Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

Dotbankey A lot of fun.

Ava-Grace Willis Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Maleeha Vincent It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Rainey Dawn This is more of a sword and sandstorm movie than peplum and sci-fi mix because you rarely see the aliens, only the effects and problems they caused good ol' Hercules. Don't expect to see Hercules physically fight the moon aliens because he doesn't. He does however fight their powers and their rock men army.The film is barely mildly entertaining to watch normally - but if you watch in fast-forward it's pretty funny. Watch it in fast motion when Herc is strapped to the spikes... he looks like he's almost hyperventilating. Ha-ha.The ending really is "sandy" as other have mentioned. I didn't find as bad as some of the other reviews read but it is truly one heck of a sandstorm.2.5/10

Leofwine_draca A delightful adventure romp which mixes in traditional mythology with some sci-fi themes but loses its way somewhat towards the ending. Probably the biggest problem is that it looks like the filming ran short of the expected running time and lots of stock footage and the infamous, interminable "sandstorm" scene was clumsily inserted to make the movie last longer. They succeeded but sitting through these sections is a real bore. Thankfully they are only part of the movie and the rest is a lot of fun to sit through.The opening scene witnesses a miniature meteorite crashing into a mountain and causing chaos. Moving forward hundreds of years, we learn of a race of aliens living in the mountain who require sacrifices to stay alive. They also happen to be astrologers who predict a coming catastrophe through which they will inherit the earth and mankind will be wiped out. A local village is forced to supply sacrificial victims because evil queen Selena is in cahoots with the aliens and has been promised eternal life if she helps them. Luckily, an elder has called in hero Hercules to sort out the problem.Here, Alan Steel enters the picture as Hercules. Steel was one of the many actors to star in these peplum movies but is one of the less well-known, as he only appeared in about half-a-dozen titles before going on to other things. Like Kirk Morris, Steel is a native Italian who seems to have been picked for the genre because of his uncanny resemblance to Steve Reeves! Certainly his acting skills aren't up to much (although that's not a necessity), but his hulking figure is just right for the genre. Thankfully, Steel has late genre veteran director Giacomo Gentilomo to direct him, and Gentilomo makes a good job of things; in particular the action scenes are well-choreographed and a lot of fun to watch.As Hercules nears the village he is pounced on by a pack of men hungry for his blood. What a welcome! He quickly fights them off before meeting up with a village elder who wants him to lead a rebellion. They hide in secret underground tunnels but the old man is impaled by a wall of spikes in a hilarious scene! Hercules himself is thrown into a pit which rapidly fills with water, but manages to break out through sheer strength alone. Now, apparently at this point Hercules fights off a monster, a fight which is referenced a couple of times in other reviews and later in the film. For whatever reason this fight is missing in the Something Weird version I saw; this annoys me pretty much because I enjoy a good monster fight as much as the next person. Having defeated his enemy, Hercules proceeds to bend a few bars before rescuing an innocent prince from an assassination attempt. This prince figures predominantly in the movie but his role is unknown - he doesn't actually do anything useful, just keeps getting captured and needing to be rescued! The plot develops as this point, introducing a number of superfluous female characters who generally need rescuing and are impossibly busty to boot. Hercules fights off a load of guards before walking into a trap when a net is thrown over him. He's put in a closing-spike trap which is kind of like one of those jungle traps they had in those Italian cannibal films, except that it works a lot slower and is man-powered instead of automatic. After much straining and sweating, he escapes to win the heart of queen Selena.Selena has obviously seen HERCULES UNCHAINED, so slips Hercules a drink containing a potion to make him love her. Luckily he's been forewarned of this so only pretends to drink it, and goes along with Selena for a time before escaping. At this point, a rebellion attacks the palace and all the remaining characters flee to the Mountain of Death, where the Moon Men are hiding. Then there's that dratted sandstorm, which goes on for an age, plus inserted weather footage of lightning and rough seas. Eventually Hercules fights off the rock-men who act as a guard, throws the Moon Man (yes, there was only one!) to his death and rescues everyone before destroying the mountain. In the end, he rides off into the sunset with his new girlfriend! My favourite parts of this movie were the ones involving the Mountain of Death and its inhabitants. The Moon Man is a tall, golden, scary-looking dude with a skull-mask and a bad temper. The rock-men are a hilarious bunch of shambling idiots who race around and crush people to death, that is before Hercules arrives and starts throwing them around like dolls! Also lurking in the background is an alien queen who is revived by drops of blood like Barbara Steele in BLACK Sunday. After the plan is foiled she rots away like all good movie vampires. The special effects are limited in this movie but plentiful and entertaining, with lots of explosions and roaring fire at the end. As I mentioned, the action is staged well and Hercules is given lots of fighting (of guards, monsters, traps, etc.) and heroic things to do (uprooting trees, pillars, etc.).Anna Maria Polani is pretty good as the evil Selena, a totally ruthless and hateable character who has no redeeming qualities whatsoever - that's what I like in my villains! Jany Clair in comparison is rather insipid as Agar, a slave girl who falls in love with Hercules and runs around simpering after him. This movie contains music stolen from another peplum film, possibly MACISTE IN HELL, which is used in the opening credits. It's a fast-paced adventure which could have been one of the best, but is ruined by that pacing problem in the second half. Without the sandstorm it would have been a classic; with it, it's merely good, solid fun.

Uriah43 Aliens from the Moon have landed near the kingdom of Samar and are terrorizing the people into sacrificing their children in order to appease them. Desperately searching for a way to stop this madness a man by the name of "Gladius" (Nando Tamberlani) appeals to "Hercules" (Alan Steel) to come to Samar and lead the people to victory against them. Unfortunately, the evil leader of Samar named "Queen Samara" (Jany Clair) has made a secret deal with the leader of the Moon Men, "Rudolphis" (Roberto Ceccacci) and she intends to stop Hercules at any cost. Now, as far as this movie was concerned I will just say that it had a good plot, adequate acting and some nice cinematography. Likewise, the dubbing from Italian to English was also quite good. However, the costumes for the Moon Men were pathetic and the overall film lacked passion. There was also one scene involving a dust storm that seemed to go on forever. In short, this wasn't a bad film by any means--but it also wasn't as good as it should have been. All things considered then I rate it as just slightly below average.

Maciste_Brother A large asteroid falls on earth and from that emerges a group of aliens who try to take over the ancient world by bringing an evil witch back to life. The story is, like some many of these films, incidental to the action but I really enjoyed the mix of fantasy and sci-fi. The alien is cool looking. The rock monsters are slightly underwhelming (it's the way the walk) but they're fun nonetheless, in a B-movie kinda way. Alan Steel (née Sergio Ciani) is agile even if he's more beefy (and older looking) than Steve Reeves or Mark Forest. The film transfer I saw was bad but even so I had fun watching it. I could see that it was very colorful film in its original state and I'm certain that if this film had a decent transfer, people would be pleasantly surprised by how much fun HERCULES AGAINST THE MOON MEN actually is.There are several good moments in it, including the "nicer dicer" scene, when Hercules (or Maciste) is trapped within a giant contraption which looks like the jaws of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Cool scene. I thought the film moved at a good pace and was never dull. The actress who played the Queen was a pretty good villainess. She looked like she came straight out of an anime. The actress who played the sister had a massive rack which would make Dolly Parton jealous. The only weakness in the film would be the soundtrack. It's not really impressive.Peplums like this one are often derided and dismissed for showcasing too much muscle. First of all, so what? Secondly, films like this were made, first and foremost, for kids. Kids back then (and today) are impressed by big burly guys. Just look at the success of the über trashy WWE today, which shows more skin than any of these sometimes overlooked action flicks. Third of all, Sword and Sandal films are probably the most underrated genre ever. Without these films there wouldn't have been a Ridley Scott's Oscar winning GLADIATOR or the current box office smash, 300.Just watch HERCULES AGAINST THE MOON MEN for what it is: just a fun, colorful action movie, which happens to have some beefcake and cheesecake thrown in for good measure.