SuperHeroBooks - Hercules and the Captive Women
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List Price: $9.98
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Manufacturer: Rhino / Wea
Starring: Reg Park, Fay Spain, Ettore Manni, Luciano Marin, Laura Efrikian
Directed By: Vittorio Cottafavi
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786301691581
Format: Color
ISBN: 630169158X
Label: Rhino / Wea
Manufacturer: Rhino / Wea
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Rhino / Wea
Release Date: 1996-06-18
Running Time: 93
Studio: Rhino / Wea
Theatrical Release Date: 1963-04-15
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Hercules in Atlantis
Comment: Hercules (Reg Park) is heading off somewhere when he encounters a woman trapped in a rock. It turns out that the woman is the daughter of the Queen of Atlantis, and a sorcerer called Proteus had entrapped her in the rock to provide the blood he needed for his powers. Hercules, always enthusiastic to save people in distress, does battle with Proteus, who is a shape shifter. Proteus turns himself into fire (a cool special effect), a dinosaur (not so cool, looks like a guy in a suit), and a buzzard (attack buzzard; not very realistic). Of course Hercules prevails over Proteus.
It turns out that the Antinea, Queen of Atlantis (Fay Spain), is unenthused about her daughter returning. In fact, Antinea seems quite enthusiastic about sacrificing people to various gods and other beings, one of those being Uranus, who left a drop of his blood nearby. Antinea has been exposing children to the blood to create warriors.
In the course of all this rescuing, Hercules is looking for a friend who washed overboard during a storm. Of course Antinea has captured his friend and has treated him so that he has lost his memory.
To add a little spice to the mixture, a local priest wants Hercules to expose the blood of Uranus to sunlight, which will cause havoc of all sorts and end the reign of tyranny by Antinea.
This movie is reasonably good. I had to laugh at the concept that Hercules caused the sinking of Atlantis, but since there is a lot of debate about whether Atlantis ever existed, and if it did, what caused it to sink, well, why not Hercules? Otherwise, Reg Park plays Hercules in a very casual manner, somewhat like Arnold Schwarzenneger's Conan. Hercules seems lazy and carefree in this movie.
I hesitate to recommend this movie because the Italian sword-and-sandals genre is many decades in the past. If you have seen other Italian Hercules movies and liked them, then you will mostly likely enjoy this one. However, remember that this movie was filmed in 1961 and production values were very different then. Also, this movie is dubbed from the original Italian, so there are occasional problems with the dialogue syncing with the scenes. Good luck!
Customer Rating:
Summary: A cut above the usual
Comment: A cut above the ususal muscle-man, sand-and-sandal movie. The plot, such as it is, hinges on exposing children to a drop of blood shed by the god Uranus as he flew into the sky fleeing the attack of his son Cronos. This "drop" of blood has burned its way into a mountain and the children are brought to this cave to be exposed to it and thereby turned into invincible warriors who, when they finally take off their helmets, look like some terrifying Nazi cloning experiment. For just a moment, this movie truly captures the wonder and awe of Greek myth. Reg Park is fine as Hercules -- rather less wooden than most, and the rest of the cast is OK. There's the usual bad dubbing and absurd dialogue. But there are genuine moments of wonder and a nice surprise or two.
Customer Rating:
Summary: probably the greatest Hercules in the world
Comment: This film is probably the definitive Hercules movie starring the definitive Hercules, Reg Park. Not only does he look the part, his lightweight, yet sincere performance adds a great deal of depth to what would otherwise be a two dimensional character. His personality actually penetrates the clumsy dubbing. Unfortunately, this edition of the film is not the full European version, adding new titles and a needless voice over explaining plot and character motivation which we really don't need. Also, much of the original music score is lost in the process. This is also the case for "Hercules in the Haunted World", a film distributed by the same company as this one. The intention is to link the two films, when in fact they are two different visions by two different directors. But this aside, Reg Park is the greatest Hercules on screen, followed by Steve Reeves as a close second, so enjoy the fun.
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