I remember watching "Hercules Unchained" back in the day, but for the life of me, my viewing of the film today brought back not one memory of it. For certain though, with Steve Reeves generally acknowledged as the best of the movie strongmen to portray the Greek demi-god, all the rest are pretty lame by comparison. But even here, the movie takes a quick down hill turn from the original "Hercules", though it does offer a fun time if you're not in the mood for real Greek mythology. Really, how serious can you get about a character who's name sounds like crayon, even if he is a colorful sort.
In the story, Herc and his sidekick Ulysses (Gabriele Antonini) attempt to mitigate a feud between two brothers who both want to be the king of Thebes. Following a wrestling match with former world champ Primo Carnera, Hercules has the misfortune of drinking from the 'waters of forgetfulness'. Falling into a daze, he and Ulysses are captured by the soldiers of Queen Omphale (Sylvia Lopez), who promptly realizes that he's the man of her dreams, and maybe even a candidate for the old trophy cave. Omphale plays it up for all the leggy cheesecake glory it's worth, giving new meaning to 'over the top'. For his part, Ulysses decides to play the dumb and dumber routine until he can snap Herc out of his stupor.
Watch closely the second time Hercules takes up Ulysses' challenge to bend the iron torch stand in an attempt to remember who he is. He successfully does so, and then unbends it just as easily, leaving a slight curve in the stem. However when he returns the stand to it's original location, the stand is perfectly straight.
Before it's all over, brothers Eteocles and Polinices do each other in following a chariot battle and hand to hand combat with swords. Hercules prevails in a battle against weirdly diamond striped tigers, reuniting with long suffering (20 days to be exact) wife Iole (Sylva Koscina). Koscina, looking gorgeous, manages to maintain her dignity throughout, which is saying a lot, as every other woman in the film was cast for their eye candy appeal.
Don't take my comments as a put down of the movie, as I'm trying to give my review the same goofy flavor as the film. That means having some fun with an early offering from a genre that generated nearly two hundred movies following the first two Steve Reeves epics. If you can't do that, at least try a glass of some Grecian spring water.
In the story, Herc and his sidekick Ulysses (Gabriele Antonini) attempt to mitigate a feud between two brothers who both want to be the king of Thebes. Following a wrestling match with former world champ Primo Carnera, Hercules has the misfortune of drinking from the 'waters of forgetfulness'. Falling into a daze, he and Ulysses are captured by the soldiers of Queen Omphale (Sylvia Lopez), who promptly realizes that he's the man of her dreams, and maybe even a candidate for the old trophy cave. Omphale plays it up for all the leggy cheesecake glory it's worth, giving new meaning to 'over the top'. For his part, Ulysses decides to play the dumb and dumber routine until he can snap Herc out of his stupor.
Watch closely the second time Hercules takes up Ulysses' challenge to bend the iron torch stand in an attempt to remember who he is. He successfully does so, and then unbends it just as easily, leaving a slight curve in the stem. However when he returns the stand to it's original location, the stand is perfectly straight.
Before it's all over, brothers Eteocles and Polinices do each other in following a chariot battle and hand to hand combat with swords. Hercules prevails in a battle against weirdly diamond striped tigers, reuniting with long suffering (20 days to be exact) wife Iole (Sylva Koscina). Koscina, looking gorgeous, manages to maintain her dignity throughout, which is saying a lot, as every other woman in the film was cast for their eye candy appeal.
Don't take my comments as a put down of the movie, as I'm trying to give my review the same goofy flavor as the film. That means having some fun with an early offering from a genre that generated nearly two hundred movies following the first two Steve Reeves epics. If you can't do that, at least try a glass of some Grecian spring water.