FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

MamaGravity good back-story, and good acting

Matrixiole Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

soulexpress In its native Italy, this film was released to theaters as "Hercules the Invincible." But for its U.S. release, it went straight to TV as a two-parter renamed "The Sons of Hercules: The Land of Darkness." It even has an opening theme sung in English, which leads me to believe it was packaged as a weekly series with this one comprising two episodes.So our well-oiled, be-loinclothed muscleman is not Hercules, but his son Argolese (Dan Vadis, perhaps a distant relative of Quo). He's a chip off the old block when it comes to being superstrong and kicking some ass, though I have to wonder where his blond hair and beard came from. (Hercules himself was a brunette.) The film begins with Argolese fighting a lion who attacks Princess Telca, daughter of King Tedaeo. His Majesty is so grateful that he offers Telca's hand in marriage, but only if Argolese completes one more task: slaying the dragon that terrorizes his kingdom. With the help of a magic spear from the local sorceress, Argolese kills the dragon in a surprisingly brief scene. He returns to the village to find that it was raided and its people taken as slaves. Argolese sets off on a rescue mission that sees him fighting a bear looking way too much like a skinny guy in a moth-eaten costume, chained to two elephants in an ordeal designed to tear his arms off, and finally immersing the Land of Darkness (a city inside a mountain) in molten lava after he frees the prisoners and whisks them off to safety.I'd like to see the Italian print as the U.S. version is chopped all to hell. Certain scenes felt like they should have gone on longer, and they very well might have in the theatrical release. Guess I'll never know.Far too many of these sword-and-sandal films bore me, but this one held my attention for its full 80 minutes. LAND OF DARKNESS is on the low end of the Hercules spectrum (which was low to begin with), but it has a rudimentary interest factor working in its favor.

michael-3204 Since there were more Peplum extravaganzas than the U.S. market could absorb, television got into the act with a syndicated series called "The Sons of Hercules," which were 14 Italian Peplum not released theatrically in the U.S. that were re-dubbed as a loose series of 28 episodes with a catchy theme. "Hercules the Invincible" (Italian title: "Ercole l'invincibile") became "Son of Hercules in the Land of Darkness," starring big Dan Vadis as the hero renamed Argoles, who was supposed to be one of the sons of Hercules. This is the only version I've seen, so I can't really comment on the Italian original, but based on the material as presented, I can't imagine it was any good. This is one of the worst in the Hercules series, even though it packs in plenty of action. Unfortunately, it is almost all uninspired, unimaginative and very cheap-looking, with lots of running about and lots of dead spots. This has one of the worst fights with a lion in any Peplum film -- director Alvaro Manori either didn't know how it was done, or didn't care to make it look vaguely realistic or threatening. None of the considerable number of action sequences build any suspense, nor are they staged and filmed in a way that offers any tension or excitement. Even the obligatory dance number is anemic, consisting mostly of women rolling around on the floor. The look of the film, and the set designs, are equally as unimpressive.The one thing this has going for it is large number of feats-of- strength opportunities for our hero (whatever you want to call him), and Vadis makes the most them, with the camera ogling and caressing his muscles. The biggest problem for Vadis is that he's sporting an extremely unflattering beard. This was his first of two times as Hercules. Perhaps someone thought that the best Hercules's -- Steve Reeves and Reg Park -- have beards, so Vadis should too. It was a colossal mistake in judgment. Despite the scruffy rug on his face, Vadis cuts an imposing figure as the legendary strongman. There's only one other moderately intriguing character in the whole movie, Maria Fiore as a conniving courtesan so desperate to become queen of the land Hercules invades that, once she achieves her goal she barely notices her kingdom falling down around her. But that's not enough to save this below-par entry in a genre that was rapidly becoming played out.

Red-Barracuda In this peplum movie Hercules saves a king's daughter from a lion attack. The king offers him her hand in marriage if he can slay a dragon. Hercules goes off to do just that but while he is away the kingdom is over-taken by the forces of an evil queen, who takes everyone hostage to her subterranean lair below a volcano.I don't truthfully know an awful lot about the Hercules movies. It seems from what I can gather though that this one is both very typical but also pretty bad. Seemingly, the plot synopsis above is interchangeable with many of the films from the sub-genre. To be fair, I certainly didn't find this to be a good film but it has some moments. Hercules gets to fight a lion, a bear and a dinosaur-like dragon before taking on the forces of the evil queen. Unfortunately, he also has another typical feature of these types of movies - a comedy relief side-kick. I say 'unfortunately' because this character – like most of his ilk – is an appallingly tedious presence, who at no point could genuinely be classified as a relief from anything. If you take him out of the equation though then you have a moderately entertaining bit of sword and sandal nonsense. It also has a silly, cheesy theme tune which was quite amusing.

classicsoncall And look at that, it's another Hercules movie, though this time it's billed as Son of Hercules. I can't imagine why film makers rallied around the original Steve Reeves "Hercules" flick to spin off nearly an additional two hundred more of these beefcake bashes. I've only seen a half dozen or so myself, but they're all starting to look pretty much the same. This one's at the low end of the scale, and let's face it, the scale is pretty low to begin with.The standard stuff seems to be here - a love interest for Argolese (Dan Vadis), a wicked queen who attempts to kill him, various beasts to fight and defeat, and even a sidekick, though this time he seems more embarrassing than helpful. The casting of Babar (John Simons) seems to beg the question, 'What were they thinking?'I'm always intrigued when I see Hercules or one of his stand ins use the old speed dial to reach one of the Olympian gods. In this flick, Argolese is about to be pulled apart by elephants when he summons the heavens for help and wouldn't you know it, the chains simply break apart. I mean there wasn't even a pause to reflect on the request and build suspense.I'm sure there are better prints of the film than the one I viewed. It had some jarring jump cuts and a decidedly red hue in many scenes. It started out with a Part 1, signaling to me that perhaps it was made in a serial style format. There were even scenes of coming attractions for Part 2, however the film was spliced together in such a way that the action just continues, only to show those highlight scenes once again in due course. It all seemed quite annoying.There's really no reason to see this flick, and recommending it would be a disservice. My motivation rested simply in the fact that it was one of fifty movies packaged together under the 'Sci-Fi' collection put out by Mill Creek Entertainment/Treeline Films. The only positive worth noting is the catchy little theme song - 'There Be Sons of Hercules'.Hey, was that a real bear or a man in a bear suit?