Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Anoushka Slater While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Jakoba True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Cristi_Ciopron A fairy-tale flavored adventure movie with Ed Fury and A. Micantoni. What I believe to be the worthiest of mention are Hamilan the usurper's role and the spooky score. Also the tournament, and then Ursus enslaved.Micantoni, who plays the usurper, reminded me of Wallach, and made the best of his scenes; he has one of the couple of the best one-liners of the movie: his comes after he has killed his wife, who refused divorcing him. The 2nd belongs to Ursus, when he thanks one of the guards for his advice.The setup reminded me of the political westerns that were being made in the same decade, with the social awareness: here, a village of shepherds being attacked by the soldiers from across a lake, in a fight for resources, then a military coup, almost like one of those very fashionable for a time political westerns made in Europe …; but these are also from the fairy tales. Anyway, the story is well handled (though Ursus' idea of avenging the peaceful shepherds is to defy single-handed and challenge the new king, which promptly results in his arrest; the fact being that Ursus doesn't have a plan for avenging his people, but entrusts himself to a whirlpool of events, his single plan might of been of course to defeat the king in the arena, supposing that the sovereign would of taken up the challenge). The cast has a lot of clergymen, more pious and cautious than just, and a prophet; anyway, the high priest proves of some help to the insurgents.The landscape is mainly dreadful, but I think I recognized the waterfalls from another s & s movie.By the early '60s, the European kids seem to have got a peculiar education by movies like this, which is a fact perhaps less analyzed sociologically.

MARIO GAUCI This is yet another peplum with the muscle-bound Ursus for protagonist; of the four I watched during this epic movie marathon, it is perhaps the least – but, by this point, the over-familiarity of the plots (and set-pieces: once again, the hero is made to perform a show of strength involving large animals) had begun to make itself felt! So, we get a usurper to the throne abetted by an ambitious woman (Claudia Mori, future wife of celebrated Italian personality Adriano Celentano) and a deposed princess whom the villain secretly covets; Ursus, too, is once again protector of the peaceful farming community living in the shadow of a mountain housing a volcano (worshipped as a god and guarded by a group of elderly priests). The villain finds both other units in his way and has them decimated – but Ursus, with the help of the princess (both of whom had been led to distrust one another until saner minds prevailed), determines to right the many wrongs committed. As with most examples of its low-brow ilk, the film cannot fail to provide intermittent (albeit unintentional) hilarity: the oddest case involves the hero cowering from a string of arrows (fired by the enemy on horseback) which never come!; a woman engaged in casual conversation with Ursus' aged(!) sidekick suddenly drops dead, the first victim of an assault on the village; and, when Ursus and the old man are captured and tied to the obligatory grind-stone, it is the latter who is mercilessly whipped in an effort to coax the hero into submission! In the end, the only noteworthy touches here are atypical ones – a jousting tournament(!) in which Ursus fights (and wins) incognito a' la Robin Hood or GLADIATOR (2000) and the various entrances in the form of weird faces within the volcanic cave itself.

doug1717 I found this film in a collection of old films on eBay. I certainly wasn't expecting "Spartacus" , just some matinée fun like the old Sinbad features. Ursus is the sort of predictable film you could add your own smart-alec dialog to and still have fun. Well the film doesn't have a cast of thousands, but it really isn't that bad. The film revolved around Ed Fury's pre-steroid abuse hulking frame and his diminutive little brother. They end up on a quest to help a princess Ursus had a romantic history with. During the first battle scene, Ursis kicks butt bare handed until he reaches into a cart and finds a conveniently placed 5 foot long club replete with spikes that looks like it came from the Flintstones. The bad guy looks amazingly like "Lost!" actor Terry O'Quinn, and is reminiscent of Ming The Merciless. The women are all buxom and tightly clad, and there are Herculean challenges and evil plots for Ursus to surmount. I always wondered why these sort of films gave these strong men feats of strength to prove their innocence. In Ursus's case, he might have defeated an elephant, but I bet a math test would have laid him low.

dinky-4 Having heard good things about this sword-and-sandal movie, I found myself a tad disappointed with some of its aspects, but in general, this is superior to most of its competition and "Hercules" fans will find it well worth a look. Of particular note are several of the imaginative and impressive indoor sets which are a clear cut above the plywood-columns sort of decorating one often sees in this genre. Of course, any "Hercules" movie must largely be judged on the appearance and appeal and talents of its main actor, and here we're fortunate to have Ed Fury, who not only looks good with his shirt off but who has some personal flair as well. He plays the part with an agreeable touch that's a welcome break from the "grimly determined muscleman" school of acting. Another way of judging these movies lies in the quality of the tortures which are inflicted on the hero. Here, we have two good ones. In the first, Fury is chained to one of those wooden poles which protrudes from a circular grist-mill. "Encouraged" by a burly overseer who lashes him across his bare back, Fury must walk around in a circle, pushing that pole and turning that grist-mill. (And boy, is this a big grist-mill!) Unlike other such sequences, such as that involving Victor Mature in "Samson and Delilah," this horizontal pole is not at waist level but rather positioned above Fury's head so that his chained arms are extended upward from his body. This seems to make the ordeal even more strenuous and painful and effectively showcases Fury's physique. In the second torture, he's forced to stand on a dungeon floor amid a number of sharp metal spikes which protrude upward. He's also forced to hold above his head an enormous flat stone. Eventually his arms will weaken and the weight of that stone, pressing inexorably downward, will impale him on those spikes just before it crushes him. The appeal of this torture is that it turns the hero's chief asset -- his strength -- against him. The longer he's able to hold up that stone, the more he prolongs his agony. And in the process, of course, the more entertainment he provides for his captors -- and for the movie audience as well!