windypoplar Hercules directed and written by Luigi Cozzi stars the great Lou Ferrigno as the title character and takes great liberties with his story. It's aimed squarely at kids, with its colorful characters and even more colorful special effects. What i liked about it was the steady pacing, the absolutely weird musical cues and Lou's solid, if perhaps too straight performance.Forget all you know about Herc, this film stands on its own. Some of the old tale is here, baby Herc does crush snakes sent by his stepmother Hera and he does grow up peacefully not knowing why he's so strong. An early battle with a giant bear is well-shot. Lou certainly looks the part, unlike some other actors who tried and he isn't that bad with the dialog, which is very ripe. In this version Herc's great love is Casseopeia, played by the very easy to look at Ingrid Andersson. I so wanted to get that veil off her face! Herc must win her hand by competing in a series of bizarre rites of Strong. Including the classic cleaning of the stables. Which is a great sequence using miniatures and super-imposition. Even the rocks look heavy and real for a change! Still Zeus, and at least one actor, Claudio Casselinni, was understated, wants the sides of good and evil to be balanced, so Herc and Cass are separated.Not to fear, Herc soon hooks up with sorceress Circe, played by another beauty in a barely there outfit. She aid him in his celestial quest to conquer the evil of Thera and save Cass from being a virgin(!) sacrifice! The set for Thera, the green isle of Atlantis actually, is one of the best I've seen outside of Star Wars: Episode IV, its truly a great work of lighting and miniature sets, complete with a flame-wielding colossus. Herc's great strength is no match for the witch Adriana (called Ariana in my version,) played by the buxom Sybil Danning, but his great heart is, he's loyal to Cass. This all leads to a duel with the evil King Minos, who wants science to rule the world at the expense of all emotion. Their duel with Herc wielding the sword of Zeus and Minos the fire sword of Atlantis is great. The finale is spectacular and I love Herc's ending line to the rescued Cass. and check her final outfit, wow! "How do I know you're really Casseopeia? Or are you Adriana is another form or Circe reborn?" She responds "I am all and none of them. I am the one who loves you!"Cool movie, what I didn't like was the cheesy robots, they simply looked bad! Also why was Daedelus, the God who helps Minos, played by a woman? Some elements of the plot were confusing. Still this a great family adventure, the hero is great the girls are lovely and there is nothing objectionable save some light violence. If you're looking for a fun movie that doesn't require too much brain power, this is it!

unbrokenmetal The movie begins with nothing less than the creation of the world. In case you believed something else, now you know: the Earth was created from a broken jar, and the Greek gods lived on the Moon. Minos (William Berger) once stole the throne of Thebes, but the rightful heir, young prince Hercules, escaped after killing two electric snakes by short circuit (don't ask). Years later, Hercules (Lou "Hulk" Ferrigno) is back, so Minos sends clumsy metallic toys to kill Hercules. That doesn't work, either. The sorceress Circe takes Hercules all the way to Hell and back, so he can challenge Minos. Sybil Danning plays Minos' bad girl in this trash classic, while genre veteran Brad Harris appears as King Augeias. The actors became aware of what they'd gotten themselves into, obviously. Especially Claudio Cassinelli (as Zeus) and William Berger look like they'd burst into laughter as soon as director Cozzi shouted "cut". Cozzi's rendition of "Hercules" with Lou Ferrigno is so hilariously funny that no-one should miss it from his personal list of "10 worst movies of all time". A must-see for its neon lights disco effects, and a must-listen as well with its beeping electronic noises, and OTT symphonic music like poor man's John Williams meets Carlo Franci. A less entertaining sequel was produced entitled "The Adventures of Hercules".

Frank Markland Lou Ferrigno stars as Hercules the muscle-man who battles a sorceress and others to save the princess who he loves, and who he plans to marry (After cleaning out horse stalls.) in this disastrous epic of Greek mythology, bad special effects and horrendous dubbing. Where do I even start with this one? Aside from the hilariously bad special effects (The throwing of a bear in outer-space is truly laughable in its stupidity.) and the lame fight sequences you have what is the one of the worst movies ever made. Seriously. The film's sole redeeming quality is that it is just so hilarious. I mean this movie is guaranteed to make you bust a gut, otherwise you don't have much of a sense of humor. Let's face it bad movies such as this, sadly don't get made and while this movie is completely awful, fans of really bad cinema will be laughing all the way to the bank. For five dollars this is well worth the price. So bad it makes Gymkata seem like Die Hard.* out of 4-(Bad)

r-c-s action mainly consists in retarded, muscled-up Hercules ( check the variety of facial expressions ) wrestling cheap robot toys (the garage sale variety ) in papier-mache studio sets thought to be impressive...but there is only so much one can do with $100 worth of carton boxes.Acting is slightly better than the sequel, but still the best thing is a silly "lat spread". SFX are laughable, mainly with poor film quality and awful superposition effects.Plot is paper thin. The beginning of the movie clearly mocks Conan the barbarian, and other movies. Some exteriors are shot at night in roman ruins in the Italian countryside i suppose.There are catastrophe scenes, but toy miniature cities look terribly fake and guards battling Hercules look like 60yo out of shape from a nursing home.Pretty women in scant dresses are a plus, but not enough to save this amateurish C grade waste of money.SFX make other tier-II Italian salad bowl movies such as L'UMANOIDE & STAR CRASH look like masterpieces.Well, considering that Ferrigno's main acting exploit consisted in impersonating a retarded green monster, wearing a whig and green espadrillas, we ought to be lenient.Watch it & forget about it.