Deathstalker II: Duel of the Titans

Deathstalker II, unlike others in the series of Deathstalker movies (there are four in all) deliberately laughs at itself and the genre as well as adding fantasy film 'in jokes'... and the jokes are actually funny! The lead has enough comic timing and charisma to carry it off, the villain(s) "chews the scenery" with relish and the eye candy is very pleasant... former Penthouse Pet Monique Gabrielle in a fun dual role.

Personally I would still say it is worth watching the the original Deathstalker film before this one... not really so much for the film (which is OK but not standout) but because it just makes it funnier when you see them re-use clips from various scenes to save money... and it isn't the only movie they re-use clips from!

Make sure you don't miss the out-takes during the credits, oh, and the theme music is ridiculously catchy and can be 'sung' along to very loudly when watching with friends and beers!

In summary director Jim Wynorski follows up the first, standard fare, Deathstalker with this brilliantly tongue-in-cheek sequel which has fun with the genre while sticking to the tried and tested clichés of cool heroes, evil villains, stupid guards and sexy semi-naked women!

The DVD: (USA, Region 1)
This release (by New Concorde) is sadly not in the original aspect 1.78:1 aspect ratio but is 4:3. I am unaware whether it's a Pan & Scan or Open Matte but I believe it's the latter... which may explain the appearance of an anachronistic modern car in the background of one shot! The image is what you'd expect from an 80s Swords and Sorcery B-movie, and though the nightime scenes are a bit blurry and 'grey' nothing stands out as particularly bad.

Audio is the original Mono (presented as Dual Mono) and sadly for those who are heard of hearing there are no subtitles.

On the upside it is the uncut version of the movie which runs an additional 10 1/2 minutes (about 12% of the movie!) over the cut version.

There is also a pleasant surprise in the extras in the form of an enjoyable and interesting commentary by the director (Jim Wynorski) and two of the leads (John Terlesky who played the eponymous title role, and Toni Naples who played the devious Sultana)... revealling (amongst many other things) that the director and lead actor practically re-wrote the script on the fly to change it from a straight sequel into a comedy.

The other extras are more like what one might expect from a movie of this ouvre: the original theatrical trailer (1:43), bonus trailers for the original Deathstalker and Barbarian Queen 1 & 2 and some biographical info for the cast.

Purchasing Information
As far as I can ascertain there are only 3 releases of this movie on DVD; this one, which is uncut with the audio commentary but in 4:3 ratio, another Region 1 release by Shout! Factory which is in the original 1.78:1 aspect ratio but is the cut version, missing 10 1/2 minutes of footage and an Australian release which is uncut but in 4:3 and no extras at all...

As long as you have a player that can handle Region 1 discs I'd say this is the one you want (either by itself or in the double feature pack with the original Deathstalker).
If you can't play Region 1 discs my information is that the Australian release is Region Free but I don't have the disc to confirm this).

Whichever you go for you will probably have to head for Ebay or Marketplace since I believe they're all sadly out of print (excpet via Roger Corman's New Horizons DVD site  which only ships to outside the US via their Ebay presence)... and even then you made need quite a lot of luck to find it at a reasonable price.

Final Summary
Director Jim Wynorski follows up the first, standard fare, Deathstalker with this brilliantly tongue-in-cheek sequel which has fun with the genre while sticking to the tried and tested clichés of cool heroes, evil villains, stupid guards and sexy semi-naked women!