Man
this was weak! Mediocre FX, confusing plot, performances that seemed like the
actors were sleepwalking through their roles. The dude who played Hercules had
the musculature but looked way too Caucasian to my tastes (the British accent
didn't help). Is there some law that Greek men can't play Greek characters?
Honestly, I think the last time a Greek dude played a god was back in the OS
Trek episode, "Who Mourns for Adonis?". I heard more British, Kiwi, and American
accents in this thing than I could count. Sean Astin was
wasted as teacher/sidekick Linus, looking rather blank, which worked for
simpleminded Samwise Gamgee, but here makes one wonder if Astin's contemplating
a fading career instead of thinking about his lines. Timoty Dalton must
have grabbed a fat check to play Herc's father, as he had little to do but bring
his trademark piercing eyes and cultured voice to a boring character. Leeli
Sobieski (sp?) got on my nerves playing a wood nymph, with that bronze
Nivea tanning lotion slathered on her and the dopey floating scenes where grunts
were obviously lowering her from a tree on a rope. She did a
couple of shots that came periously close to flashing us with her bare
breasts, which I guess was supposed to be daring or titillating, but seemed
contrived.
I'd go
on, but the movie doesn't warrant further criticism. Well, maybe a little
more. The only things that made it of minor note were that the writers
brought in some realism about the characters' motivations and behaviour. For
example, unlike the recent sanitized Hercules series, this treatment pretty much
stated that Zeus raped Hercules' mother after morphing into a likeness of her
husband. And unlike the series, mother and son didn't have a good relationship,
as she spent her entire life trying to do in her son, even going so far as to
purposefully being behind Hercules' murder of his own kids. Mom got started way
before that though. She was the one who put the snakes in Herc's crib, which
were of course strangled by the mighty infant. There were some
scenes with nubile women running through the woods with satyrs, and one scene
where a lady laid on her back on the grass, about to get busy with one of the
goat-like demigods! That was surprising on network TV at 8 pm. Then there
was the Oracle of Delphi who was revealed to be an hermaphrodite (Hercules and
others called him "man-woman"). He/she gets blinded in a vicious scene for
accidentally violating a secret ceremony devoted to Hera. The lady who
blinded him? Herc's mother. And there was a homosexual thing played
up between Hercules' brother and his cousin, who at the end of the movie were
shown in bed together. But given the overall clumsiness of the rest of the
movie, these attempts at "realism" and a mature theme merely served to highlight
the weakness of the rest of the effort, and thus appeared (perhaps unfairly) as
heavy-handed and false attempts to be daring.
Frankly, it wasn't as well done or intelligent as the better Hercules and
Xena story arcs. When those shows cut lose with the humour, they were
funny as heck. When they dug deep for drama and played it straight, they could
be downright impressive. Tonight's efffort was nowhere near as
good.
-----Original Message-----
From: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Keith Johnson
Sent: Sunday, May 15, 2005 17:26
To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [scifinoir2] "Hercules" on NBCHeard about this one? Sounds a little more serious than Sorbo's outing, as it deals with the aftermath of Hercules having killed his own children. I'll guess I'll have to check it out. My wife already commented that "at least they finally got a dark-haired Hercules with real muscles". She could never get with Sorbo due to his brownish hair and slim physique. That muscled, curly-haired dude from the '50s Hercules flicks set the standard to her mind.He was the slave that defied the gods. The hero who won the people. The man who became a legend. From Emmy Award winning executive producer Robert Halmi Sr. ("The Odyssey," "Gulliver's Travels," "Merlin") comes this epic tale based on the spectacular exploits of Hercules, the super-strong figure fathered by the supreme Greek god Zeus.The three-hour movie event, filmed amid the breathtaking scenery of New Zealand, follows Hercules who, after killing his three sons, is compelled to redeem himself by performing 12 heroic labors - including slaying the multi-headed Hydra and the dreaded Nemean lion.
With groundbreaking special effects, "Hercules" is the definitive re-telling of the most famous myth of all - the story of a half-god, half-man whose extraordinary feats of strength would elevate him to the status of legend on Earth and immortality in the heavens.
Paul Telfer stars as the legendary Greek hero, while Sean Astin portrays Linus, Hercules' music instructor and best friend, while Sobieski plays Deianeira, Hercules' lover. Perkins portrays Hercules' mother, Alcmene, and Dalton stars as the strongman's stepfather, Amphitryon.
Emmy and DGA Award winner Roger Young ("Bitter Harvest," "Murder in Mississippi") directs from a screenplay by Charles Edward Pogue ("Dragonheart"). "Hercules" is a production of Hallmark Entertainment.
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