deathstalker 2
[[deathstalker_2]] last edit on
Mar 15, 2009
12:14 AM
by Anonymous
This is one of the greatest films ever made:
Seriously. If you haven't seen it you need to. Need I go on? Well I suppose I do really. To be fair it isn't going to be to everyone's taste (What is? - Everyone). Well this is a cheap B-movie. But it's done as a comedy where you can laugh along with the film rather than at it. But not in an excessively 'I'm a B-movie' way that some films try. It's certainly a whole world away from Tarantino's Talkathon Deathproof. But that's a different kind of b-movie.
Yes yes I'll get to the point in a minute hang on. This was made in an era of Conan the Barbarian rip-offs. This is sort of one but not quite. It's more like Robin Hood/Bugs Bunny/Evil Dead 2/Conan. It could easily have been a bog standard swords and sorcery borefest like Deathstalker 1 (not that this has much to do with that other than a name). The film was made in Argentina and being as old Warner Brothers cartoons being the only thing on TV the makers could understand there, they had a huge influence. Easy silly gags abound throughout. Things you'd normally only expect to work in such cartoons but yet here it works just as well. Just because it's obvious and ridiculous doesn't mean it's not funny. If it were not for the B-movie status it could probably have never even thought of using stuch comedic devices as it does. (Could you really labour that point any more? We get the idea, now get on with it)
Monique Gabriel puts in a cute performance as Rena the seer. It's bad acting but she still makes the character incredibly endearing. Her excessive rolling of the eyes and stilted delivery only aid the character's cuteness. John Terlesky plays the very dashing handsome wisecracking hero who is very much Ash from evil dead via Bugs Bunny and Robin Hood. He actually went on to be relatively serious and notable in TV work later but here he's having a lot of fun with the knowingly silly role. His timing and delivery are brilliant. He even choreographed the big sword fight near the end of the film.
I'm deliberately trying to avoid giving too much away as I don't want to lessen any of the great gags that are in here. Some scenes had me in stitches when watching it for a first time. Moments of utter sidesplitting laughter at the ridiculousness of it all. On the rare DVD of it there's a great commentary track (Director Jim Wynorski, Star John Terlesky, Supporting Actress Toni Naples) which only confirms everything was just brilliant silly fun for them all. Together they point many of the film's errors such as cars in the background and provide many amusing anecdotes about the makings of this masterpiece.
It's no longer available brand new and DVDs of it tend to cost around £40+ so why not nip over to cinemageddon.org and download it. It's worth it. As this intro clip will prove to you:
back to film reviews
Seriously. If you haven't seen it you need to. Need I go on? Well I suppose I do really. To be fair it isn't going to be to everyone's taste (What is? - Everyone). Well this is a cheap B-movie. But it's done as a comedy where you can laugh along with the film rather than at it. But not in an excessively 'I'm a B-movie' way that some films try. It's certainly a whole world away from Tarantino's Talkathon Deathproof. But that's a different kind of b-movie.
Yes yes I'll get to the point in a minute hang on. This was made in an era of Conan the Barbarian rip-offs. This is sort of one but not quite. It's more like Robin Hood/Bugs Bunny/Evil Dead 2/Conan. It could easily have been a bog standard swords and sorcery borefest like Deathstalker 1 (not that this has much to do with that other than a name). The film was made in Argentina and being as old Warner Brothers cartoons being the only thing on TV the makers could understand there, they had a huge influence. Easy silly gags abound throughout. Things you'd normally only expect to work in such cartoons but yet here it works just as well. Just because it's obvious and ridiculous doesn't mean it's not funny. If it were not for the B-movie status it could probably have never even thought of using stuch comedic devices as it does. (Could you really labour that point any more? We get the idea, now get on with it)
Monique Gabriel puts in a cute performance as Rena the seer. It's bad acting but she still makes the character incredibly endearing. Her excessive rolling of the eyes and stilted delivery only aid the character's cuteness. John Terlesky plays the very dashing handsome wisecracking hero who is very much Ash from evil dead via Bugs Bunny and Robin Hood. He actually went on to be relatively serious and notable in TV work later but here he's having a lot of fun with the knowingly silly role. His timing and delivery are brilliant. He even choreographed the big sword fight near the end of the film.
I'm deliberately trying to avoid giving too much away as I don't want to lessen any of the great gags that are in here. Some scenes had me in stitches when watching it for a first time. Moments of utter sidesplitting laughter at the ridiculousness of it all. On the rare DVD of it there's a great commentary track (Director Jim Wynorski, Star John Terlesky, Supporting Actress Toni Naples) which only confirms everything was just brilliant silly fun for them all. Together they point many of the film's errors such as cars in the background and provide many amusing anecdotes about the makings of this masterpiece.
It's no longer available brand new and DVDs of it tend to cost around £40+ so why not nip over to cinemageddon.org and download it. It's worth it. As this intro clip will prove to you:
back to film reviews