munkar. The latter wants to determine which warrior will become heir to his kingdom. Never does it occur to these pugnacious combatants that the sorcerer has no plans to die. In fact, only Deathstalker seems to realize that Munkar is up to no good. Indeed, Munkar only wants these foolish warriors to annihilate each other so he can kill the surviving champion and never fear about anybody deposing him.The saving grace of "Deathstalker" is that the filmmakers don't take themselves seriously and they have an ample number of scantily-clad, nubile babes wandering around the ancient sets. Sbardellati does a good job of cross-cutting among the series of fights so that it ends up being an exciting montage of combat. When Deathstalker swings his sword, heads fly. What Sbardellati lacks in orchestrating the swordfights, he equals with buckets of blood and gore. One combatant smashes his opponent to a pulp with an enormous mallet. The violence is amoral. Our hero shows his amoral side early in the action when he behaves as villainously as his opponents. Later, after the witch recruits him to the side of good and honor, Deathstalker reforms and behaves like a hero. My favorite character is Howie, a cheesy looking "Ghoulies" type monster that lives in a treasure box and contents itself with a diet of fingers and eyeballs fed to it by Munkar. The most imaginative scene has Munkar changing one of his warriors into Playboy model Barbi Benton so he can get close enough to stab Deathstalker with a dagger. Of course, Deathstalker never meets his match. Sbardellati and "Barbarian Queen" scenarist Howard Cohen kill off poor Kaira far too early. Altogether, "Deathstalker" qualifies as a hokey sword and sorcery sage with some average photography, interesting music, and lots of blood, gore, and boobs.

Vomitron_G Woosh…! Man… What can I say...?The opening-scene, maybe? We see a bunch of mongoloid-barbarians with bad make-up jump off the walls of some ruins. They sneak around and attack some dude with a scantily clothed captive girl. The dude runs off, the mongoloids follow him and one of them stays behind seemingly to rape the girl, but instead he exposes one of her breasts and kidnaps her. Then, the dude (still on the run) sees a horse and tries to steal it. Suddenly… a blond god-like looking hero with a bad wig appears, saying "That's my horse!". The Mighty Deathstalker just made his appearance. The mongoloids arrive, Deathstalker kills all of them (including the dude) on the tunes of some rather inappropriate Mexicanos western score (this is supposed to be a Swords & Sorcery flick, so what's with the 'arriba-trompettos'?), and then goes up to Captive Girl and exposes both her breasts. He starts to rub them and Captive Girl seems to like it. She starts liking her lips and caressing Deathstalker. Just when they are about to get down to it, this old dude appears, interrupting what could have been the end of a perfect day for Deathstalker (and a possible perfect ending for a short-film).Now tell me… Isn't that the point where either a feminist would angrily switch off the movie, or any other male viewer would say "This is going to be one hell of a good movie!" The plot is as simple as throwing a kitten from the balcony: Deathstalker must obtain the Sword of Justice and use it to steal the Amulet of Life and the Chalice of Magic from the evil sorcerer Munkar.Aside from decapitations, dismemberment, random bloodshed, retarded fist fights and embarrassing sword fights, this film also contains a massive amount of t!ts & a$$ shots. I initially wanted to add one extra point to this movie for each gratuitous shot of naked boobies I could count. After 9 points (not even halfway into the movie), I had to give up counting. It was distracting me from the rest of the movie. And the rest of the movie was worth it. Totally crazy stuff. Check out this mutant cat/worm-like creature Munkar has as a pet and which he feeds eyeballs and fingers. And here's an interesting question: What would you do if a man in a woman's body would enter your bedroom and try to kill you with a knife? The answer is simple: You slap him around a bit, take away the knife and then try to rape him. Then you discover that he's actually not a woman, so you throw him out of your bed and tell him to leave your room. It works out well, I tell you. Deathstalker does it too, and the Deathstalker-way, is the right way!DEATHSTALKER is a wonderful movie, really, as pointed out in other comments. The villains are vile. The women are delicious. There's blood, sex, violence, rape and tasty chicken. There's a completely pointless tournament which just features a bunch of barbarians beating, slashing and hacking the crap out of each other. My favorite weapon used in that tournament was a giant wooden hammer, used to beat a poor contender to bloody pulp. And my favorite contender undoubtedly was that one brute with the Warthog-head (reminiscent of the Gamorrean Guards from RETURN OF THE JEDI). I won't reveal how the movie ends, but just prepare to ravish in delight when I tell you a 4-way dismemberment is thrown into the movie's climax.And of course, there's a wonderful display of ineptitude throughout the whole movie. See a guy being dragged behind a horse over a dirt road, and the next point-of-view shot shows him being dragged over grass (no road). See that awesome tattoo on the sorcerer's head magically change sides within the same scene (on shot has it on the left side of his head, the other on the right). Well, after all, Munkar is a magician. It's that, or this movie was shot in an alternate universe where things like "continuity" simply don't exist.As much as I enjoyed this and as much as I am looking forward to the other 3 installments in this series, I do have enough shreds of decency left in me to not let this movie pass. I am prepared, though, to give it the maximum amount of minimal points, just so I could be able to deduct a couple of more points for the possibly inferior sequels to follow. DEATHSTALKER might be a superbly fun, trashy & sleazy CONAN rip-off, it also is an abominable movie.

JTurner82 DEATHSTALKER is perfect for B-fantasy movie fans; this barely 80-minute travesty of film-making features everything hecklers can ask for--non-existent plotting, terrible acting (save for at least a raspy-sounding old lady), laughable scripting and schlock editing, and bargain-basement style background settings. There are no characters that come across as likable or interesting (in particular, the lead doesn't have ANYTHING appealing about him), and the actors assembled barely do anything to rise above the F-grade material. If that's not enough, then how about the lack of a compelling plot (which this movie has nothing of the sort) to make DEATHSTALKER qualify as a major turkey? I was also offended that the women in this movie barely serve any purpose other than to 1) be topless and/or scantily clad; 2) get raped; 3) have sex with the hero; 4) all of the above. In addition, the background music is hideous; a bizarre mess of electronic noise, cheesy choral bursts, and blaring orchestral cacophony. Ear numbing and eye numbing all in one packed with nary a thing to keep one interested, DEATHSTALKER is probably best suited for folks looking for something to laugh at (and believe me, there's plenty of that in here). Otherwise, I do not recommend this 100th-grade CONAN wanna-be to anyone in the least.