Deathstalker IV: Match of Titans

The best thing about this entry to the DS series is that Rick Hill is back! He IS Deathstalker (well, I haven't even bothered watching II and III, it just wouldn't be the same). And you've gotta love the sense of humor it has. You can laugh WITH it, not AT it (okay, you can laugh at it too, but you know what I mean). I usually hate sequels, but I like this entry the best. Yeah, as these films go, it's lacking in the female frontal nudity department, but as a woman, seeing Rick and his buddies in their gladiator garb works for me. If you saw the first film, it's worth checking out.

As you might have expected this is another cheap and shoddy sword and sorcery flick from Corman's trash factory. Not nearly as fun as Deathstalker I or II, but at least the character is back in his relaxed, tongue-in-cheek mode, unlike the too serious Deathstalker from part III. You get some bad swordfights, self-parodic machismo, gladiator action, nasty leather-lesbians, lion-men, stone-soldiers and lots of T&A. And of course once again you get to enjoy some Concorde "classic" scenes, like: "Man being dragged through the woods by a horse", "Pigman eats pork" and "thinny, hyperactive gladiator in stupid viking helmet uses penis-violence and is beaten to a pulp by a fat, hairy giant with a club".

This is clearly the best of the Deathstalker series, much better than the first three. Rick Hill (Deathstalker 1) is back, this time with more filled out masculine features and physique. He and Dionara (Maria Ford), after generally being involved in medieval combat against the bad guys at the beginning, go to a tournament hosted by the evil Queen Kana (Michelle Moffett). Sort of like "Enter the Dragon" except swords onstead of martial arts, and both men and women. It then becomes evident that the Queen has further motives than sadistically watching people die in slaughtering each other, that is, specifically to get rid of enemies present at the tournament and get a hold of Deathstalker's magical sword. Deathstalker and Dionara, with the help of a sidekick they persuade, seek to foil the queen.

There is lots of wild action, outdoors and indoors, some banquets and orgies and nudity, and the queen even has some erotic moments with Deathstalker and the sidekick. Dionara has a water hole fight with her lead rival before a climactic swordfight. But Rick and Maria make a great pair of protagonists, the best Deathstalker romantic pair. If you are into this genre, see it.

I didn't think anyone else had even heard of the Deathstalker films, let alone actually owned them - so when I saw this 'un on sale for a couple of quid second-hand, the appalling decision had already been made...

It's not a good film, obviously. In fact it's pretty terrible. I can't say just how terrible it is in relation to its three predecessors, because they were experienced way back in my murky, impressionable childhood and the only bits I can remember are the bits that were inexplicably recycled in this one.

But the real tragedy of Match of Titans is that while it's certainly a long way from the likes of the Conan films in terms of production values and, well... everything, really, it's also not quite inept enough to be funny. Don't get me wrong, the scale of incompetence runs pretty high considering it's the fourth instalment in a series, but when it comes to the crunch Rick Hill goes and ruins everything by turning in an inappropriately decent performance. Maria Ford's worth looking at, too. Not worth watching, mind you, but definitely worth looking at. There's a difference.

Still, the 'special' 'effects' are well down to standard for the genre, as are the 'plot', 'dialogue' and 'continuity'. And I can only speculate that the 'fight scenes' were choreographed by a couple of arthritic, wheelchair-bound 85-year-olds drunk on gin, which is great for a film entirely based around a hand-to-hand combat tournament. So it's not all bad, then.

Hero Deathstalker teams up with beautiful female warrior to free a city from an evil Queen ruler.

The last installment of the Deathstalker tetralogy, opening with some great music from Simo Lazaro, along with a recap of the original Deathstalker and voice over narration from Maria Ford, Howard R. Cohen's Deathstalker IV: Match of Titans quickly dives into the realm of filmmaking dungeons.

Then subpar recycled music kicks in along with other short cut savings, reused footage from other Roger Corman produced productions including The Barbarian Queen (1985) complete with shoddy editing and sound design. The low budget sword and sorcery affair crams in clunky sword fights, self-parody machismo, gladiator action, gratuitous nudity, lion-men and warriors turned into stone-soldiers (disappointedly just grey makeup). Don't expect Ator: Fighting Eagle (1982) or anything resembling Conan the Barbarian (1982), even The Sword and the Sorcerer (1982).

Debatably it's more fun than the mid-nineties TV shows that it paved the way, including the abundance of Hercules, Young Hercules and Xena: Warrior Princess episodes. There's plenty to like, there's well dressed sets, Cohen's productions does benefit from quality costumes and real locations. It's also great to have the original Deathstalker actor Rick Hill reprise his role after being missing from the tongue-in-cheek Deathstalker II: Duel of the Titans (1987) toned down comedy of Deathstalker III: The Warriors from Hell (1988). None of the films deliver on the fantastical poster art work and this instalment is no different.

Nobody is looking for an Oscar and know what their making, but to the cast's credit they play it straight. Hill delivers some fancy sword and footwork. Maria Ford is pretty impressive with a sword and does a adequate job with Cohen's basic script. Fords narration pops up jarringly now and again for exposition. Michelle Moffett's villain sorceress Kana takes her top off as the script dictates. Like Ford, Moffett does well giving the dodgy script, even going as far to give some credence to the shenanigans. Memorable is Bulgarian actoress Anya Pencheva as Janeris who has plenty of screen presence but is sorely underused. Djoko Rosi outacts everyone as Highlander Kurgan sounding Rakshia.

Overall, there's an interesting story hiding beneath Cohen's laughable low budget offering, while it lacks the scope and execution of the Italian swords and sorcery, it's a lot more fun than it should be.