Rainey Dawn
Instead of Goliath saving Babylon from evil rulers - it is Hercules that saves the people from an evil, nasty, wicked sorceress.Goliath and the Sins of Babylon (1963) and this film are about the same, compatible with the strongman saving the population of Babylon from evil that is in power.Nothing overly special about this film. Standard sword and sandal flick with different actors and a little different story that centers around our heroic strongman saving a mass of people. It's an okay enough peplum that I can relax to and watch the mind-numbing action and cool costumes while getting ready to fall asleep.2/10
John W Chance
If you are going to watch this movie, or read this review you must be pretty desperate. So why am I writing it? As a spoiler. Compared with other Hercules films, this one has almost nothing going on, except for the fact that Peter Lupus (credited as 'Mark Stevens') of 'Mission Impossible' and 'Police Squad' the TV show, is Hercules. What an upper body!It's basically infighting and intrigue between kings and a queen, none of whom are very interesting or distinctive acting wise. The film makers have loaded it up with tedious dialogue ("No contractions allowed!"), stilted stiff acting (the actors mostly stand around like statues), a pompous music track with bombast substituting for dramatic interaction between characters, and a a final chain pulling scene that seems to go on forever. The best part is seeing over a thousand soldiers on horseback, but that scene may have been taken from another film. This is really bottom of the barrel. I'll give it a 2, just for Peter Lupus.
Maciste_Brother
Take the alluring Helga Liné out of HERCULES AND THE TYRANTS OF BABYLON and there wouldn't be much left to watch. Peter Lupus plays Hercules this time around and, personally speaking, he just doesn't have any charisma or screen presence to carry a whole film, certainly compared to other actors whom played the famous fabled hero. In fact, one almost suspects the producers knew about this as Lupus's screen presence is quite limited. Lupus is not on screen as often as Steve Reeves or Mark Forest are in their respective films. It doesn't help that Lupus also looks rather ridiculous swinging that over-sized paper-maché club. The story is dull and copied from other sources, including SPARTACUS. The production values are good or slightly above average but then the ending is just footage taken from the woeful Robert Aldrich Biblical epic, SODOM AND GOMORRAH, which cheapens the whole project. There are almost no stand-out scenes. The only thing that stands-out is Helga. Wow! She looks even better than in SPARTACUS AND THE TEN GLADIATORS, which was much more fun than this leaden affair. Helga definitely made this worth sitting through the uninspired Peplum action.
dbborroughs
I love Hercules movies, but this one is a snoozer. Maybe it needs commercials and beer (if only I drank).The plot has Hercules wandering the desert looking for his Queen who has been taken as a slave by the evil people of Babylon. The Babylonians don't know they have the queen so she wanders around in the desert with other slaves. There is talk of a man who can single handedly wipe out army's , Hercules, and chatter about getting more power, but it's all talk and no action. Into this comes the Assyrian king who is making a power play for both the Babylonian throne and what ever throne the slave girl Queen has, for give me I was dozing.There's a few really badly staged fights and way way way too much talk.
SPOILER WARNING SPOILER WARNING SPOILER WARNINGThen the movie slips in to the realm of hysterically stupid----The who city of Babylon is built so that if one wheel is turned the whole thing collapse on itself. Guess what happens? Its hidden under the city and looks incredibly dumb and Hercules spins it in order to cover the escape.There is a brilliant calvary charge that looks great but leads to a slave /Assyrian battle that ends almost as soon as it starts when the king is killed (they only had so much film)Eventually after wandering in the desert the now freed slaves, Queen and Hercules, come over a rise to the promised land, music swells and the camera reveals and even more barren desert. The End.END SPOILER ALERTAvoid this movie unless you've never been bored and wanting to truly do everything before you die.
AD
