VividSimon Simply Perfect

Aubrey Hackett While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Roman Sampson One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Rainey Dawn Genghis Khan is dead but his 3 sons Sayan, Susdal, and Kin Khan live on to continue their reign of terror. Hercules/Maciste is out to stop the Mongols again.I find this film is about as good as Hercules Against the Barbarians (1964) and much better than Samson and the 7 Miracles of the World (1961), which all films have a Genghis Khan story.This is another averaged story peplum film. Love the costuming, props and sets as I usually do. The battles are entertaining. There are better sword and sandal film of the time era to watch but this one is okay enough for a different one to pop on now and again.1.5/10

Uriah43 This movie begins with "Hercules" (Mark Forest) coming upon a young Oriental mother with her children somewhere in Central Europe or Russia who want to get across a river. So Hercules pulls up a big tree by the roots to use as a make-shift bridge for them to cross. As a token of appreciation the young mother proceeds to read Hercules fortune and describes an oncoming Mongol army led by 3 brothers who will cause him some trouble along the way. As it turns out Genghis Khan has just died and his 3 sons named "Karikan" (Renato Terra), "Sayan" (Ken Clark) and "Susdal" (Renato Rossini) decide to violate their father's last request and lead their armies westward to ravage and plunder those kingdoms who are at peace with them. One of the first cities they attack is called "Tudela" which they capture with ease. Although they kill the king his young son "Alexander" (Loris Loddi) manages to escape. However, the king's daughter named "Bianca" (Jose Greci) is taken prisoner and thrown into the dungeon awaiting their pleasure. But Hercules has plans to the contrary. Now rather than reveal any more of the film I will just say that this particular movie seemed to lack cohesion and solidity. As a matter of fact other than Maria Gracia Spina (as the Mongol wife of Karikan named "Lee-Wan"), who lent her beauty to the screen, there wasn't anything that remarkable about this movie at all. The English dubbing was ludicrous, the fabricated historical plot was silly and the action was rather boring. In short, I rate this movie as below average.

classicsoncall I think giving this film a 'five' rating is probably equivalent to an eight or nine in most other genres, which is to say, it's probably better than most sword and sandal epics you're bound to come across. That's not saying a whole lot, you really have to be in the mood to pull one of these out of the pile that's been accumulating on your video shelf. At least this one has a semblance of continuity, but I WAS surprised that Hercules (Mark Forest) had to defeat each of the evil brothers not once, but twice before the thing was over. All the while as scenes managed to change abruptly from one to another without much concern.My favorite line was probably "Why are you moving those trees?", matter of factly requested by the young Alexander during one of Hercules' early strong man scenes. That about set the tone of the story in a goofy sort of way, as Herc used the gigantic trunk to knock riders off their horses with impunity. I thought someone, maybe Sayan (Ken Clark) might have figured out he could move faster on his horse than Hercules carrying a tree. I guess not. You know, if I didn't know better, I might have mistaken Sayan for a Romulan, what do you think? There was another eye opener too. Right after that first battle with the Mongols, the kid says he's hungry and Herc pulls what? - a half loaf of bread, or a giant mushroom from behind a rock. What was that???? Anyway, that's how this thing goes until it's over. These Hercules movies will never be candidates for a Mensa convention, but they are fun to watch in small doses. I've now had my fill for this year.

dinky-4 Though the original "Hercules" movies stayed within the classical world of Greco-Roman myths, later entries in this genre began to wander to other places, other eras. Some of these later movies put Hercules (or Maciste, Samson, Goliath, Ursus, etc.) into Central Asia and this is one of the better examples of that sub-genre. It stars Michael Forest, one of Steve Reeves' more successful wanna-be's, and it boasts decent production values including several outdoor battle scenes complete with charging horsemen. The plot, of course, is the usual hodgepodge of familiar elements, and while Forest possesses the required "beefcake," his bondage sequences lack style and originality. First, Mongols force the chained Hercules to carry and put into place a heavy stone beam. Later they chain him inside a cave in a wooden yoke and leave him to starve. Both sequences seem little more than routine.Ken Clark, who always deserved better, is largely wasted as the nastiest of Genghis Khan's three sons. He doesn't even get to take his shirt off.