Customer Reviews

Hercules/The Adventures of Hercules

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Yeah, I know, the Ferrigno "Hercules" movies are truly lame. The acting is basic, the stories are silly, and the effects aren't cutting edge. More like dull edge. Yet and still, I enjoyed watching these movies as a kid. When I found out both movies were released on DVD I had to add it to my collection. I think they were great adventure flicks. Lou Ferrigno actually did a pretty good job in the acting department and William Berger is deliciously mischeivious as the diabolicol King Minos. If you enjoyed the sword and sorcery fun of movies like "Beastmaster" and "Red Sonja" and "Conan" or just a nutty retro freak then this DVD is one to view.

Here are some insanely outrageous cheesefests that should satisfy any B flick lover's cravings. With the huge success of Conan and the Beastmaster I guess it's only natural that the Cannon Group get their fingers in the pie. These films are both Italian productions. Hey, why not? After all, the Italians had the market cornered on sword and sandal flicks back in the day. Writer/Director "Lewis Coates"(American companies insisted on Italian directors to use more American sounding pseudonyms) is actually Luigi Cozzi, who as everyone knows, directed the box office smashes Starcrash and everyone's favorite exploding chest flick, Contamination. Both movies look like they were shot at the same time, and actually feel more like a three hour film than two seperate ones. The first film starts with some poppycock about astronomy, then has Zeus creating our hero to shift the good/evil balance. Hercules falls in love however and goes after his love who has been kidnapped by the evil King Minos. Minos constantly rants about the power of science over that of the gods even though he's constantly using supernatural means to do his deeds. Not to mention that he wants Herc's girl as a sacrifice to a phoenix fire-god. On his quest Hercules flexes, bends swords, fights giant windup toys, battles stock footage, punches everyone, throws styrofoam boulders, throws a grizzly bear into outer space, breaks swords on his shins, grows huge, seperates Africa from Europe, and refuses the advances of two women(one of them Sybil Danning!) How noble. Once Minos is defeated and his chick saved, Zeus kinda just plucks him into outer space and turns him into a flexing constellation, storing him for further use. In the second film, Zeus releases him from his suspended flex pose to retrieve seven thunderbolts(they're actually lightning bolts, not that you really give a crap) stolen by renegade gods, Poseidon, Hera and Aphrodite. These gods resurrect the evil King Minos who's still using magic whilst flapping his gums about the power of science. Once again Hercules flexes, punches alot of folks, fights slime people and a guy in a makeshift Chewbacca outfit, doesn't hit on either of the two chix who would gladly have him, turns huge again, and transforms into an animated gorilla for some unknown reason to fight the final battle. Classic. Cozzi's imagination clearly exceeds his budget, but that's part of the magic of these films. Both films have tons of scenes in outer space with characters standing on rocky sets which are supposed to be the moon(Mythology tells us the gods hung out on Mount Olympus, but they hang out on the moon in the first film. By the second film they're supposed to be on Olympus, but it still looks an awful lot like the moon to me.) Also lots of superimposed shots of the actors on top of the earth. There are constant scenes of flashing lights and animation accompanied by BLIP! PING! BOINK!-type sound effects that sound like they came from a 60s sci-fi film or an Atari game. Cozzi has no shame at all as he lifts scenes from Conan, Clash of the Titans(the scene where Herc faces the gorgon is identical to Perseus' in Clash!), and The Beastmaster. The entire opening credits of the second film directly ripoff the credit sequence from Superman 2, with the blue credits in outer space floating into the screen intercut with scenes from the first film! The second film goes a bit overboard with animation, even including a fight that could have come straight from a Ralph Bakshi movie. Lou is a fantastic Hercules(eat your heart out, Sorbo!). He's no Olivier, but do you really need to be for this kind of film? I don't think there's a single actor in the world who looks more like a Hercules than Lou Ferrigno. I love these two films, love em to death. They're weird, wacky, silly and 100% fun. Peter Jackson can keep his sillyass gazillion dollar hobbits. I'll take Hercules.

If you are fan, a real fan, of Lou, then this is for you. If you saw this 22 years ago, it might bring back memories. This movie, in no way, challenges movies of today or even that time frame. Graphically it is horrible, the acting is sub par and the story just doesnt match up to most Hercules stories. But, I grew up with the Hulk, and seeing Lou as Hercules only makes sense. He is the only Herc that has the body to fit the bill. The first film, is basically the 7 trials of Hercules. The story moves along quickly, from one test to the next. The second film, Herc searches for Zeus's thunderbolts, oddly enough, Zeus knows where they are the whole time. Its mostly action, with fight sequences lasting only a few moments, consisting of Lou throwing right hands, and sometimes a boulder. Again, dont expect much visually from this film. Its simply a classic, for the fans of a generation long since passed.

I hate to say it but it is worth the price for two movies on one disc. The movies are considered the worst of the worst for good reason. lol I have a strange attachment to these movies.

I have no idea what went wrong. The cast seems like a dream: Lou Ferrigno certainly fits the bill (and he CAN act) but is terrible here, William Berger (star of numerous Italian Westerns) is given little to do but stroke his beard and Sybill Danning only redeems herself by the amount of flesh she has on display. The music is great, but is greater than the film it's playing for. The whole thing seems to be taking itself far to seriously for what it is.

I know something like this could work as camp fun, but it just seems dead.

And the second film isn't even worth talking about.

See I grew up watching cheap and cheezy movies like this one so I appreciate it differently. For the most part its a good movie in the sense that it shows some of the old greek gods such as Zeus, Posiedon, Athena and so on and so on. I like the greek mythology, so if u do too then this is an adventurous movie for you to watch. Its also casting Lou Ferigno, who to me is pretty good at playing hercules and taking on the treacherous villains that await him. Sorry I was supposed to keep this short, anyway overall the movie is a classic and a adventurous one for an 80's movie so I'd have to give it a 3 star rating.

Writer/Director, Luigi Cozzi, has a lot of fun with the ranting evil King Minos, who exalts: "Not Science in service of the gods, or Science in service of Science, but Science for the sake of Science!!!" He continues: "The pure magic of perfect knowledge -- Science -- is impeccable; the absolute dictator of the universal forces." And probably the funniest line ever uttered: "Creation came out of chaos, is surrounded by chaos, and will end in chaos, but while we're here, we must have perfect order."!!! And the result, of course: "We have eliminated all emotion, all hope, all doubt; there is no uncertainty." If not for Hercules, the universe would be doomed!

Its about time these gems were released on DVD. While at times they are utterly incomprehensable, they worth watching for fans for great 80's camp. As long as you don't watch these movies expecting actual good, well produced movies, then you should immensly enjoy this DVD collection.

Recently I watched the Blaxploitation parody, "Black Dynamite." All the time I was enjoying it I was thinking to myself "why don't they do this same thing with those old Hercules movies? Push all the cliches to the maximum and play up the cheapness and bad acting--but also faithfully recreate the genre. Well, I'd totally forgotten about Lou Ferrigno's Hercules! It IS that movie! I don't think it was trying to be, but it is! This is one of the funniest films you'll ever see. A dead on perfect parody, though I'm not sure the filmmakers knew it at the time. It's a cliche these days to say this, but Hercules really IS a movie so bad that it is great. Watch it as a parody movie and you'll love it too. (The sequel, Adventures of Hercules, and the two followups--Sinbad of the Seven Seas and Seven Magnificent Gladiators--are equally great.)

This is the hercules that I remember as a child. I was delighted to find it and it's just as good as I remember.