Genres

Visitors Review

copycat1025 2012-05-25 02:51:16

Over-the-top effects...

This film is a nice sequel to Francisci's gem "Hercules," the film thatlaunched a seven-year festival of swords, sandals, cloaks, daggers,musclemen, and gorgeous women in the Italian cinema. In this sequel,MarioBava returns as the FX man, and dazzles us with an array of visual effectswhich impart to this film an almost Hollywood-like sensationalism. Theproblem is, there is too much of it! After the first 30 minutes or so,thestuff tired me, sheerly through the fact that my mind ceased to remain inthe elevated state necessary to appreciate and "roll with" what thedirectorwanted to achieve visually. So there were alternate periods of depressionand elevation, although the film, when viewed as a whole, must be one ofthemost stunning sword-and-sandals of all time. In this respect, PietroFrancisci did well. However, I still prefer the first entry to thisone.

Steven J. Juon 2012-05-24 07:55:13

Hercules: Uninteresting

Even as a Mystery Science Theater 3000 send-up, this one falls flat ifyou watch it more than once. The riffing of Joel and the bots is stillentertaining, but it can't disguise the fact this film is pretty thinon usable plot and relies mostly on Steve Reeves rugged looks tosustain itself. Think Tom Cruise in "Days of Thunder" and you'll seewhat I mean. As painful as this movie is with their jokes, it would becompletely intolerable without them. From cheesy costumes to badlydubbed dialogue to acting even high school drama teachers would turntheir noses up at, this movie is like a 1970's kung-fu flick minus thesaving grace of people getting their butts kicked. In fact for aso-called Hercules movie, it's long on bad dialogue and short on goodaction. If you're going to watch something called Hercules you'dactually be better off seeing the animated Disney film.

MARIO GAUCI 2012-05-23 16:01:10

HERCULES UNCHAINED (Pietro Francisci, 1959) **1/2

The sequel to HERCULES (1958) is even less enthusing but remains,nonetheless, an adequate example of the peplum genre.Sylva Koscina’s role of Iole, Hercules’ love interest, is diminishedhere since the most prominent female figure on display emerges to bethe femme fatale-ish Queen of Lidia Omphale (the film’s original title,incidentally, translates to HERCULES AND THE QUEEN OF LIDIA) – thelatter is played by another red-headed beauty Sylvia Lopez, who died ofleukemia not long after the film’s release! Needless to say, themuscle-bound hero (Steve Reeves) falls under her spell after havingconveniently drunk from a spring that renders him an amnesiac (thoughnot before he’s been engaged in an irrelevant wrestling bout withex-heavyweight champion Primo Carnera as an irascible giant!); hisfriend Ulysses, however, is on hand to watch over him (ostensibly inthe function of Hercules’ deaf-mute slave). Meanwhile, back home inThebes, two brothers fight it out over the throne – with Iole at themercy of a cackling maniac (an over-the-top Sergio Fantoni)... By the way, both of these Hercules films featured atmosphericcinematography by Mario Bava - who would himself direct one of thebetter adventures revolving around this mythical figure, HERCULES INTHE HAUNTED WORLD (1961) starring Reg Park. As for Francisci, he workedmost often in this genre: from ATTILA (1954; co-starring Anthony Quinnand Sophia Loren) – which is overdue for a reappraisal and has,incidentally, just been announced as an upcoming DVD release fromLionsgate! – to the low-brow HERCULES, SAMSON AND ULYSSES (1963; withKirk Morris now as Hercules) and SINBAD AND THE CALIPH OF BAGHDAD(1973; his last film and which I recall watching eons ago on ItalianTV).

dbdumonteil 2012-05-22 20:31:33

Antigone ,where were you when we needed you?

Certainly one of the best movies in the otherwise undistinguishedHercules movies of the late fifties/early sixties,as well as SteveReeves ' best along with "Romolo E Remo".The screenplay blends true Greek mythology (the seven versus Thebes, ablind Oedipus and his two sons vying for power) with the usual drivel:Hercules captured by an evil queen who falls in love with him andmakes him forget all his past :brainwashing as usual;she uses amaleficent water.And they say "stay sober!"What a nonsense here! Oddly,a young Ulysses accompanies the hero in his adventures.The futureinventor of the Trojan horse was already smart enough not to drink ofthat water and to pretend he was deaf and blind when he met the queen.All that concerns Thebes is entertaining and even interesting and it 'sa pity that the writers were not as smart as Ulysses and did not throwall the queen's scenes in the trash can and,instead, introduce ,forinstance ,Antigone,who led her blind father out of the city and playeda prominent part just after her brothers' death.Maybe Steve Reeveswould have saved her.Lovely Sylva Koscina would have done nicely inthis part and would have been more than purely decorative.

mijbril 2012-05-22 01:09:39

Lots of fun

I grew up watching this stuff as a Saturday afternoon matinee 30 years ago&now, it's still as much fun to watch.Hercules, now married to Ioli, is returning to Thebes to help sort out adispute over who has the rights to the throne of Thebes. Along the way,Hercules loses his memory & is seduced by the evil Amphale who goesthroughhusbands like Elizabeth Taylor, however, Amphale is something of a blackwidow & uses a few Egyptians to preserve her ex-husbands in the familycrypt.However, one look at the rugged carved from granite Steve Reeves & all herblack widow tendencies fly out the window, but she still wants him forgood.Of course it all ends up in a good ruckus with sword fights, chariotduels,Hercules throwing tables & coffins at rushing troops, 2 insane brotherswitha hatred for each other (& their father) & inevitably the faithfulsidekickwho chimes in with a few vital day-saving moments.Clint Eastwood may have been the king of the Spaghetti Western, but SteveReeves was the king of the Spaghetti Swords & Sandals. So if that's yourcupof tea, I recommend this movie as an excellent addition to yourcollection.

2012-05-21 22:00:57

This is a movie for men!

Hercules becomes amnesiac after drinking from the waters of Lethe. Foryears, the beautiful queen Omphale has been abducting warrior men whobecome amnesiacs off to her exotic paradise island where they givethemselves up to sexual pleasures until the day she tires of them.That's the day they die, only to be immortalized as statuary in hergarden of conquests. Hercules soon finds himself abducted and like allthe others he is her completely willing slave.But this time her soldiers bring back Hercules' traveling companionUlysses, who has saved his life by pretending to be the hero'sdeaf-mute body servant. Ulysses continues in that role during Hercules'captivity and by keeping Hercules from drinking more of the magicalwater, restores his memory.'I've been tricked by the gods.' is his summation of the situation.After all, he had been on an important mission of state with his wifethe virtual hostage of a madman when all this happened. Of course hegets away, the first of Ompahle's slaves to escape her net. Shestatue-tizes herself over the lose and the movie moves on to itsconclusion.All Sons of Hercules movies have this same plot: Hercules falls underthe sway of a powerful, beautiful and evil woman but comes to hissenses and saves the day. At its core it is about sex and the taboopredilection of men to seek this enslavement. This plot is notfashionable any more. Too much sexual freedom in modern society hasrobbed it of its power. But it had power (over men) in the sixties, andthis film exploited it expertly.

mhrabovsky1-1 2012-05-21 15:32:08

Hercules Unchained

In 1959 producer Joseph E. Levine released in the United States thehyped up cheaply made Italian muscle "epic" "Hercules" starring astruggling bodybuilder actor with a physique that would make a Greekgod jealous, Steve Reeves. After a big publicity campaign the filmbecame a box office smash and started a whole new Hollywood genre, theItalian "sword and sandal" so called movies. After the success of"Hercules" Levine ordered up another installment, this one called"Hercules Unchained" and it too was a smash. Reeves as Hercules ismarried happily to a lovely Italian lady in Greece, but upon returningto his homeland he finds two brothers are in a blood feud for controlof Thebes. Reeves to the rescue! Reeves is entrusted with taking apeace treaty pact to one of the brothers to settle the feud but drinkswater from the fountain of "forgetfullness" and is soon captured andtaken to an island and made a sex slave to the queen Omphale, a womanwho cant get enough loving out of a slew of ex greeks.....in short, sheloves em and slays em in equal amounts. She meets her match in Herculesand he escapes and sails back to Thebes just in time as the twobrothers kill themselves foolishly trying to take over the throne. Lotsof skin, bulging muscles and lovely Italian ladies in skimpy costumes.That combination became the formula for the next several years asItalian producers churned out a ton of muscleman "epics" with the likesof Gordon Scott, Mark Forrest, Ed Fury, Reg Park, Richard Harrison. Thefilms were mostly the same; evil rulers, mob scenes, sword fights,skimpily clad women, musclebulging heroes doing feats of strength withhorses, elephants and picking up 5 lb paper mache rocks and throwingthem at evil rulers armies. If you watch these films not expecting tosee Charlton Heston or Kirk Douglas you will have a lot of fun. Reeveswas by far the best actor in these films despite shoestring budgets andhigh school scripts. Reeves made a slew of Hercules, Goliath, pirates,and mystical character films before he retired for good in the late60s...word was he turned down the original James Bond role in "Dr. No"that went to Sean Connery....go figure!

classicsoncall 2012-05-20 20:48:25

"Anyway, I like the idea of being a king. By the way, what's my name?"

I remember watching "Hercules Unchained" back in the day, but for thelife of me, my viewing of the film today brought back not one memory ofit. For certain though, with Steve Reeves generally acknowledged as thebest of the movie strongmen to portray the Greek demi-god, all the restare pretty lame by comparison. But even here, the movie takes a quickdown hill turn from the original "Hercules", though it does offer a funtime if you're not in the mood for real Greek mythology. Really, howserious can you get about a character who's name sounds like crayon,even if he is a colorful sort.In the story, Herc and his sidekick Ulysses (Gabriele Antonini) attemptto mitigate a feud between two brothers who both want to be the king ofThebes. Following a wrestling match with former world champ PrimoCarnera, Hercules has the misfortune of drinking from the 'waters offorgetfulness'. Falling into a daze, he and Ulysses are captured by thesoldiers of Queen Omphale (Sylvia Lopez), who promptly realizes thathe's the man of her dreams, and maybe even a candidate for the oldtrophy cave. Omphale plays it up for all the leggy cheesecake gloryit's worth, giving new meaning to 'over the top'. For his part, Ulyssesdecides to play the dumb and dumber routine until he can snap Herc outof his stupor.Watch closely the second time Hercules takes up Ulysses' challenge tobend the iron torch stand in an attempt to remember who he is. Hesuccessfully does so, and then unbends it just as easily, leaving aslight curve in the stem. However when he returns the stand to it'soriginal location, the stand is perfectly straight.Before it's all over, brothers Eteocles and Polinices do each other infollowing a chariot battle and hand to hand combat with swords.Hercules prevails in a battle against weirdly diamond striped tigers,reuniting with long suffering (20 days to be exact) wife Iole (SylvaKoscina). Koscina, looking gorgeous, manages to maintain her dignitythroughout, which is saying a lot, as every other woman in the film wascast for their eye candy appeal.Don't take my comments as a put down of the movie, as I'm trying togive my review the same goofy flavor as the film. That means havingsome fun with an early offering from a genre that generated nearly twohundred movies following the first two Steve Reeves epics. If you can'tdo that, at least try a glass of some Grecian spring water.

bkoganbing 2012-05-20 17:32:16

Omphale's Trophy Room

The sequel to the original Hercules film has Steve Reeves just tryingto get back home to Sylva Koscina and settle down and raise littlemuscle dudes. But he gets a mission from old King Oedipus living at theedge of the underworld. His two sons are not living up to what was areally crazy power sharing scheme whereby they would alternate themonarchy of Thebes for year intervals. The first one's year is up andhe doesn't want to give up his royal prerogatives. The other one hashired a mercenary army and is threatening civil war.While Hercules is trying to mediate the conflict he gets to drinkingfrom the waters of forgetfulness and wakes up in the palace of QueenOmphale played by a fetching Sylvia Lopez. This woman with the help ofsome embalmers trained in Egypt is collecting a beautiful lifelikestatuary and after some servicing by Hercules, she wants to add him toher trophy room.This second Hercules film that starred Steve Reeves is a cut above mostof the peplums out there. It even has an appearance by formerheavyweight champion Primo Carnera who towers over Reeves playing thegiant Anteas.Nice stuff for the Saturday matinée trade.

jahambo 2012-05-20 03:37:45

One Man, One Beard... Whole lot o servant girls.

Laughing heartily in the face of danger, Steve Reeves leads the way inHercules: Unchained, a film about just how much tail you can get with agoodbeard. Okay, so there's a story about two sassy brothers' fight over akingdom, a random encounter with the son of the Earth god and waters offorgetfulness... great. The real story here: oiled-up men in loinclothshaving their way with giggling servant girls. This movie jam packed withservant girls running from Herc and Ulysses down stairs, around cornersandpretty much any direction that shows off the goods. As if that wasn'tenoughto get you totally pumped about this movie while cleaning the house...faketigers! If you're a fan of fake tigers in fake tiger fights... you'll needto rent this one soon. Mostly though, its about the servant girls. 8 outof10.

KOknockout920 2012-05-18 23:55:36

I think I'll fall on my spear. He he.

The sequel to the Steeve Reeves version of Hercules, Hercules Unchainedstarts where its prequel left off. Hercules, Ulyses, and his new wife,Iole, go on some mission to settle a dispute between two brothers whowants to rule Thebes. However, on the way, Hercules drinks the socalled " Waters of Forgetfullness" and forgets who he is and is seducedby this queen,and she falls in love with Hercules. However, Ulyseshelps Herc regain his memory and escapes the island where the queensubsides in (by the way, the queen commits suicide, but anyway).Meanwhile, Iole, Herc's wife, gets captured by one of the brothers andthreatens to kill her. Hercules and his group finally save Iole in abattle to the death by both of the brother's sides. In the end, bothbrothers die, Herc is reunited with his wife, and they live happilyever after.Well not exactly, but they lived ever after.This is the second and hopefully, I think, last sequel to the Herculesseries. The movie felt like an eternity. It took so long for Herc tofinally get off that island! In fact, Herc was on that island for 40minutes, long for an 1 1/2 hour movie. The song. Oh god that was awful.And one last thing. It was boring. There wasn't much action, and whenthere was action, it didn't last long, and it was fake.Thank god MST3Kwas there to make it enjoyable! I want to thank all of the people whomade this B- bomb possible. Steve Reeves, the Herc. The other castmembers. Pietro Franscisi, the director. Mitchell Parish, the personwho wrote that dreaded song. And the two producers, Feruccio DeMartiono and Bruno Vailati. Thank you all! P.S. If you're thinking ofmaking another sequel, heres a tip. Don't!

Steve-Reeves 2012-05-18 17:34:10

What do/ can you say?

This movie is so great!Everything in this movie is perfect! The epic scope, humor, music, acting,heroes, locations, villains, pretty as I said, everything about this movieis perfect!

2012-05-18 06:53:12

entertaining fairy tale

Only a fool would curse a fairy tale because it narrates the actions ofa witch. A good man has a strong enough heart to allow differences toflourish as long as people are allowed to live their lives in apeaceable manner.That's the great lesson that underlines this film, otherwise silly andoccasionally mawkish. I suppose that's why intelligent children haveloved the Hercules myth ever since it could be recorded. Hercules ispretty dumb, but he's a nice guy with good intentions, the mostimportant of which is to keep those who have let power corrupt themfrom bringing ruin to farmers and villagers and other peaceful workingpeople.Here he is threatened by three evil generals and an over-self-indulgentwitch. The plot is partly based on the Hercules myth itself, butborrows freely from the Odyssey and from the Oedipus plays, with just adash of the Argonauts legend tossed in briefly at the beginning.Alright, so it's a mess. And the middle third is just outright dull asthe witch grows to love her buffoonish captive.Never mind. It's well-made for its time and place, colorful, and evenoccasionally lyrical. And some of the fight scenes retain theirexcitement, after all these years.Perhaps best viewed - and understood - by children; but can providereal entertainment for intelligent adults in the right frame of mind.

Boba_Fett1138 2012-05-17 18:14:03

Ridicoules and fake looking but still pretty decent early Hercules vehicle.

This movie definitely is not the best or most exciting one around.Strangely enough it doesn't decide on picking a more adventurous storyand restrains itself mostly to the same locations.You can say that these early Italian genre movies set the laterstandards for the swords & sandals genre. The first movie "Le fatichedi Ercole" began with this and this movie further expands it, withoutadding too much excitement or fun though. The movie has the looks andright characters involved but yet the movie only at times manages tobecome an interesting and good one to watch. Most of the time toolittle is happening, which is a shame and a waste.The set and colors of it all might seem fake and silly looking bytodays standards but this at the same time has become part of the charmof these early type of genre movies. Also for it's time this movie musthave been pretty good and impressive looking at times. It's at leastnot as cheap looking as many other later Italian genre attempts. Theearliest Hercules, or Ercole, movies are still definitely the betterones to watch.Steve Reeves certainly was an impressive presence and for some reasonhe's far better than most other actors who ever portrayed the Ercole(Hercules) character in these type of movies, without having tooimpressive acting talents.It's really too bad that the movie its middle part is so poor. Themovie begins quite well and promising and also ends well, when themovie turns into a more spectacular one to watch.5/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

ewarn-1 2012-05-17 07:21:36

Steve Reeves Unleashed

There was only one Hercules, and he wasn't from Mt. Olympus, he wasfrom California, and his name was Steve! This movie proves it.Actually, it's a little better than his original flick, "Hercules".It's more polished, and has a little more action, but then, that's notsaying much. It might have been exciting back in 1959 to see some guypick up a tree, but the modern special effects fests have eclipsed it.Any kid interested in seeing fighting musclemen today wouldn't watchthis, they'd be watching Smackdown or whatever it is. WWF. WWE. I don'tknow. Anyway, they'd rather see Rick Flair and John Cena insult eachother.But hey! I liked it, because I think Steve Reeves was cool! He lookedthe part with his beard. And he had some build, better than all themusclemen that followed, better than the bodybuilders today. This washis last good film. For all the others, he shaved off his beard andjourneyed to strange places, like Russia and India. He should havestayed in ancient Greece.If your a retro person, you would love this. I dig the retro dancingGreek island chicks. I dig the fake tigers. I dig the chariots, I digSteve beating up the world's heavyweight champ. You might find otherthings to dig, so pay homage to old Steve Hercules Reeves himself. Hemight have been governor of California too.

Aaron1375 2012-05-16 19:35:11

The best thing I can say about this movie is at least the guy playing Hercules looked the part.

Yes, the lead here looks like Hercules and there are a lot of ladiesprancing around in skimpy costumes, but that does not a good moviemake. The story is a jumbled mess that really does not flow well, theactors are not the best of caliber, and of course it doesn't help thatthis Hercules movie does not have all that much action in it. In fact,most of the movie seemingly has Hercules sitting around on a chair andmaking it with a strange looking gal. Meanwhile, there is a war aboutto break out between two brothers I think, but can not be 100%positive. There is also a rather pointless scene where Hercules mustfight some guy who always gets back up and laughs annoyingly. Herc hashis companions and his wife to worry about as well, but for the mostpart you are going to want to drink those waters of forgetfulness thatsend the movie to the very long pointless subplot of Herc in theclutches of the very bizarre island girl and her many serving girls.All in all just not enough of a plot or action to get anyone's interestup.

InzyWimzy 2012-05-15 12:40:48

Herc's Pecs-a-Popping!

Big, bronzed Steve Reeves is Hercules, Greek stupor hero who burns 50 braincells per second. I guess these epics were big during the 50's, butwatching them now is like seeing a documentary with nitrous. There'ssupposed to be a story, but the makers felt it better to emphasize actionrather than plot.It doesn't work and you get a lot of choreographed fight scenes. WatchHerchurl chocolate bunnies. Plenty of Greek guys in skirts. Must've been thefad back then. I thought Hercster could've made the movie a lot better bysnapping Ulysses in half. Plus, he has an affair and still keeps his hottybride Iole. The ending is a blockbuster fight scene with lots of peopleflying, horses dying, and audiences crying.At least Steve Reeves is less annoying than Miles O' Keefe.

Lee Eisenberg 2012-05-15 04:33:43

Uri Geller, Kim Cattrall and Ricky Nelson

I saw "Ercole e la regina di Lidia" (called "Hercules Unchained" in theUSA) on "Mystery Science Theater 3000". The movie itself is actuallyquite cool, but "MST3K" makes it even cooler. The movie basically hasthe muscle-bound - and often well-oiled - Greek hero (Steve Reeves)drinking water of forgetfulness and getting seduced by Queen Omphale(Sylvia Lopez). Mostly, it seems like an excuse to show scantily cladwomen. I guess that even ancient Greece was a male chauvinisticfantasy! But seriously, the "MST3K" version is the one that you gotta see. Youcan probably guess what sorts of things Joel, Servo and Crow say.Specifically, they sneak in mentions of Uri Geller, Kim Cattrall andRicky Nelson. How else to keep sane while watching these cheesy flickssent by Dr. Forrester and TV's Frank? Yes, you know what Hercules and the queen were doing when not onscreen. Seriously, a buff hunk and a hot babe. How could they not doit?

Hitchcoc 2012-05-13 01:37:09

More of the Same: Looks a Little Better

The quality of the film was much better than many of these that I'veseen. Here are some observations. For some reason, every character isnamed after a Greek or Roman god. Ulysses is a dork. How could he havefought those battles with Hercules. During the brain freeze that takesup about half the movie, Hercules seems to be having a good time. Whatexactly caused the brain freeze? Did I miss something. There are a tonof fights. Armies attacking one man and losing, of course. Hercules istempted but has an excuse in that he doesn't know who he is. As usual,there is an evil queen. Are there any of these movies that don't havean evil queen. I never quite got the whole thing with the two brothersand their fathers and the big conflict, other than they wanted to keepwhat they had. I must admit, I just couldn't get into it. I've hadenough Hercules for a while.

wes-connors 2012-05-12 12:21:37

Steve Reeves Returns as Hercules

"Hercules exercises poor judgment when he quenches his thirst from anenchanted spring en route to a diplomatic mission in Thebes. Hepromptly loses his memory and gets sidetracked in the pleasure gardensof Queen Omphale. Ulysses, his young companion, tries to desperately tohelp him regain his memory, but in the meantime, the situation inThebes is reaching boiling point. To make matters worse Hercules' youngwife Iole faces imminent danger," according to the DVD sleeve'ssynopsis.Re-titled "Hercules Unchained" for the English speaking world.This was the second Hercules film directed by Pietro Francisci withMario Bava, and starring handsome muscle-man Steve Reeves as thetitular hero. Unfortunately, it was also the last time both Mr.Francisci and Mr. Reeves signed on to the series, as both sought finerproductions. Importantly, Reeves' boy companion Gabriele Antonini (asUlysses) also returns, as does beautiful wife Sylva Koscina (as Iole)and a variety of busty young women. One of the better "sword andsandal" epics.***** Ercole e la regina di Lidia (2/14/59) Pietro Francisci ~ SteveReeves, Gabriele Antonini, Sylva Koscina, Sylvia Lopez