Good start, but then it gets ruined

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Or at least that battering ram, sought by soldiers of Julius Caesar on a mission to keep these pagans away from Rome. But of course, the soldiers aren't really all that peace loving or civilized, either, and just because they are citizens of the most powerful country in the world towards the end of the times of B.C. doesn't make them any less flesh hungry. On their mission, they are followed by a Roman teenager too anxious to serve Caesar and pays for it dearly (or everybody else by his excessive talking) by the Gauls. This sequence is pretty severe as the group listens to his howls of pain and can't do anything about it even though the Roman maiden with them keeps insisting that they do. There's plenty of action, but not much of a story other than its set-up and quick resolution. Not bad as these sorts of films go, but ordinary. Ironically, a great majority of the character's names were also prominent characters during the life of Augustus Caesar and his adopted grandson, Claudius, which took place less than a hundred years later.

Better than average sword and sandal time-filler with the underrated Richard Harrison starring as Claudius, solider of fortune selected with three others by Caesar to undertake a deadly mission to destroy a secret weapon that the Druids are using to repel Casear's forces. Along the way, the quartet become a quintet with the addition of the young and impressionable 'boy who wants to be a warrior' type (Guida), and then a "magnificent seven" when they encounter captured Romans Edua (Tessier) and her cowardly guard Drussus (Hersent), being tortured by the Druids.Unencumbered by the usual overdeveloped musculature, an athletic Harrison employs his trained acting to good effect as the aggressively loyal Roman solider who'll give to the last drop to secure Caesar the platform he needs to succeed. Ably supported by Italian leading man Ettore Manni and with good performances by the supporting cast, Anthony Dawson (aka Antonio Margheriti) delivers a consistently watchable, gritty and engaging picture, far more worthy than the paltry four stars it currently attracts.Some superb battle scenes, suspense, occasional light humour, romance and tragedy are complemented by colourful characters, given extra definition through Harrison and Manni's balanced performances. It's not "The Fall of the Roman Empire" by any stretch, but as a "Guns of Navarone" of Ancient Rome (you'll see the similarities with Stanley Baker and Gia Scala's characters in particular), it does okay and should entertain.

Playing almost like a Roman-era version of THE GUNS OF NAVARONE (1961) – with an elite group of specially-skilled soldiers handpicked by Julius Caesar to go on a suicide mission and destroy the Druids' secret weapon – this is an agreeable time waster which is moved along at a brisk and efficient pace by prolific director Margheriti. He was perhaps the most erratic of the three Italian genre specialists (the others being, obviously, Riccardo Freda and Mario Bava) who basically set the foundation of what today is referred to as "Euro-Cult"; I've now watched some 9 of his films and the most satisfying have been his 2 horror outings starring Barbara Steele – THE LONG HAIR OF DEATH (1964) and CASTLE OF BLOOD (1964).Sensibly, THE GIANTS OF ROME does not opt to make its heroes invincible (as was usually the case in films of this type) and despite a happy ending, all but one member of the group lose their life in accomplishing the all-important mission. The "secret weapon", however, turns out to be a major let-down: though one of the Romans expresses great surprise at never having seen anything like it, a little while later the leader of the group refers to it by name as if he had been around such devices all his life! Still, the most hilarious moment of the film came when the leading lady solemnly tells our hero her life-story which includes the fate of her father, one Fulvius Lucisanus (Fulvio Lucisano being a leading Italian producer of the time, though he doesn't seem to have had anything to do with this particular title!!)

Julius Caesar (Alessandro Sperli)is poised to attack the evil Druids in this above-average 1964 Italian-produced and dubbed military adventure set in Roman days, but he has learned that his opponents have a doomsday weapon that may thwart his efforts. Claudius Marcellus (Richard Harrison) takes a team of experts (one throws a knives, the other uses muscular strength)and promises Caesar that they will destroy the weapon before Caesar launches his attack about three days later. Like all good behind-the-enemy-lines epics, the heroic bunch in "Giants of Rome" don't have an easy time getting the job done. At times, Anthony M. Dawson lets the pace sag, but he keeps the objective in mind. Our heroes get caught and captured repeatedly but manage to escape. Along the way, they escape from a Druid prison and pick up a tortured Roman soldier and a babe Livilla (Wandisa Guida)when they aren't battling the Druids. Indeed, there is no shortage of Druids here and they keep whittling away at our heroes. The scene in the prison is reminiscent of a World War II movie, because the suspicious Livilla doesn't believe that Claudius and his band of brigands are Romans, so she asks them a series of questions only a Roman could correctly answer. Later, Claudius reminds his men that they have orders to carry, like in a World War II adventure. Near the end of the movie after several guys in the gang have bitten the dust, Claudius and one remaining soldier discover the whereabouts of the doomsday machine, a gigantic catapult concealed in a cave with an elaborate mechanism consisting of ropes and chains. Think "The Guns of Navarone" Sword and Sandal Style. Although this isn't the best Roman soldier movie ever made, it is far, far from being the worst. The scene when our heroes attack a couple of rafts by swimming underwater is pretty cool. Diamond Video has released this brawny actioneer in a full-screen version in their 4-movie Gladiator Collectors Box Set that includes two other Richard Harrrison movies: "Invincible Gladiator" and "Gladiator 7." Again, this movie reminded me of those secret mission, World War II movies.