Better Late Then Never

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

"Stalker... is that your sword, or are you just happy to see me?"Or "The top half of you definitely knows it's the wrong time, but the bottom half definitely knows it's the right place!"This, as the second movie in the series, is also the mid-point in tone between the first one (bone-headed and rapey) and the third one (more family humour, much less exposed flesh).Clearly, everyone involved was having a laugh riot at the expense of established sword'n'sorcery tropes. John Terlesky does everything short of winking directly at the camera. Actually, he may even do that at one point. In short, no cliché is too ripe to send up here - witness the wrestling match or the bar brawl in particular.Our black-clad villain, John Lazar, exercises his 'evil laugh' on a regular basis and his hench-witch does the bitchy vamp act wonderfully. There is (of course!) footage recycled from other Wynorsky movies, including 'Deathstalker I'. Very economical.And then there's Monique Gabrielle, playing both the wronged princess and her evil clone. Despite not being a great actor, she charges headlong into both roles with endearingly wide-eyed gusto.If you want subtlety, look elsewhere. If you want a modern-style fantasy flick, with existentially-tortured heroes, huskily meaningful dialogue about What It All Means or the ubiquitous and much over-rated 'darkness', you have really come to the wrong place. This is nothing more or less than lots of trashy fun. Then there's the out-takes over the credits, just to finish off with a few more chuckles.

Gallant and charming master thief Deathstalker (a likable performance by John Terlesky) has to help the sweet Reena the Seer (an endearingly daffy portrayal by foxy blonde knockout Monique Gabrielle) overthrow the heinous duo of nasty wizard Jerak (essayed with lip-smacking relish by John Lazar; Z-Man in "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls") and his wicked hench wench Sultana (a pleasingly vampy turn by gorgeous brunette stunner Toni Naples), who have made a lovely, but lethal evil twin in the fetching form of Princess Evie (also Gabrielle, who's obviously having a ball being bad). Director Jim Wynorski, working from a cheerfully inane script by Neil Ruttenberg, relates the breezy story at a nonstop zippy pace, maintains an engagingly light and silly tongue-in-cheek tone throughout, stages the copious rough'n'tumble fisticuffs and spirited sword fights with real gusto, and tops everything off with an amusing sense of blithely campy humor. Moreover, a welcome appearance by a bunch of cranky moaning zombies, a hilarious protracted wrestling match between Deathstalker and the formidable Gorgo (beefy redhead Dee Booher), and Wynorski's trademark generous sprinkling of tasty gratuitous female nudity (Monique in particular looks simply scrumptious sans clothes) further ensure that things remain energetic and enjoyable from start to finish. The ravishing Maria Socas has a grand sexy time as the feisty queen of a tribe of fearsome Amazon warrior women. Leonardo Rodriguez's slick cinematography gives the picture an attractive bright look. Chuck Cirino's robust score does the rousing trick. The outtakes featured during the ending credits are sidesplitting. Good kitschy fun.

"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

The first Deathstalker was a rather sombre, dull affair featuring a distinctly immoral and somewhat unlikeable 'hero' who thought nothing of forcing himself upon women and killing for the sheer hell of it.Much of the film felt hideously disjointed and made little or no sense (other than to show busty topless maidens...erm...OK, so it wasn't all bad in other words) Overall, the film could only really be described as a sub par Conan rip off at best. Certainly not a movie that warranted a sequel......but, I am in fact very glad that a sequel came along, as what we have here is one of those rarest of cinematic phenomena, a sequel that actually surpasses the original. Although to be truthful in this case it doesn't merely surpass it, but totally eclipses it!Deathstalker 2 is effectively the polar opposite of the first film. Whereas the original Deathstalker seemed to take itself deadly seriously (which was a grave mistake) this sequel actually plays more like an out and out comedy.Now I know that genre purists may scoff at the idea of a Sword & Sorcery comedy, and if it's any consolation, I initially (before viewing the film) did to, but believe me, this movie works so well!In fact, EVERYTHING works so well in this film!The actors are all clearly having a ball with the material (especially John Terlesky in the title role), the ladies are all universally gorgeous and mostly seem more than happy to wander around topless (a staple ingredient in the genre), the main villain hams it up perfectly, there's a really great, catchy music score and the final climatic sword fight between Deathstalker and his nemesis is very well staged!What more could you ask for?I recommend this awesome movie wholeheartedly - it's fun is more infectious than VD in a brothel!