Purely Joyful Movie!

Pretty Good

Don't listen to the negative reviews

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

This movie begins with "Hercules" (Brad Harris) riding in a chariot and suddenly being ambushed by a group of men. Upon defending himself the leader recognizes that it is Hercules that they are attacking and yells for his men to withdraw. Hercules then proceeds to his destination which is the city of Arpad to pay his respects to the king. However, when he gets there he is informed that the king and all of the other counselors he knew previously have all died. The new ruler is the king's daughter "Cnidia" (Mara Berni) who he knew when she was a child and who quickly falls in love with him when they meet again. Unfortunately, although she believes that she is in control of the city the fact of the matter is that her lead adviser "Menistus" (Sergi Gainsbourg) is actually calling the shots and nothing happens without his consent. That said the one thing he doesn't want is somebody like Hercules appearing out of nowhere and disturbing the status quo. Now rather than reveal any more of the movie and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that the entire movie seemed to be both routine and predictable which caused it seem rather dull. Likewise, the dialogue—which was initially in Italian and dubbed into English—seemed extremely basic which didn't necessarily help in that regard. Although it might appeal to die-hard "Sword and Sandal" fans I personally found it to be somewhat boring and therefore rate it as below average.

Routine sword and sandal :it's 25 centuries before Christ ,folks,and that wicked prime minister Menistus (Serge Gainsbourg)is making rough all over:"only blood and violence can lead to power!" "reprisals! repression!" "death to the rebels!" ...It was the third time the great singer/songwriter had appeared in a sword and sandal after "Sansone" and "La Rivolta Della Schiavi" .I'm forced to recognize,one more time,that,while a brilliant songwriter maybe the best France has ever had,Gainsbourg -Whitney Houston might remember him-was a lousy actor.If you do not ask too much ,this Hercules (Ercole)is not worse than the others;there are even endearing characters,some "nice" people die ,which is very rare in this kind of flick,and the queen herself is ,relatively speaking,an ambiguous character,at once guilty and innocent.Hercule is strong ,that's all the director asks from him.His endeavors are business as usual:fight against a lion , a gorilla (a man dressed up as a gorilla more like)etc..Full of finer feelings ,with a finale verging on melodrama.All in all,a lesson in democracy.

FURY OF HERCULES is a damn good Hercules film -- in fact, it's a very solid and satisfying period action film by any standards, and you have to see at least 8 - 10 Hercules movies to know the difference. The plot revolves around Hercules (Brad Harris) visiting the daughter of an old friend and forced to choose between sides in a guerrilla rebellion. Most Hercules films -- God bless 'em! -- rely on standard plot devices and stock characters to move things forward. That's true here -- but to a point. Director Gianfranco Paolini actually pays attention to detail, and includes the kind of almost-throwaway moments that distinguish a wonderful Budd Boetticher film like BUCHANAN RIDES ALONE. Again, watch closely and you'll see. The other big plus here is that the story moves forward like a runaway freight train -- a lot of Hercules films are great to look at (HERCULES VS. THE CAPTIVE WOMEN is beautiful but surprisingly stiff), but this has the propulsive movement of a good Hollywood action film. Again, it's the difference between something like Hawks's LAND OF THE PHAROAHS (great) and THE Egyptian (pretty but boring.) Brad Harris is a decent Herc -- but for my money, the best is (believe it or not) Mickey Hargitay in HERCULES VS. THE HYDRA. Wish there was a better version than the old Goodtimes VHS but it's okay. Oh, and there's legendary French crooner Serge Gainbourg - almost forgot!

Hercules was such a nice demigod.This actor is not bad at it tho I like the late Steve Reeves better.Vote: 3 [where 5 = avg., 10 = perfect]