Audience Member
Yes, now I can say that I have seen all four Deathstalker movies.
Rick Hill, who played Deathstalker in the first film is back (John Terlesky had the role in Deathstalker II and John Allen Nelson (Killer Klowns from Outer Space) was the protagonist in Deathstalker and the Warriors from Hell) and he's in a tournament where the queen wants to commit assault with a friendly weapon on all of the male combatants. He's also looking for his sword, which means sleeping with plenty of barbarian women, but such is being a sword and sorcery hero.
Also, for some reason, lots of footage from the original film gets re-used.
Maria Ford (Burial of the Rats) is a major plus in this, but you know, after four Deathstalker movies, I kind of feel like just looking at the poster art and imagining a much better film. Brett Baxter Clark — Nick the dick from Bachelor Party, Bruiser from Teen Witch and Shane from Malibu Express — plays Vaniat, one of the fighters, so there's that.
Writer/director Howard R. Cohen has some pretty decent credits, though. He wrote Unholy Rollers, Stryker, Barbarian Queen and episodes of Rainbow Brite and Care Bears, as well as directing Saturday the 14th, Space Raiders, Space Case, Time Trackers and Saturday the 14th Strikes Back.
I was hoping that the last Deathstalker was going to blow my mind, like how the Ator series suddenly becomes an insane MTV musical with Iron Warrior. That said, even the worst sword and sorcery movie fills me with happiness, so I didn't hate the time I spent watching this.
Rated 1/5 Stars •
Rated 1 out of 5 stars
02/06/23
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Audience Member
Deathstalker IV: Match of Titans was a film I had simple expectations for. Although I hadn't seen Deathstalker III, the quality of Deathstalker and Deathstalker II left me expecting a cheap B-movie guilty pleasure with sword fights and nudity as a prime source or entertainment.
Deathstalker IV: Match of Titans boasts a story which is simple enough to stay within the limitations of its writing staff and its limited budget, therefore easy to capture within the space of few locations. Its story puts all the focus on fighting and allows nudity to unravel itself naturally as the story goes on, therefore ensuring that Deathstalker IV: Match of Titans is a worthy entry into the series. Although the story doesn't have an adventure theme, it does the necessary job in its limited story to entertain the viewers likely to watch a film of this calibre. But unfortunately, it isn't as successful as you might hope.
The story in Deathstalker IV: Match of Titans has potential, but it doesn't have enough sword fighting. The film is about a fighting tournament when more of the fighting is with the bare hands of the actors, so it's a lot of cheesy wrestling scenes. While they have the entertainment value of being senselessly poorly acted and edited with a lack of sound effects just like with all the other Deathstalker films, without the addition of swords there simply isn't enough fun in it. For a film that comes from the genre of sword and sorcery, Deathstalker IV: Match of Titans is the first of the series to really need more swords. The production design is superior to all the other films in the series and the visual quality is less rough than the previous films as well as the fact that Deathstalker IV: Match of Titans has less wooden production designs and sets as things feel a little bit more real, but underneath it all lies an insufficient quantity of sword fights which simply do not match the quantity or quality of any of the previous Deathstalker films.
But the nudity is no problem. Instantly defying the quantity of nudity in Deathstalker II, Deathstalker IV: Match of Titans quickly fills itself up with a lot of ttractive women and their breasts, therefore having enough to appeal to the pre-pubescent teenage boys that would be watching a film like this back in 1991. The nudity is in Deathstalker IV: Match of Titans moreso than the sword fighting, and while perhaps this isn't exactly the best possible attribute for the film, it does at least deliver the goods in the shape of breasts.
I guess that to a certain extent, Deathstalker IV: Match of Titans can still be seen as a guilty pleasure in the same way that all the previous entries to the series were but with a plot more like the Mortal Kombat movie, but it just really doesn't have the necessary quality of action or quantity of it, spending more time attempting to put in a lot of characters and an interesting story. This defies the aspects of its predecessors which made them entertaining because the story was never important and the only important characters were Deathstalker and his woman. In Deathstalker IV: Match of Titans, there is too many characters but none to really care about and it drags the narrow minded entertainment of the film down by trying to make itself out to be more than it is.
The one key notable aspect that Deathstalker IV: Match of Titans holds to be inferior to the quality of its predecessors is that its musical score is terrible. In the previous Deathstalker films, the music was a sort of low-key catchy 1980's beat which played out to dramatise things. In Deathstalker IV: Match of Titans however, the music is largely a loud screeching beat which shatters the ears of audiences. Occasionally it is replaced by a simply drum beat, but the more notable part is the terrible screeching which makes Deathstalker IV: Match of Titans less of a treat on the ears than the previous entries into the series. It has its moments at times, but overall the musical score is not something for Deathstalker IV: Match of Titans to really be boasting about. Once its over there is pretty much no music for the rest of the film which still has a long way to go to get to the end, and so the atmosphere in Deathstalker IV: Match of Titans lacks the both the adventure and the feel of its predecessors.
The cast do an ok job though.
Rick Hill makes a return to the titular role as Deathstalker in Deathstalker IV: Match of Titans. This time around, he looks like a mix of Lou Ferrigno and Matthew McConaughey, and the same wooden acting he used to characterise the titular character back in the original Deathstalker is brought back again. His performance is the same generic and heroic lead her delivered 8 years prior to Deathstalker IV: Match of Titans and is back to fight as again. Although the amount of time he spends fighting is little and his quantity of lnes is small, Rick Hill is simply good to see again back in the best role of his career.
And Maria Ford doesn't get too many lines which is good so that she constantly plays second fiddly to Rick Hill, and instead she is simply told to stand around and look attractive pretty much the whole time which she is able to do with ease. In that sense, she works as an attractive presence as the object of Deathstalker's affections throughout the film.
So Deathstalker IV: Match of Titans doesn't match up to the qualities of its predecessor due to a lack of adventure and a lesser quantity of sword fighting than the previous entries into the Deathstalker film series, but some viewers will enjoy it as a guilty pleasure which has decent production values for a low budget film and plenty of nudity.
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
01/27/23
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Audience Member
Some of the worst fight scenes and possibly the most poorly edited movie ever. In other words, great campy fun.
Rated 1.5/5 Stars •
Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars
02/17/23
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Audience Member
Rick Hill is back! in this adventure he is up against an evil Queen with plans to rid the land of all the mightiest warriors.
Whilst the competition is in full flow the evil naughty Queen is killing off the warriors one by one (getting them drunk first) so there are none left to rival her. Of course she has forgotten how utterly cool and invincible 'Deathstalker' is and his overly tanned new buddy.
This is probably the second best of the tetralogy after the original film in my opinion. The plot and action is still as you would expect and nothing special but the humour is much better this time. Hill is clearly enjoying himself this time round, he's more buffed and his wig looks better hehe his new warrior friend also adds to the laughs. The guy is almost like an early Dwayne Johnson type sidekick.
Its all still highly cheap and cheesy but by now it would be wrong to change that. Every cliche in the low budget barbarian book is used all over again, blonde women are good, brunettes are bad, lots of tits and ass on show, soft core sex scenes at times and all wizards/wise men have long 'Merlin' type beards. Loved the stone slaves used by the Queen, some dazzling makeup and acting on show there I tells ya.
Still can't work out why they use the exact same archive footage from the previous films. The exact same reels are used! plus it still shows the previous characters that have been killed off!. At least use footage that doesn't show previous characters or footage not used before geez!. Anyway its all hokey as hell but you can forgive that, cult status has been gained somehow and Rick Hill is the man.
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
01/22/23
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Audience Member
"I could be so much more fun to you alive than dead, if you'd just untie these straps" - Deathstalker
After suffering through "Deathstalker III" with its non-entertainment value with it's schmuck that played the title character, the one thing I wanted more the world (of B-movies that is) is for the original Deathsatlker Rick Hill to return and portray the character he helped created in the lovable original B-movie romp. The B-movie gods must have listened as "Deathstalker IV: Match of Titans" showed the return of Hill in the title role. Holy fucking shit, that means this is the going to be the best "Deathstalker" sequel ever... right? Who would have guess that the overall product would be even worse than that sequel that calls itself "Deathstalker III: The Warriors from Hell".
The plot is essentially a tack-off of the original film (which rip-offed "Enter the Dragon") with an evil sorceress (a women this time!) holding a tournament for all the best fighters in the nation to attend. Of course Deathstalker must oblige to uphold his selfish duty of being the best fighter in the land. Of course the sorceress means to kill all the fighters, turning them into stone warriors to do her own bidding.
The best part of this dismal, tired sequel is the return of Rick Hill as this guy embodies what Deathstalker should look and sound like. First of all, he looks like a barbarian, ala Conan, and not some frail Robin Hood figure like the guy in the last film. Hill knows what it takes to make a somewhat interesting anti-hero character in barbarian times. Hell the writers even though in another likeable sidekick, played by Brett Baxter Clark whom B-movie lovers might recognize from all those bad Filipino shot Vietnam flicks from the late 80s (see my reviews for "Eye of the Eagle", "Delta Force Commando" and "Cobra Mission 2" to see more of his impressive filmography).
The rest of the film is bottom of the barrel material. Not only is the plot is stolen from the first film, it is is padded with plenty of stock footage from that very film in order to make a standard running time. Despite the filmmakers attempt to change things around by making the villain a women, they fail in making a completely forgettable character that is far too easily killed. The love interest is bland and the production values are as low as they come (with the paint on the stone soldiers being the absolute worst). Also, what the hell is up with the lion headed warriors? Laughable beyond belief.
I was praying for some good B-movie material here especially with the return of Rick Hill in the title role, but sadly what we get is a washed up sequel that proves the silly sword and sorcery franchise has gone on for too long. I hate to say it but "Deathstalker IV" is the worst entry in this brainless franchise, which is saying a lot considering how bad part III was. Stick with the first two films... at least those are entertaining, even if it's in the bad movie vain.
Written by Eric Reifschneider
Rated 1/5 Stars •
Rated 1 out of 5 stars
01/17/23
Full Review
Audience Member
This film is "crap-tastic". The spiritual fore-runner to such projects as Hercules; the Legendary Journies and Xena: Warrior Princess. The differance is better coreography, sense of camp/schlock, very bad electronica sound-scape and a hero that reminds me of the lead singer of The Lord Weird Slough Feg! Love it!.....If there had been some tracking shots/anything other than a static camera, i would have given this a higher rating!
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
02/15/23
Full Review
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