unbrokenmetal Hilarious mythological fantasy movie which is helped a lot by the excellent performance of Georges Marchal as Ulysses, the rare case of a good actor in the genre of muscles and blank expressions. Ulysses is chased by his enemy Heracles (Mike Lane) after he sank his ship, but once they spend a night captured together to become food for a vulture god, they have plenty of time to talk to each other, realize that they are not so different after all and decide to face more adventures together, fighting an evil king of ugly Neanderthal men. The movie may border on the ridiculous with the dancing bird-men for example, but it is really enjoyable. Director Caiano manages to get me on the edge of my seat with scenes like the stone platform slowly coming down towards Ulysses to crush him (or not). Mario Caiano went on to make more watchable genre flicks like "Erik the Viking" with Giuliano Gemma or "Two Gladiators" with Richard Harrison.

smittie-1 Ulysses, besieger of Troy, has angered the Gods with his heroics. They send Hercules (or Heracles, Son of Hercules in this American version!) to capture him! But the two fall in as friendly adversaries amidst bird people, troglodytes, and various intrigues. The bird people are creepy, dancing around and squawking in their desert/jungle wonderland. The troglodytes are the monstrous servants of a mad underground king, who holds court in a cavern bedecked with psychedelic frescoes and keeps a drugged up surface woman chained to his throne.If that sounds enticing, then I recommend you follow through and watch this movie!Hercules and Ulysses play off each other well. Ulysses is the smart, cunning commander, while Hercules is the proud strongman, but neither of them suffer for the other's virtues.This is a rollicking film with plenty of action and a sense of humor that never falls into parody. As with the other Embassy releases, a goofy theme song has been added to make this a "Sons of Hercules" adventure.Heracles: "I refuse to be sacrificed to a sacred vulture!"

Maciste_Brother ULYSSES AGAINST THE SON OF HERCULES is not an easy Peplum to review. It does stand out from the endless batch of Italian action films starring beefy actors. ULYSSES AGAINST THE SON OF HERCULES has a definitely different tone to it though, a more French feel to it than most Sword & Sandal films. There's a lot of action and there are monsters and weird creatures and such. You know, typical Peplum ingredients but the film is very wordy. It relies a lot on dialogue and word play between the characters, which is typically French. Also the actor who plays Ulysses, French actor Georges Marchal, is unmistakably French looking. These differences actually makes this one stand-out from the rest of the pack.But even with these original aspects, is it great? Well, good but not great (maybe with a better DVD transfer, it would fall into the great category). It IS very entertaining, rarely boring and sorta admirable that these guys did try to do something different but the whole package is most definitely uneven.The story is about Heracles(played by 6'8" tall Mike Lane) trying to bring Ulysses to justice, for some actions which took place before the film began. At one point, Heracles has Ulysses "handcuffed" to him and the two men go through their journey bound together, like in THE DEFIANT ONES.There are some moments which are thrilling unto themselves but there are a lot cheesy ones too. The stand out "bizarre" scene here is a dance number (what's with Sword & Sandal films and kooky dance sequences?) where the two heroes, tied to a tree, are being terrorized by an army of effeminate looking men who are dressed up as birds and do these peculiar dance moves. Imagine those scary flying monkeys in THE WIZARD OF OZ grouped together and they start dancing like they're in a Buster Berkley number and they try to kill the beefy heroes by pecking and scratching them to death. The dance sequence is out of this world bizarre. One has to see it to believe it. It's so bizarre that I love it.There are other stand-out scenes but nothing beats that one. As I already mentioned, some fighting scenes are pretty good. For instance, the one at the climax between Marchal and exploitation great Gabriele Tinti is remarkably effective. The one on the boats is also good (the special effects are obvious though). There's also a fairly suspenseful "walls coming down to crush the hero" bit. But even with all the action, the story relies more on dialogue than action. Some of the dialogue is pretty bad, certainly during love scenes. The two heroes trying to woe that beautiful but out-of-place playboy bunny Bird Woman; the romance scenes on a whole are embarrassing, including the one when Heracles and Ulysses talk about love. But other bits of dialogue are actually clever and even thought provoking (a Peplum that's thought provoking?). The battle of wits between Ulysses and King Laro is truly memorable and fun. The production values are not the greatest. The makeup fx of the cavemen is pretty bad. There are only a few sets. The set for King Laro, with that huge face behind Laro's throne, is memorable. The continuity is filled with errors, but this might be due to US distributors editing the original version for US audiences. The direction sometimes creates suspense and tension, which is no mean feat considering we're talking about a Peplum here. The score is good. Another plus is Georges Marchal as Ulysses. I really like Marchal as an actor. He's one of the best actors to play a mythical hero and has a truly striking presence.Like I said, not an easy film to review, ULYSSES AGAINST THE SON OF HERCULES is different than the usual Sword & Sandal stuff and I appreciated it for its many original aspects. Personally speaking, even with all of its obvious faults, at a certain level, I find this much more satisfactory than the much heralded COLOSSUS OF RHODES. It's worth watching.

dbborroughs Jupiter sends Heracles (yes thats right, its not Hercules) to get Ulysses and bring him to the cyclops for his little blinding trick. Its an odd film as what should be the adventures or two heroes are enemies for most of it. Somewhere along the lines they get captured by bird people and find their lady loves. The first 45 minutes constitute a pretty good, if cheaply made, adventure film. Unfortunately the second half spirals and then plummets into Mystery Science Theater 3000 territory as all sense is lost and technical errors, for example rock walls that ripple like cloth or hands appearing in empty holes, begin to over take any hope that the makers knew what they were doing. If you like off beat adventure films try the first half of this...I can't promise anything about the second.