SWORD AND THE SORCERER-
ANCHOR BAY has released one of the better medieval/adventure epics, "THE SWORD AND THE SORCERER".  Borrowing from many other films of the '80s and earlier, an evil villain tries to take over a kingdom by killing a young heir's family and seizing the throne.  As the rightful heir grows, he becomes an embittered mercenary, killing without thought, and seducing as many beauties as possible.  When he's finally caught on to the fact that his kingdom is being run by a really bad guy, he sets out to take it back, rescue a beautiful princess and have some fun in the process! 
Director Albert Pyun, one of the most prolific "B" movie directors of
the '80s actually demonstrates a real visual flair here!  While the
film's budget was extremely modest at best, he's given it a great
design!  It never looks cheap!  Well, except for the fact that Lee
Horsley is the film's "name" star! 
We're pleased that ANCHOR BAY is the kind of studio that will release titles like this, although we're disappointed the image isn't sharper.
In spite of the image retaining the correct 1.85:1 aspect ratio with
16:9 enhancement, it's much grainer than we expected it to be.  It's
also extremely dark, and colors are dull. 
While ANCHOR BAY has provided a new Dolby Digital 5.1 remix for this release, it sounds extremely close to the 2.0 mix included.  The
directional effects offered for the front soundstage is energetic, but
surround usage is minimal, used mostly for music enhancement. 
ANCHOR BAY has included two theatrical trailers with 16:9 enhancement and 2.0 monaural sound.