Benedito Dias Rodrigues How l measure if a movie is good or not???Firtly point to consider if the movie was completely restored....if was it has a market place....second the movie had success in the past?? in this case this kind of movie was a tremendous success in the world mainly in Latin America...Third the cast are famous??? Reg Park Ettore Manni Gian Maria Volonté.....so the movie filled all three points...and finally the picture is pleasant adventure to unknown...a guilty pleasure to me!!!Resume: First watch: 2004 / How many: 2 / Source: DVD / Rating: 6.5

Bezenby After a particularly hard night on the sauce, Hercules, his son, and their dwarf sidekick are returning home when the sky turns red and someone warns them that an unknown threat from an unknown land threatens all of Greece from a place no one has ever returned from.Taking this most vague of threats very seriously, Herc and the leaders of Greece hold a conference to discuss what to do about it. Only Herc's mate Androclo offers to take his army and see what's going down, and for some reason Herc declares he isn't going and then destroys Androclo's throne for no reason whatsoever! Probably just a side effect of necking too many Aberdare tic-tacs I'd imagine.Of course Herc's own son gives Herc some drugged wine and both of them end up on Androclo's ship with their dwarf sidekick for good measure. This is the point when Androclo declares that he hasn't got an army and everyone on board the ship is a cheap pirate he picked up to work for him (and yes, they rebel and Herc leaves them on an island for their troubles).After an awful lot of fannying about the film decides to become mental for a few minutes as Herc has a square go with the shape changing God Proteus! Proteus also has the Queen of Atlantis' daughter as a sacrifice but before Herc can rescue her he's go to deal with Proteus, who changes from an old man, to a lizard monster, to some flames, then into a snake that attacks Herc, then into a lion that attacks Herc, then into a vulture that attacks Herc, then back to a lizard monster…that attacks Herc! The Queen of Atlantis shows her appreciation for having her daughter rescued by having her daughter taken away and put to death (she's rescued by Herc's son and dwarf sidekick, who gets to impale a guy with a spear). This is when things get a bit draggy as the plot splits in two, with Herc drinking more bloody drugged booze, fending off the Queen's advances, and hearing the word Uranus a lot, and Herc's son falling in love with that chick and finding a quarry full of mutants. Androclo also becomes insane by this point in a story that bored me while I watched it, so let's forget about that.That seems like an awful lot of plot and doesn't even include the clone army, the glowing Uranus rock, people saying Uranus all the time: "Uranus rules over all!", and the massive fight between the mutants and the clone army that results in the deaths of every single mutant. The pacing of this film is very erratic but the body count is through the roof as Herc manages not only to destroy the Queen, but also her clone army, her regular army, every single person living on Atlantis and the entire land of Atlantis itself. And still makes it home for dinner.Why does Hercules just drink everything he's given without question? I've seen him drugged this way in every single Herc film I've watched I think. He's drugged up twice in this film alone! One of these days someone's going to give him a cup of pish, just for a laugh.

Woodyanders Brave and mighty Hercules (a fine and affable performance by the brawny Reg Park) and his eager, but naive buddy Androcles (the solid Ettore Manni) journey across the ocean to the fabled city of Atlantis in order to stop evil Queen Antinea (nicely played with lip-smacking wicked aplomb by the ravishing Fay Spain) from taking over the world with her army of clone soldiers. Director Vittorio Cottafavi, who also co-wrote the eventful and imaginative script with Sandro Continenza, relates the story at a constant steady pace, maintains a serious tone throughout, and stages the exciting action scenes with rip-roaring gusto (the customary rough'n'ready swordfights are especially thrilling). Better still, this film was obviously made with a pretty substantial budget; there's a breathtaking sense of lavish spectacle to the sets and costumes which in turn makes this picture a truly sumptuous visual feast. Carlo Carlini's glorious widescreen cinematography, shot in bright eye-popping color, makes deft use of a frequently moving camera and offers a wealth of striking shots. The suitably sweeping and majestic score by Gino Marinuzzi, Jr. and Armando Trovajoli likewise hits the rousing spot. The earnest and appealing acting from a sound cast rates as another significant asset: Park portrays Hercules with winning good humor and admirable sincerity, Laura Efrikian makes for an extremely fair damsel in distress as Antinea's sweet fetching daughter Ismene, and Salvatore Furnari almost steals the whole show with his delightfully hearty turn as excitable dwarf Timoteo. The fiery mondo destructo conclusion totally rocks; ditto Hercules' battle with a lethal sorcerer who transforms into a hideous humanoid lizard beast. An immensely fun fantasy romp.

Cristi_Ciopron An almost Z grade mythological adventure/ action flick, HERCULES … tells the story of the Theban hero's fight with the malefic queen of Atlantis, the worshiper of dark divinities. Some accent is put on Hercules' positive and luminous religiosity. The flick begins as an expedition to prevent and counter the attack of an yet unknown threat overseas (Hercules is kidnapped by his king, and the hero's son joins the expedition of his own initiative) and continues with the shipwreck and the encounter with the Atlantis' people—especially their queen. This queen proves to be an eugenicist and the owner of a secret army of killing machines that look like the Nazis. While Hercules' relation with his father Zevs is constantly emphasized, the _proto—Nazi's queen deeds are reported to her religious beliefs—the cult of Zevs' father, the ancient, dethroned Uranus. The flick is, as a matter of fact, HERCULES MEETS THE QUEEN OF ATLANTIS,or the secret army of Atlantis' Queen, etc.. Hercules destroys, against warnings, Uranus' sanctuary, and so brings the destruction of the continent. We do not find out why did he imagine he could destroy the hidden sanctuary without endangering the whole continent—as warned by Uranus' priest (a man that nevertheless is ambivalent and offers the Theban his complicity, revealing him the secret of the Uranus' cult).Two scenes at least are worthy of mention—Hercules' fight with Protheus ,when the Theban rescues a girlie (the very daughter of Atlantis' queen);--and the place, the camp where the queen keeps prisoners the victims of her experiments towards forging a new, _undefeatable race; this place reminded me of the old European westerns and of one of THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN's sequels.The death of the ancient commercial European cinema is an awful fact. Why did these tidal waves of fun get lost?From my youngest days, and with the surest taste, I have always opted for the European amusements—whether Leone's _peplum or Sandokan. When I want to bring homage to these old European adventure films ,I see something like this HERCULES ….From many less than enthusiastic comments, I guess that we the dedicated fans of such things are rather few. A wonderful sense of fun and cheerfulness existed in these old flicks.From the perfect coincidence of the viewer's expectations and the movies' offer, one can deduce that their look, flair and gusto is far from being a string of mistakes and flaws now apparently saved by the camp value—but that such flicks conform deliberately to a norm ,to an idea of fun. This HERCULES … is very much a comedy—intentionally so—an old comedy, extremely likable. To me, it's a cult film also.What about its ingenuous, fancy surrealism? If it's not consciously deliberate, it's not unwilling either. These forms of popular amusement spontaneously found veins of surreal, bizarre and unusual imagination. Those who filmed these flicks did not know they made surrealism of a kind—yet they knew what they were for. The best part of this aim of theirs is what we call surrealism. The valuable part of everything is this genuine, spontaneous and straight aiming—the sense of fun implied became so unusual that it takes a kind of natural sophistication to accept these as great fun—which is what they genuinely are. (To my tastes, in the mythological B genre these attempts succeeded way better than in, say, the horror, the Italian camp horror of the '60s.) I did not find it unintentionally funny, as kids write, but intensely weird. In cinema, it is a world.Like some of the last Italian westerns of the great era, like THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN' s weird sequels, HERCULE … is somehow disabused and decadent, being not so much playful—but experimental. Some limits are here explored and pushed. Depending on your taste, these mindless explorations might seem fascinating. They are narrative experiments in formlessness. This is fascinating—and also strongly decadent. Obviously no considerable audience success could be targeted this way. Renouncing all _honorability, these films of the '60s (and '70s) gave shape to a new blooming of a genuine cinematographic anarchism and decadent appeal—after the incredibly refined comedies of the silent movies. This was avant—guard—without the pretensions and stuff …. And there is a very sad aspect—their ambiguity played a trick on the incompetent minority audiences. In most cases, such experiments found small minorities of buffs so stupid that were unable to notice what was wrong and imbecile with some of these flicks. There are buffs who believe these outings are good or valid in a Ford/ Hawks/ Wyler way—i.e., they do not notice the difference. For such people, HERCULE … of this extravaganza is a smaller GLADIATOR, SPARTACUS or BEN—HUR. This is chilling—this confusion.We are often hypocrites and philistines—we say, hypocritically—this flick gave me nothing except compact fine pleasure—it has nothing to offer except some huge pleasure—I have did this about a Tarantino's movie, and about BASIC INSTINCT as well ….Well,MUTATIS MUTANDIS.