Matcollis This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Develiker terrible... so disappointed.

Freaktana A Major Disappointment

Janae Milner Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Uriah43 This film begins where the previous movie "Hercules" essentially ends with "Hercules" (Steve Reeves) bringing his bride "Iole" (Sylvia Koscina) along with "Ulysses" (Gabriele Antonini) back to Thebes with him. However, when he gets to Thebes he discovers that things have changed for the worse as two brothers, "Polinices" (Mimmo Palmara) and "Eteocles" (Sergio Fantoni) are locked in a bitter dispute over who will be the new king and war is about to break out between them. To make matters worse, while trying to mediate a solution Hercules is captured and beguiled by the evil queen of Lydia named "Onfale" (Sylvia Lopez) which only exasperates the situation. Now, as far as the overall merits of this film are concerned let me just say that a person may have to make some allowances in order to fully appreciate it. First, it was initially filmed in Italian and dubbed in English which sometimes doesn't capture the equivalent emotion of the event. Also, the fact that it is over 60 years old doesn't allow for any modern special effects which would have helped this film immensely. But the fact that it is in color should count for something and viewers of this time will certainly understand this. Be that as it may, although the story is somewhat entertaining it doesn't quite measure up to the previous film and because of that I rate it just a notch below it. Average.

Dave from Ottawa The success of Ben Hur led to a whole cycle of Italo knock-offs over the next few years. Steve Reeves was the most famous body builder of the early sixties, and became the most recognizable star of this genre, and also a huge gay icon. He certainly looked Herculean, and despite his acting inexperience, Steve handled his sword and chariot action scenes with panache, while projecting a certain heroic grit. Beautiful Sylva Koscina provided the love interest and most of the acting chops, and the supporting actors handled the dialogue (most of it expository), as Steve mostly stood around looking impressively pumped up. Sylva Koscina worked hard to give everything a veneer of credibility and style, and winds up successfully maintaining her dignity and acting stature amidst the general beefcake nonsense, but what made the proceedings entertaining was exactly what she was working to rise above. The interiors look cheap and stagebound, and some of the 'epic' battles appeared to have no more than about six people in the scene. The wooden dialogue is given a rubbery English-dubbed-into-English look, as supporting actors did their lines in Italian and these were over-dubbed into English, while Steve and Sylva worked in English but without synched sound. The result is a D-list action romance with some well-choreographed stuntwork amidst the posturing and flexing. Former boxing star Primo Carnera even has a beefcake role and still looked pretty impressive himself, then in his sixties. Enjoyable as camp.

dbdumonteil Certainly one of the best movies in the otherwise undistinguished Hercules movies of the late fifties/early sixties,as well as Steve Reeves ' best along with "Romolo E Remo".The screenplay blends true Greek mythology (the seven versus Thebes, a blind Oedipus and his two sons vying for power) with the usual drivel :Hercules captured by an evil queen who falls in love with him and makes him forget all his past :brainwashing as usual;she uses a maleficent water.And they say "stay sober!"What a nonsense here! Oddly ,a young Ulysses accompanies the hero in his adventures.The future inventor of the Trojan horse was already smart enough not to drink of that water and to pretend he was deaf and blind when he met the queen.All that concerns Thebes is entertaining and even interesting and it 's a pity that the writers were not as smart as Ulysses and did not throw all the queen's scenes in the trash can and,instead, introduce ,for instance ,Antigone,who led her blind father out of the city and played a prominent part just after her brothers' death.Maybe Steve Reeves would have saved her.Lovely Sylva Koscina would have done nicely in this part and would have been more than purely decorative.

Lee Eisenberg I saw "Ercole e la regina di Lidia" (called "Hercules Unchained" in the USA) on "Mystery Science Theater 3000". The movie itself is actually quite cool, but "MST3K" makes it even cooler. The movie basically has the muscle-bound - and often well-oiled - Greek hero (Steve Reeves) drinking water of forgetfulness and getting seduced by Queen Omphale (Sylvia Lopez). Mostly, it seems like an excuse to show scantily clad women. I guess that even ancient Greece was a male chauvinistic fantasy! But seriously, the "MST3K" version is the one that you gotta see. You can probably guess what sorts of things Joel, Servo and Crow say. Specifically, they sneak in mentions of Uri Geller, Kim Cattrall and Ricky Nelson. How else to keep sane while watching these cheesy flicks sent by Dr. Forrester and TV's Frank? Yes, you know what Hercules and the queen were doing when not on screen. Seriously, a buff hunk and a hot babe. How could they not do it?