This week, I wanted to give a shout out to a ripping Sword & Sandal yarn that puts together two great tastes that taste great together and that kicks more butt than you can shake a Bible at, "Hercules, Samson and Ulysses":
Exotic lands! Dangerous women! Evil tyrants! Legendary heroes! Mighty thews! This movie has it all!
The action begins in Ithaca, where a fearsome sea monster (*cough*sea lion*cough*) is ravaging the coast. Brave Hercules, crafty Ulysses and a few redshirts ship out to stop the beast but end up shipwrecked in Judea! Meanwhile, Samson is hiding out from the Philistines for killing a number of their men and generally resisting their rule.
Then, there's a bit of mistaken identity when Hercules slays a lion with his barehands, since only one guy is supposed to be able to do that...
Meanwhile, the Philistine King engages in a bit of ethnic cleaning and kidnaps Hercules' friends, with the help of sexy troublemaker Delilah. To free them, Hercules has to bring in the rebel Samson, setting up the epic no holds barred smackdown of the ages!
Made toward the end of the golden age of peplum films, "Hercules, Samson and Ulysses" is as good (or bad) as you might expect. This is fun film about manly men and superheroes teaming up to fight evil. It is a (mostly) lighthearted romp that is gloriously and unabashedly cheesy (e.g, there's an obvious English language dub, the "rocks" are clearly Styrofoam, etc.) but in a way that simply adds to the charm.
The story is straightforward but not aggressively stupid.
The fight scenes are good in a chop socky way and the acting is played straight is mostly effective, with some fun flirting between Hercules and Delilah. Also, it is super nice to see real sets and animals rather than CGI! And the ladies are easy on the eyes.
So, if you want to see big, beefy, sweaty dudes wrestling in a totally not homoerotic way, check out this classic flick!
The action begins in Ithaca, where a fearsome sea monster (*cough*sea lion*cough*) is ravaging the coast. Brave Hercules, crafty Ulysses and a few redshirts ship out to stop the beast but end up shipwrecked in Judea! Meanwhile, Samson is hiding out from the Philistines for killing a number of their men and generally resisting their rule.
Then, there's a bit of mistaken identity when Hercules slays a lion with his barehands, since only one guy is supposed to be able to do that...
Meanwhile, the Philistine King engages in a bit of ethnic cleaning and kidnaps Hercules' friends, with the help of sexy troublemaker Delilah. To free them, Hercules has to bring in the rebel Samson, setting up the epic no holds barred smackdown of the ages!
Made toward the end of the golden age of peplum films, "Hercules, Samson and Ulysses" is as good (or bad) as you might expect. This is fun film about manly men and superheroes teaming up to fight evil. It is a (mostly) lighthearted romp that is gloriously and unabashedly cheesy (e.g, there's an obvious English language dub, the "rocks" are clearly Styrofoam, etc.) but in a way that simply adds to the charm.
The story is straightforward but not aggressively stupid.
The fight scenes are good in a chop socky way and the acting is played straight is mostly effective, with some fun flirting between Hercules and Delilah. Also, it is super nice to see real sets and animals rather than CGI! And the ladies are easy on the eyes.
So, if you want to see big, beefy, sweaty dudes wrestling in a totally not homoerotic way, check out this classic flick!
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