User reviews

The second part of the "Deathstalker" series has a spirited beginning, a fun score, and is overall entertaining because of its campiness, but it's not to be mistaken in any way as a good film. The big surprise here is that, unlike most former models, Monique Gabrielle CAN act: she plays two roles and she manages to give each one a distinct personality (intensely likable/intensely bitchy), and she's the best reason to see this movie. As for John Terlesky, he flashes a smile that is comparable to Tom Cruise's. (**)

This is way funnier than the first one. But depending on your taste, you might not think this is funny. The two main actors really do a good job and as others have stated this is the best of the bunch (I actually bought the 4 movie collection of the series - if you want to call it that).

This is silly and has nudity and there is fighting. As with the first one, but with the added low level humor (that works most of the time I think), this has to be taken with a grain of salt

This is one of the great fantasy "B" flicks. It has some of the funniest one liners, delivered in clasic "B" movie style. There's plenty of action and lots of laughs to be had watching this one. Besides the princess is cute and you have to love the villians style. If you're looking for perhaps one of the best low grade fantasy films ever produced than this would definitely be the one to watch. It rocks!

I quite enjoyed the first Deathstalker film, a knowingly silly barbarian romp. This sequel is from writer/director Jim Wynorski and is pretty typical of his output: cheap, poorly acted, but with lots of T&A and a spot of softcore sex.

This time around, warrior Deathstalker is played by John Terlesky, whose s**t-eating grin, wisecracks and big chin (Bruce Campbell has some serious competition from this guy) really got on my nerves. He's not exactly Arnold Schwarzenegger either, making for a rather lacklustre hero. Thankfully, the heroine of the piece, Princess Evie, is played by stunning softcore actress Monique Gabrielle who gladly shows off her assets and very nice they are too. Also displaying great form are Toni Naples as wicked sorceror Jarek's evil sidekick Sultana, and Maria Socas as an Amazon Queen.

Hot women in various states of undress aside, the film is pretty dire: there are numerous poorly choreographed battles, a really dumb wrestling scene between Deathstalker and an Amazonian warrior woman (played by wrestler Queen Kong), some bargain basement zombies, a few scenes borrowed from the first film to keep down costs, and lots of terrible dialogue delivered unconvincingly by the 'stars'.

3.5 out of 10, rounded up to 4 for the dwarf playing a lute.

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.

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.

This is one cool flick! Sure, lots of stock-footage -- sure, Deathstalker 1, 3, 4, are all terrible -- but, I promise you, this is a square deal! A funny, knowing, fast-paced comedy that's a hell of a lot better than "Krull" or whatever that friggin' Kevin Sorbo flick that was rightfully ignored in '98 -- Terlesky is the perfect anti-hero, and his fight with LaZar (from "Beneath the Valley of the Dolls" 'enuff said!) is actually taken seriously and is really well done. Oh, and they make Gabrielle look great (which is easy) and give a funny performance (which perhaps wasn't quite so easy). Genre fans give it a look -- makes a perfect double feature w/ "Conan The Barbarian!"

Deathstalker II (1987) is a movie that I recently watched on Tubi. The storyline follows the Deathstalker mercenary who rescues a young lady on multiple occasions. The young lady reveals herself as a princess and requests the mercenary's help to regain her kingdom and overcome a sorcerer who cloned her to trick her people into following him. Can the Deathstalker and Princess regain the throne?

This movie is directed by Jim Wynorski (Munchie) and stars John Terlesky (The Allnighter), Monique Gabrielle (Bachelor Party), John Lazar (Beyond the Valley of the Dolls) and Toni Naples (Sorceress).

The settings, attire and props in this were perfect for the genre. The outfits, masks and makeup were a lot of fun and there were plenty of topless scenes throughout this picture. The background music was entertaining but the writing was bad, especially the dialogue. The acting was very mediocre also. The ending fight scene was not good but the sleeping with the princess sequence was good.

Overall, this is only worth watching for the ladies. I would score this a 4/10 but recommend watching it once.

I can't believe I haven't reviewed this one already. It's one of my favorite B movies. Directed by breast enthusiast Jim Wynorski, it's a surprisingly funny entry into the mostly dreadful sword & sorcery fad of the '80s. John Terlesky gives a wonderfully likable performance as the titular hero. Monique Gabrielle is pretty and adorable. Her line delivery is a little amateurish (and possibly entirely ADR judging by the sound quality) but she seems to be having so much fun that it kind of adds to the charm of her performance. She plays dual roles here, one good girl one bad girl. And yes, she gets naked. The rest of the cast is enjoyable as well.

The sets and costumes and special effects are cheap but it never matters. This is the kind of fun movie that filmmakers just starting out should be trying to emulate, not whatever blockbuster or Oscar bait they just saw. Making a good B movie seems to be a lost art these days.

This is easily the best of the Deathstalker movies. John Terlesky isn't the musclebound hulk that Rick Hill was, and certainly not the musclebound hulk in the Boris Vallejo painting they used for the poster, but he doesn't have to be. This is a Deathstalker who knows perfectly well that he's in a campy, B-grade sword-and-sorcery flick, and is determined to have as much fun with it as he can. He takes nothing seriously, and almost everything is done with a wink at the audience. He wonders aloud at one point where the cliche Spikey Trap O'Death is, and when the spikes immediately pop out of the walls he just rolls his eyes, says, "Son of a bitch!", and deals with it.

John Lazar as the villain Jarek knows it too. He's gleefully, manaically evil, but when he learns his adversary's moniker he can barely suppress the giggle as he repeats, incredulously, "Deathstalker?!"

Monique Gabrielle takes her parts seriously, and it's just as well. She's the one who's always in need of a rescue, and I suppose that *someone* has to put up a show of genuine peril. She also fills out admirably the part that's absolutely essential in films of this quality: she supplies the main set of on-screen boobs. It wouldn't be a proper B-grade sword-and-sorcery flick without them.

Sit back, have a beer or 5, and enjoy Deathstalker II. Laugh; you're supposed to. And stick around through the end credits for the outtakes. Those are funny too.

The prolific director Jim Wynorski knows how to entertain his audience. His movies never pretend to be more than what they are: tongue in cheek B movies that revel in their low budget cheesiness. There's almost always a great degree of appreciable sex appeal in his filmography, too, and "Deathstalker II" is no exception. The ladies are outstanding scenery attractions, the pacing is mostly effective, the dialogue is deliberately modernized and often quite funny, the villains are appropriately campy, and top billed John Terlesky just has fun with the nature of the role and the picture.

He's not exactly your typical hero in this sort of thing, having a much more modest physique than the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger or Rick Hill, the star of the first "Deathstalker". But he's likable and engaging, playing a lone warrior enlisted by seer babe Reena (Monique Gabrielle, looking stunning in blonde hair) to go on a quest to restore a princess to her throne. Opposing Deathstalker - or "Stalker", for short - are baddies such as Jarek (John Lazar) and super sultry Sultana (Toni Naples).

Filmed cheaply but entertainingly in Argentina, this has decent production design & cinematography, an acceptable amount of action ("Deathstalker II" does hit the ground running) with plenty of swordplay and explosions, numerous breast shots by the lovely female co-stars, and a fun and funky electronic score by Wynorski regular Chuck Cirino (which sounds similar at times to what he composed for "Chopping Mall"). The supporting cast includes Maria Socas ("The Warrior and the Sorceress") as the alluring Amazon Queen, Marcos Woinsky as the pirate, and wrestler / roller derby star / rock star Dee Booher as Deathstalker's opponent in the ring. Wynorski (billed as Arch Stanton) has a cameo as a dying soldier. The movie's biggest assets, however, are its playfulness and its sense of humour. If you watch through to the very end, the closing credits feature several amusing outtakes.

Overall, this kills 78 minutes quite easily.

Seven out of 10.

"Deathstalker" of 1983 was an incredibly crappy movie, but in its own way incredibly entertaining and fun to watch, simply due to its value as an unintentional comedy. The first sequel, "Deathstalker II: Duel Of The Titans" of 1987 almost seems to be a spoof of its predecessor. As the first movie, "Deathstalker 2" is again extremely crappy and therefore quite funny, but it seems that director Jim Wynorski as well as the actors and everybody else connected with this film were actually willing to do a movie as crappy as possible on purpose. While the Deathstalker was basically a brutal and invincible Barbarian cheapo version of Conan played by muscleman Rick Hill in the first movie, the title character became a skinny guy with a tendency towards stupid jokes. The dialogue is even sillier and out of place than in the first movie ("a cigar for the lady", "is that your sword or are you just happy to see me"...), the acting is (intentionally?) terrible and hardly anything in the movie makes sense.

The movie is set in some fantasy land and fantasy time that seems lie an in-between of the middle ages and the stone age. The fact that the people are clearly pagans, of course, doesn't stop graves on cemeteries from having crosses on them. At one point of the movie a warrior explains that he had fought under Attila The Hun's command, while his buddy has served for Ghenghis Khan. The fact that Attila The Hun died over 700 years before Ghenghis Kahn was even born is, of course, ignored. Scenes like these, and other oddities, should keep the viewer entertained. "Deathstalker II" also features an Amazon tribe and warriors with human bodies and pig heads (one of those was my favorite character in the first film). Some of the women are lovely to look at, especially Monique Gabrielle, who plays the female lead, and Maria Socas, who plays the Amazon Queen, are a treat for the eye. One of the main aims of "Deathstalker II" is to show breasts (although not quite as often as the first film), but sadly it fails to achieve the amount of gore featured in its predecessor. All said, "Deathstalker II" is an extremely crappy movie, but great fun to watch. I recommend to watch the first "Deathstalker" before watching this, and I personally laughed more during the first film, but I guess it doesn't quite make a difference. People with a sense of humor and able to bear a bit of awfulness should certainly have a good time, 3/10

This movie stinks and it knows it!! That is what makes this movie so enjoyable to watch. A laugh riot throughout because of it's stupidity. Pokes great fun at all the sword and sorcery movies. It seems almost every video rental store has this film, so go rent it today! And don't forget to enjoy the credits, too!!

Deathstalker (John Terlesky) is not a real hero, but rather a reckless rogue who fights only as long as it is fun, and his only ambition is to marry a rich princess some day. He meets Reena (Monique Gabrielle) who claims she can see the future in her crystal ball, but the results are not convincing. However, she also tells him she is a princess, and once the evil sorcerer Jarek (John La Zar) is out of the way, she might sit on the throne, rightfully. Before they face Reena's enemy, the queen of the amazons (Maria Socas, I recognized her from 'The Warrior and the Sorceress') has a special challenge for Deathstalker: wrestling a fat amazon to the death...

'Deathstalker II' is a comedy in the first place, the dialogs are hilarious! Actually, 'Deathstalker II' doesn't look like a sequel to 'Deathstalker' at all. 'Deathstalker IV' had Rick Hill return as the hero, 'Deathstalker III' was at least written by the same scriptwriter, but in 'Deathstalker II' there is no personal continuity with the first movie. Which is probably a good thing, because this comedy within the series works very well as a movie of its own.

Now, I will not understand why they opted to go with John Terlesky in the role of Deathstalker in this 1987 "Deathstalker II" movie. He just was nowhere near what Rick Hill is in portraying the Deathstalker character.

As much as I enjoy the sword and sorcery genre, then this movie was just an ordeal to get through. Sure, it had a fair enough storyline, although it was quite generic for the genre. However, it was the cheesy 1980's music, which didn't correspond well to the sword and sorcery genre at all, and it seemed more at home in a movie like "Beverly Hills Cop" or something like that. But also the fact that they hadn't improved on the props one bit since the first movie; the rocks were still unfathomably fake to look at and the swords, well let's just say that they were laughable. Or maybe it was the fact that most of the costumes looked like a bad Halloween dream made flesh, wow, just wow. So many of the costumes were really awful to look at, and many of them actually looked like a rock concert gone awry.

Or perhaps it was the lack of proper acting from anyone on the cast. I will say that John Terlesky managed to hold his own, but still his performance was not impressive. But the icing on the cake had to be the acting performance by Monique Gabrielle. That was simply just outrageous. I think I actually never witnessed anything quite like it.

"Deathstalker II" is a poor sequel to the 1983 movie. And having seen it, I can check it off the list, and never make a return trip to it again. It was just a blemish on the "Deathstalker" saga.

The sole reason for my three out of ten stars is because the movie does hold some good elements crucial to a good sword and sorcery movie.

This is a movie to give a wide berth, because your love for the sword and fantasy will not be particularly enriched from having watched this movie, not in the least.

It is said that the producer Roger Corman was frustrated to not be the one who made the Conan film by John Milius that sought to produce his own film sword and witchcraft, the film would shoot in Argentina, to reduce costs.

Deathstalker would turn out to be a more than fun and entertaining heroic fantasy film, with a curious and charismatic prota, beautiful women, abundance of nudity and bizarre violence in abundance. The play went well and today is considered a cult film.

Said film would come in three more sequels,

This second part, with a different protagonist, is more carefree than the previous one, but keeping the essence of the previous one, beautiful girls, very bad villains, and a total will to entertain the spectator.

It shows his low budget but still there is a good picture, good soundtrack and scenarios that are false but that for some reason work, just everything you see in the film is charming, for that air of hooligan cinema that undoubtedly It covers the entire movie. Living dead, amazingly decent sword fights, a cheeky and braggart protagonist, different from the more serious and intimidating warrior of the previous one, but with the same cynicism.

There is no doubt that if you were and still are a lover of series such as Hercules and Xena, you will like this film and saga, because both series undoubtedly drank from them. The "king of thieves" is a clue.

Thank you.

I just saw this movie during the 30th anniversary tour of Mystery Science Theater 3000. It was the one of the best ones that the crew of the SOL has done!

This has to rank alongside Roger Corman's best as one of the great cult favorites.

The acting is atrocious and the direction is primitive at best. But there's plenty of action and bare bosoms, which is what such movies are all about.

Terlesky seems to be getting by in Hollywood nowadays as a writer, director and actor in mostly B-movies, but D-2 represents the best of his early days.

"Is Deathstalker your first name or your last?" You gotta love lines like that.

A classic of sorts.

If you know what are you gonna see it is half OK. The first thing that you are gonna think after you watch the film is: where is the warrior dress that Monique Gabrielle has in the cover box? And that is the only reason to pick that movie: Monique Gabrielle. Do not expect more.

"Deathstalker 2: Duel..." is a very bad movie, with a ridiculous acting, trashy explosions, horrible music, lamentable directing, dreadful dialogues, etc. But they know that they are not doing a masterpiece and knowing that you will not take the film seriously, so although it is a bad movie, it can be watched.

If you want to know how the serie Z movies are, that is your movie. Nothing else.