Kattiera Nana I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Casey Duggan It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Uriah43 This movie begins with "Hercules" (Steve Reeves) saving a beautiful woman on a runaway chariot by pulling a tree up by its roots to block the horse's stampede. It turns out that the beautiful woman is "Iola" (Sylva Koscina) the daughter of "King Pelias" (Ivo Garrani) of Iolcus. Unfortunately, Iola is wary of Hercules because his best friend is "Chironi" (Afro Poli) who is rumored to have assassinated the previous king prior to Pelias assuming the throne. At any rate, Hercules has been asked to come to Iolcus to help Pelias stabilize his kingdom. However, when he arrives he encounters political intrigue which ends up with him having to travel to another land to retrieve the "Golden Fleece" taken during the assassination of the king before Pelias' reign. Now, there are a couple of things a person might want to be aware of before they watch this film. First, the special effects are clearly not up to the standard of films made today. But that probably goes without saying. Likewise, this movie was originally filmed in Italian and dubbed into English. Even so that didn't appear to be a major problem. In any case, I think the key ingredient necessary to enjoy this film is for the person to have a general appreciation for movies of this type in the first place. There is no sex, profanity or graphic imagery to be concerned about. However, it does have some beautiful women and plenty of action and adventure to satisfy most viewers who are fond of this particular genre. Slightly above average.

MartinHafer It's amazing that this first 1950s Hercules film was the stimulus that led to bazillions of Hercules and Maciste films over the next 15 years. Why is this so hard to believe? Well, you'd expect that this film would be really, really good since it was such an important film--and you'd be 100% wrong. This mish-mash film was just as bad as many of the later films and is only marginally watchable. Not surprisingly, it has passed into the public domain--after all, who would want to renew rights to this film?! Some of the film's problems may or may not exist in the original Italian print. I don't know, as I have only just watched one of the English dubbed versions. The biggest and most obvious problem are the voice actors--their voices are too mechanical and bigger than life--so much so that they seem nothing like real people at times. The original Italian voices might be a lot better. Another problem (mostly for history freaks like myself) is that the films are a bizarre melange of both Greek AND Roman mythology--with Roman and Greek names interspersed throughout the film and the stories often bear little semblance to the originals. This is very sloppy but could also be the fault of the dubbers--perhaps the original film was based only on Greek or Roman characters--not both. Maybe in the original Italian it all made more sense.However, despite the sloppy dubbing, another major problem is that the film has too much in the way of plot. There are enough stories for two films. Why they chose to combine the story of Jason and the Argonauts seeking the golden fleece (a Greek tale) AND Hercules (Roman) dealing with an annoying king and his really annoying son is beyond me--especially because both characters could easily have several films of just their own adventures. In fact, with the story of Jason, huge portions of the tale are missing (such as the most important part--his relationship with Medea and her father) and the Hercules one simply doesn't look anything like the classical tales--nothing.The film has a few fun moments, but overall it looks cheap and sloppy--like most Hercules films. Some of the characters make no sense at all (such as the princess who loves Hercules but fights with him when Herc sets out to do EXACTLY what she'd asked him to do) and some are so one-dimensional they looked like they were written by a 3rd grader. If you LIKE cheap and sloppy films (I know I sure do), then this is definitely for you. If not, then see the Disney version. It's also very bad history and bastardizes the story terribly, but is still much closer to the original source material than this silly film.

lastliberal Don't look for an Oscar moments here as the acting is wooden for the most part and the special effects a bit far-fetched, but this is a film that can be enjoyed by everyone.Mr. Universe 1950, Steve Reeves became a star with this film. People didn't come to see acting, they just wanted him to take his shirt off. He would be the role model for future Hercules like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lou Ferrigno, who gave him his due.After performing all the stunt he is famous for, he saves the day for Jason (Fabrizio Mioni, who went on to a long TV career in America) and rowed off into the sunset with Croatian beauty Sylva Koscina.This is the stuff epics are made of.

InzyWimzy Hercules – hybrid of greek mythology and cheesed dubbing. It does add to the campiness of the film, but I'm biased having already seen Hercules Unchained.Herc randomly comes to aid the luscious Iole (RAWRRR). Steve was born to throw freshly torn-from-the-ground trees. He runs around with greek guys (played by beefy Italian guys) and does battle, rows. Herc won't even sing good old-fashioned oar songs! There's your typical dark side in this epic schlock, but time starts to drag at scenes when you'd rather see the Herc bending iron bars across his skull.I used to think Hercules Unchained was plain goofy and dumb. It's actually much less of a yawner than the original. What is with Hercules and the lions in both movies? Where was PETA when this happened? `YO-LAY!!!'