Review: The Adventures of Hercules II

Blu-ray: The Adventures of Hercules II (1985)

The Adventures of Hercules 2. Sequel to Luigi Cozzi’s 1983 mad fest. A star vehicle for body builder turned actor Lou Ferrigno, who was already know from TV’s The Incredible Hulk. Ferrigno is literally here to flex a lot as he is dubbed entirely by what sounds like The Simpsons ‘Troy McClure’. Let’s not get off on the wrong foot here, as this film is a wonderfully bad fever dream of monsters, muscles and madness. Following on from the brilliant insanity of the original Hercules, a sequel was a tall order for the writer/director; I mean how do you top punching a bear into space? (that’s how you do it Leonardo DiCaprio).

Well… the plot is thus; Zeus has lost his 7 thunderbolts which are now hidden inside 7 monsters down on Earth. Hercules is dispatched to gather said thunderbolts and stop the MOON CRASHING INTO OUR FUCKING PLANET!!!!!! Thank Olympus then that Big Lou is up to the task, aided by two scantily clad maidens, we go cross country, battling Slime men who like to molest people, a ridiculously rendered rubber Medusa, a fire monster that looks like electricity and some hot gladiator girls. I also learned that ‘Evil science’ is essentially ‘the Dark Side’ and calling out ‘Father Time’ summons a big blue skull from outer space with laser eyes.

The film itself is a happy little mess, not as mad or as original as the first instalment but for pure refined 80’s fantasy nonsense you’d be hard pushed to find anything as ridiculous. The HD 16:9 transfer is nice along with the 2.0 soundtrack. Fans of the film are getting the best presentation of the film available. 101 Films once again unearth a real gem from the vaults.

Review by Ramrod (co-host of 60 Minutes With) from a disc kindly supplied by 101 Films.