A Hulking Greek Tragedy
King Minos (William Berger) and sorceress Adriana (Sybil Danning) plan to take over the world with the use of her magic and his giant robots. To make matters worse, they also plan to sacrifice Cassiopeia (Ingrid Anderson), the love interest of Hercules (Lou Ferrigno). To prevent them from succeeding Hercules teams up with sorceress Circe (Mirella D'Angelo).
I never saw this version of "Hercules" back in the 80s when it was released but I certainly saw my fair share of movies which came out of The Cannon Group. And to be honest whilst many of those movies were borderline terrible I kind of look back on them with fond memories. Unfortunately whilst well prepared to be confronted by Cannon Films cheese nothing could prepare me for the mindless nature of "Hercules".
Now I am no theologian and couldn't tell you how much of the original story of Hercules appears in this movie, what I can safely say is that the story certainly had some embellishments. The trouble is that it is impossible to become immersed in what is going on because of all the effects which fill this movie from zapping sounds to laser beams. Plus there are the costumes which hint that at one time this was planned as a much more adult version of Hercules but reportedly Lou Ferrigno wanted something more family friendly. The end result is a movie which is simply dull beyond belief and doesn't even manage to entertain in a bad movie way.
The thing which kind of annoys me most about "Hercules" is the Lou Ferrigno has got a knack for comedy and if they have used that here then maybe this would have ended up enjoyable. But with Ferrigno trying to deliver a serious performance whilst often only filling the screen with his impressive muscles it just doesn't work.
What this all boils down to is that maybe back in 1983 "Hercules" was a lot more entertaining than it comes across now but I don't think it would have as this is simply a poor movie which doesn't event entertain in a bad movie way.
