Dorathen Better Late Then Never

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Cooktopi The acting in this movie is really good.

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

poe426 I blame it on my upbringing: I was taught to read (at a very early age) by my mother, who read (mostly super hero) comic books to me. As a consequence, I tended in my later (pre-teen) years to gravitate toward reading matter that featured super heroes or heroes of super-heroic proportions. Like mythology. (My all-time favorite comic book hero was The Mighty Thor, who had his debut in JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY. Stan Lee wrote 'em and Jack Kirby drew 'em and Kirby's art clearly reflected his philosophy that "comic book art shouldn't reflect reality, it should transcend it." It was Kirby's Ulik the Rock Troll who inspired my own troll character, TORK.) Beowulf was always a favorite of mine (I saw him as a precursor to Robert E. Howard's Conan, perhaps even a direct lineal descendant- by way of Talbot Mundy)- and so was Hercules. (Imagine my delight when Hercules- looking more than a little bit like Steve Reeves- turned up in JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY to slug it out with the Norse God of Thunder.) (And Hercules won!) The next best thing to reading about Hercules in ancient mythology or comic books was seeing him in a movie. While the flesh and blood crowd can hardly hold a candle to the classic tales (or Kirby's comics), this Italian production, shot in Spain with an American actor playing the Greek god, is about as good as it's gotten thus far. There's a bit too much talk and not nearly enough action for an adventure film like this, but Reeves as Herc has enough bulge in his biceps and enough flex in his pecs to keep one distracted throughout. The cinematography is often as beautiful as in an art-house film (thanks in no small part, no doubt, to the ministrations of Mario Bava) and the landscapes through which our heroes move is breathtaking to behold. After all this time, HERCULES is STILL the best of the lot.

Boba_Fett1138 Basically this a movie about Hercules falling into the one adventure after the other, without some times feeling an obvious connection between those events. It makes this a pretty disjointed movie to watch at times. If this movie was being made this present day in exactly the same way it would be an absolutely terrible movie but the fact that this was made in 1958 makes it a good and defining one for its genre.It's sometimes laughable how fake this movie is looking, for instance when Hercules is fighting a lion and later a buffalo, who are both obvious puppets in the close-up scenes with Steve Reeves. You can call it part of the charm of these old type of adventure movies but it still looks ridicules, regardless.But besides that all it's a rather good looking movie, with its sets costumes and of course settings. It's an Italian movie, so it features lots of beautiful landscapes.The story is simple and perhaps not as action filled or fast paced as it could had been but it still is an adventurous one. The swashbuckling and adventure genre had pretty much died already when it was 1958. This is a movie that obviously tries to revive a genre, with some new more 'modern' changes and elements in it. After this 'historic' and mythological movies such as "Jason and the Argonauts". "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad and "Spartacus" were made. It's hard to say if this movie influenced any of those movies but fact is that this movie was a popular one at its time, also in America. Therefor it's a really thinkable that this movie played at least some part in redefining the genre.Not great, most especially not by todays standards but considering the time it was made, a good genre movie that is adventurous and therefor also has entertainment value in it.6/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

tanik-1 I had seen this movie many years before when I was a teenager. Then, I loved the movie because it had elements like strong good man fighting against the bad, beautiful women, myth, and good movie techniques regarding those days. By chance, I watched it again today and I enjoyed it again -maybe nostalgia played a major role-. But I missed those days films; noble feelings, not exploiting sexuality too much etc. I remember watching the movie together with some of my friends and deciding that we could start body building as Steve Reeves did. Maybe we hoped to be like Mr. Reeves. Indeed, we started the exercises -and of course, we couldn't have a physical look like he did- However, I can frankly say that we had benefited from our efforts regarding our healths -and surely we had builded a more good looking body- I recommend to our coevals that they watch this movie and similar ones from time to time.

DarthBill 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!