Phil Hubbs Look at the poster for this film, its damn cool with a really hot barbarian female, aggressive and looks like some old Amiga computer game box art. Remember the old classic computer game 'Barbarian'? I wonder if they got their box art ideas from these films and the poster art? Now I look even the font on the text is similar for both, curious.Now watch the film and you notice some slight differences with what you may have been expecting. Not that you really should be expecting much with this franchise. The cheap cheap low budget sequel to the first film really does earn the label of B-movie in every aspect.The first film was reasonable but this is dire. The main lead looks the part but acts like a buffoon in lame attempts of badly executed humour. The continuity is gone as 'Deathstalker' is now a different younger actor, not that continuity was probably high on the directors list...or your expectation list either.As before there are plenty of topless females running around, this is fine, its just a shame they are all running the flimsiest sets you have ever seen. The comedy is in watching the bad acting against the homemade sets, just like good old Ed Wood. Of course you can't really knock such a film as it was never meant to be a serious major production, although there is care involved clearly. Its nowhere near as good as the first and that was average at best, they actually use many old clips from the first film to flesh out this one. Bad move when you see the characters from the first film, ones that were killed even, errr...did anyone check that?2/10

lost-in-limbo Too much fun. Cheap, but fun. Yep… just campy fun. This acclaimed… oh. I don't really see much to it and that's why I'll keep it short. Directed by Jim Wynorski, the extremely low-rent and cartoon-like sword and sorcery romp 'Deathstalker 2: Duel of the Titans' happened to be a sequel that would go down the straight-to-video root. Sure it's trashy, gaudy and bare-bones, but it has ticker and its comical touch (feeling like a parody on the sub-genre's conventions) with a snappy script springing a wink-wink attitude and smart-lipped dialogues made it a lot easier to take. At times it was eye-boggling to what came out of the mouths, due to overplaying itself which for some could be torture as it begins to grow a bit tiresome. The performances are ham-fisted, but acceptable to what's on show. John Terlesky makes for a charismatic heroine bestowing endless appeal, but plenty of stamina when action erupted. An delectably cute Monique Gabrielle in is two character roles of two different kinds; an innocent and bitch. John Lazar gives a mannered evil performance as the Jarek the Sorcerer. Despite the obvious restrictions (some utterly second-rate props and sets with shoddy make-up FX and special effects) Wynorski no-nonsense handling never lets the pace dip and throws in a rowdy barrage of energy-filled and atmospheric adventures on the journey. Due to the jumpy lay-out of set-pieces, the narrative feels incoherent than anything kept-in-check and smoothly flowing. The combat action have stodgy and almost slow-motion choreography, but the final confrontation (Deathstalker v Jarek) is worthwhile amongst all the charades. It plays its familiar genre staples in what is cheaply exploitative, but harmlessly cheesy hokum.

Vomitron_G Nevermind my low rating. This is a really good movie.While the first DEATHSTALKER movie played it with a straight face (making it a much easier movie to poke fun at), this second installment in the series is tongue-in-cheek all the way. It did make me laugh as hard (or perhaps even harder at times) as with the first one, though maybe the enjoyment I got out of DEATHSTALKER II might be a bit less, how shall I put it... satisfying? Because after all, we're supposed to laugh with this one, and when it comes to the humor, it is as dumb as it gets. But still, nothing too wrong with that, I suppose. And to make things crystal clear from the get-go, the fun already starts in a most verbal way, just before the opening credits, when evil sword-wench Sultana shouts "I will have my revenge! And Deathstalker too!", and then whoosh, the "Deathstalker two" title-logo comes on. Brilliant.Part of the fun still comes from unintentional events, like scenes starting and ending abruptly, a chase-scene on horses were people just seem to be riding the same part of the road endlessly, stock footage from the first DEATHSTALKER (with a different look, easy to spot) inserted in this sequel for pointless reasons, etc. Another reason for incomprehensible chuckles comes from the movie's subtitle. It reads DUAL OF THE TITANS, supported by crackling flames... What titans? Who? Where are they? And like if the opening-credits weren't enough to make us reflect on this movie in a grinning or dumbly drooling fashion, then wait until the end-credits start to roll. They show us a handful of bloopers, at times even supported by silly voice-overs. Those bloopers are likely to kill off any braincells one might still have after viewing DEATHSTALKER II: DUAL OF THE TITANS! (Which titans?)The performances of the whole cast, this time, are indeed deliberately campy. Most actors handle a contemporary language completely unsuitable for a swords & sorcery film. Especially our hero (John Terlesky) seems to be exquisitely enjoying himself doing so. Blond Barbie-doll Monique Gabrielle (in a double-role, no less) was as painful as she was funny, watching her deliver her lines trying very hard to strike the right comical note (or vicious note, for that matter) when called for. And has John Lazar (of Russ Meyer's BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS fame) ever acted so laughably idiotic before in his life? Fitting for these slapstick characters, is the fact that they all seem to run around on sets made out of cardboard or styrofoam. In other words: real works of art.Of course, DEATHSTALKER II offers enough female eye-candy. Knockers and buttocks are displayed quite randomly in this one (thank you, Jim Wynorski). Sometimes they use stock footage from the first movie for this purpose, but thankfully there's new boobage to behold too. Especially the sex-scene between Deathstalker and evil princess Evie is as gratuitous as can be. The one naked girl dancing in that completely retarded bar-fight (at the beginning) was quite funny too. Her dancing skills were limited to 'wiggle waggle, bounce & shake' and 'duck' when a hurled brew-holder comes flying over her head. Now that we're talking retarded scenes anyway, the movie reaches an absolute lowest point in the middle during an embarrassing wrestling scene that goes on for way too long. It's Deathstalker vs Utterly Fat Growling Barbaric She-Thing. I think that says enough.But you have to at least give Jim Wynorski some credit: He really watched and understood the first DEATHSTALKER movie. He took several elements of the first film (characteristics of the 'hero', the nudity,...) and enlarged, emphasized and mainly spoofed them (out of the many examples of this, Warthog-Brute returning for a silly cameo is one of them). So at least, he aims to please and for the bigger part also succeeds. Even that inappropriate western-vibe is, at times, again present on the movie's soundtrack. And will you check out that one, eardrum-piercing sound-sample, used numerous times throughout the movie. It goes "shreeeeeeeuw!!!"... What was up with that? Other highlights include scenes distinctively showing Wynorski's inexplicable ways of film-making. One scene has Stalker and Reena on a horse, trying to escape some villains repeatedly shooting exploding arrows at them. The villains just shoot without aiming and the scene is packed with seemingly pointless explosions. It's like Wynorski just said to the pyro-technicians "When I yell action, you guys go nuts, okay? I don't care how you do it, just make sure you blow the hell out of everything!". And so they did.Another favorite scene of mine (and another pointless one it is), is the one with the zombies at the green cemetery. I don't know why or how this cemetery is all green, but it is. Just look at it: Green graves all over the place. Magnificent. I guess it's all just proof that DEATHSTALKER II is one in a row of many successes by a genius film-maker. So, watch more Wynorski films is the main message here. Thanks for listening, and I'm off to prepare myself mentally for entering the third installment, undoubtedly yet another epic tale of mind-boggling barbaric fantasy, called DEATHSTALKER AND THE WARRIORS FROM HELL. Unfortunately, it was not directed by Jim Wynorski.

ShootingShark In ancient days, Deathstalker is a thief and swordsman who befriends Evie, a strange young woman who promises him great rewards if he can rid the land of the evil sorcerer Jarek. Deathstalker takes up the challenge, but can he defeat this powerful villain, and has Evie told him the whole story …Okay, this movie's a bit cheesy and goofball, with cardboard sets and a scene-chewing cast, but I can't help but enjoy it a lot. Like Piranha, it knows it's cashing in on the success of a better film, but that doesn't stop it being witty, exciting and fast paced. We get medieval barroom brawls, slavegirl mud fights, a tussle in a crypt with a gang of zombies, a wrestling match with an Amazon, a pit and pendulum torture number and a steamy vampire seduction scene. Wynorski sensibly keeps everything moving along nice as you please, with the next fight, joke, fleshpot or scare never far away. He's a really good director, with a fine eye for a shot, clever timing and a complete lack of pretension; check out any of his other films (my favourite is Transylvania Twist). The cast are fun - Terlesky coasts on his goofy good looks as the amiable Deathstalker, and Gabrielle and Naples are both saucy delights, frequently in eye-popping costumes which seem to defy both gravity and human physiology. Topping it all off is a toe-tappingly pleasant muzak score by Chuck Cirino, all kooky chords and crescendos. B-movie afficionados (and if you aren't one, stop taking films so seriously) will find much to enjoy in this good-natured, sexy, low-budget adventure flick. A straight-to-video movie, also known as Deathstalker II: Duel Of The Titans, it has little connection with the more mundane 1983 movie Deathstalker, and two plodding sequels (Deathstalker And The Warriors From Hell and Deathstalker IV: Match Of Titans).