Excellent, smart action film.

Absolutely Fantastic

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

This movie begins with "Hercules" (Steve Reeves) saving a beautiful woman on a runaway chariot by pulling a tree up by its roots to block the horse's stampede. It turns out that the beautiful woman is "Iola" (Sylva Koscina) the daughter of "King Pelias" (Ivo Garrani) of Iolcus. Unfortunately, Iola is wary of Hercules because his best friend is "Chironi" (Afro Poli) who is rumored to have assassinated the previous king prior to Pelias assuming the throne. At any rate, Hercules has been asked to come to Iolcus to help Pelias stabilize his kingdom. However, when he arrives he encounters political intrigue which ends up with him having to travel to another land to retrieve the "Golden Fleece" taken during the assassination of the king before Pelias' reign. Now, there are a couple of things a person might want to be aware of before they watch this film. First, the special effects are clearly not up to the standard of films made today. But that probably goes without saying. Likewise, this movie was originally filmed in Italian and dubbed into English. Even so that didn't appear to be a major problem. In any case, I think the key ingredient necessary to enjoy this film is for the person to have a general appreciation for movies of this type in the first place. There is no sex, profanity or graphic imagery to be concerned about. However, it does have some beautiful women and plenty of action and adventure to satisfy most viewers who are fond of this particular genre. Slightly above average.

I thought this would be a pathetic sub-titled movie, but it wasn't!!!It is typically low-budget, & on the low budget-TV channel, which struggles to survive for a FRAGMENT of what the big-networks have access to! This movie is understandably of limited talent & basic in props & plots! ... Especially compared with the likes of 21st century "The War of The Worlds"! ... That I viewed last weekend! ... But I saw Tom Cruise character there, playing a disagreeable character! ... Irritated repeatedly by his family who understandably didn't want to listen to him! ... With a pathetic plot I thought anyway would have seen MASSIVE holes in! ... But it was supposed to be a Spielberg production! ... By contrast, here, I watched a scenic, dramatic attempt at quality cinema! ... A serious attempt made at a credible plot! ... In a fantasy-type scenario many people would like to find themselves lost in! ... That was not surely out of its context, for time & place!!... But of course, it doesn't have 21st century side-effects! ... That seem to often be substituted for plot!!! ... I didn't expect much! ... But got much more!! Well worth a viewing!!!

Being the film that really cemented the appeal of the peplum subgenre – to say nothing of the reputation of one of its most popular icons, the muscle-bound Steve Reeves – this film has much to answer for but, unfortunately, I have to say that the archetype (and its sequel) didn't exactly live up to expectations! I had watched both Hercules adventures as a kid on Italian TV and this recent re-acquaintance came via the R1 Goodtimes DVD, which presented the American-dubbed version (as prepared by Joseph E. Levine) in a washed-out, lamentably panned-and-scanned print! Mind you, the film is still enjoyable along the way but also rather juvenile and uninspired – centering as it does around the famous mythological tale of the search for the Golden Fleece (whose definitive screen rendition remains the splendid Ray Harryhausen extravaganza JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS [1963], a personal childhood favorite of mine, where Hercules was portrayed by Nigel Greene!). Two other Italian adaptations of Greek legends, both originally by Homer, proved altogether more satisfactory – the template for HERCULES was clearly the lively ULYSSES (1954), an Italian/US venture involving the likes of Kirk Douglas and Anthony Quinn among the cast and Ben Hecht and Irwin Shaw as co-writers (that film's titular figure actually appears here as a brash youth!), while THE Trojan HORSE (1961) gave Steve Reeves himself a more mature role in Aeneas and survives as possibly his best vehicle.Throughout the course of the film, our 'immortal' hero is seen performing several athletic feats (the original title, in fact, translates to THE LABORS OF HERCULES), romances "Euro-Cult" favorite Sylva Koscina, resists the temptations of the Amazon women (led by Gianna Maria Canale from I VAMPIRI [1957]), fights a lion, a dragon and a tribe of monkey men(!), routs the traitor among his shipping crew (BLACK Sunday [1960]'s Arturo Dominici) and, finally, brings down a temple by pulling at its columns a' la Samson (thus paving the way for Jason to assume his rightful place on the throne).

This is actually two stories in one: the first is about Hercules trying to find his niche in the world as a rugged adventurer and champion of the oppressed, the 2nd is about Jason and the Argonauts and Herc looking for the Golden Fleece.Longer and slower than some of the successors and with quite possibly less fight scenes, these are still the best due to the respect and attention given to the characters. Reeves, looking like a pumped up Jonathan Frakes, is probably still the best of the lot, though we only got to see him fight lions, tigers, bulls, monkey people and Primo Carnera as opposed to monsters, but maybe it was better this way. Made things more serious and real world like.So in other words, don't count this one out!