Very Cool!!!

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

I remember watching "Deathstalker" back in my early teenage years and that I was more than entertained and impressed with it, especially since I had just taken up playing Dungeons & Dragons back in that time. So having a movie like this in the sword & sorcery genre was just great.And now having sat down to watch it yet again in 2016, I must say that the movie was not fully as great as I remembered it to be. Sure it is entertaining enough for what it is, but it is a rather simplistic movie. And it is a movie that makes too much usage of nudity. Actually if they had opted to leave that aspect out of the movie, it would be so much more easy to actually take the movie more seriously.The story is about Deathstalker (played by Rick Hill) who is given possession of a powerful sword. With the lands being ruled by a vile sorcerer who also seeks the sword, Deathstalker is in for a grand adventure as he sets out to free the realm of the looming evil.Right, well the story was adequate, especially for a sword & sorcery movie, right? I mean, you have a hero, you have a villain, you have an overwhelming evil threat to the realm, you have women in distress, overwhelming odds stacking against the hero, and you have triumph in times of darkness. Everything a recipe for a good tale needs.However, the movie is suffering from having really bad props, especially the "stones" that are supposed to make up the caves, the pillars, walls, etc. It is just awful to look at. And it doesn't really help that the sword fights are prompted and poorly executed, and who can't help but laugh when a sword misses a man widely yet the man still topples over and dies?As I mentioned earlier on, there is an excessive amount of nudity in the movie, and most of it just makes no sense, and seems nothing more than a chance for director James Sbardellati to showcase nude women. I mean, why would a woman wear a cloak and then nothing underneath? Especially if she was supposed to be a trained warrior? It just made no sense.But removing the critiques goggles, then I will say that "Deathstalker" is still an adequate sword & sorcery movie, especially taking into consideration that it is from 1983. Fans of fantasy role-playing games and the sword & sorcery genre will definitely find some enjoyment in this movie.

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.

Wha-BAM! Someone surely had fun devouring a whole truckload of acid-mushrooms and then subsequently scripting this crazy excuse for a motion picture! Writer Howard Cohen expands the "Sword & Sorcery" concept with a couple of extra S's, like Sex, Silliness, (more) Sex and Sheer Stupidity! This isn't just a movie, this is every juvenile pervert's dreams & fantasies come true! "Deathstalker" has it all: blood, violence, trolls, female mud-wrestling, attempted rape, successful rape, life-sized pigs (!), awful hairstyles, hideously oiled muscular bodies, multi-sexual orgies, gay warriors, tournaments-to-the-death, delirious witches, dismemberment, laughable villains and boobs, boobs, BOOOOOOOOOBIES!! "Deathstalker" literally wipes the floor with its obvious role-model "Conan: The Barbarian" when it comes to terms of cheesiness and sheer flamboyance. The story is, evidently, of minor importance. Lone and gay (only he doesn't know it yet) warrior Deathstalker goes on a mission, as commanded by an annoying witch, to gather the three notorious elements of creation… or something like that. On his journey he combines forces with a troll-turned-human, a fighter who's even gayer than he is and - last but not least - a luscious lady who doesn't really seem to be a big support of the concept of bras. Together they head for the kingdom of the ultimately evil Munkar where they'll participate in a warriors' tournament and conquer no less than two out of three elements. Munkar is bald guy with half a spider's web tattooed on his skull and an impressive harem that would even make the wealthiest oil sheik jealous. Okay, granted, "Deathstalker" is a pretty damn awful and at some times even unendurable movie. The fight sequences are lame and the costumes and make-up effects are downright pitiable. For a moment, when beholding the opening sequence, I actually feared I was watching "Troll; the Prequel". The monsters look incredibly cheesy and the complete opposite as menacing, but it's undeniable entertainment if you're in an undemanding mood. I presume this isn't a favorite amongst feminists, as the overall portrayal of women is somewhat …um…discriminating. Most of the gals exclusively serve as eye-candy in the harem. They're allowed crawl over the floor naked and play around in the mud, but strictly forbidden to open their mouths. The two "leading" ladies (Barbi Benton and Lana Clarkson) are ravishing but - in all honesty - if it wouldn't be for their continuously exposed racks, they would hardly be worth mentioning, either.

I've seen plenty of cheesy B Movies that rode behind on the success of Conan the Barbarian and Excalibur, and can without a doubt say that this is the best of the lot. The early to mid 80s were the pinnacle of fantasy adventure films, and there are a lot of them from this time. Most are very poorly done with atrocious dialogue and unimaginative (go figure) action sequences. I'm not saying that Deathstalker lacked either of these flaws, it did not, but it made up for it somewhat with ambition and attitude. I must confess that it has been many years since I've seen this film, and it may not stand up as well on a second viewing. But I've always known the difference between a good and bad B movie. I actually miss the times that bred Deathstalker a bit. Although most of the fantasy adventure movies were bad, they at least tried to take themselves seriously. The neat thing about the movie is that it is not epic in scope. For those used to Lord of the Rings or the like, this may actually be a refreshing change. If you haven't seen Conan the Barbarian, watch this movie first, to save the best for last.