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Thoughts on the Rock's Hercules? (1 Viewer)

Tony J Case

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Did anyone get into early screenings of this thing? I'm thinking of heading out tonight to catch a showing, but I wanted to know what I was getting in for. I'm fully expecting this thing to be bad - but is it Good Bad or just Bad Bad (or worse, Boring Bad).
 

dpippel

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The reviews seem relatively positive. It's currently sitting at 66% on the Tomatometer.
 

Tony J Case

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Okay, just got back from seeing this with my mom -

I suppose the biggest complaint that could be leveled against the film is that the trailers out and out lie. From all the trailers, you get the impression that the movie is The Rock kicking ass through the D&D Monster Manual against hydras and three headed dogs and so on. The movie, however
is all about a man who has been living on a reputation of being the Son of Zeus. The only reason Hercules is who he is, is because the survivors of his enemies and the soldiers who see him in battle playing Chinese Whispers. No demigod, no Hera, no Zeus - just a man who is very, very good at kicking ass and very good at marketing.

Now, of course I would love to get a proper Greek Gods Hera Zeus demigod 12 tasks extravaganza on the big screen, but I thought that Hercules - for what it is - wasnt too bad. I though the whole
"Herc is the product of marketing"
angle was kind of clever, the acting was solid on all fronts (John Hurt, Ian McShane and The Rock are all brilliant if occasionally over the top), the action was well paced, the soundtrack was strong, the humor bits were not bad and the running time didn't overstay it's welcome.

All in all, not the best thing I've seen this year, but worth 10 bucks admission.
 

andySu

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You could have gotten your $10.00 back and spent on some cold soda drinks at home theatre. :popcorn:

You tell management the centre channel was distorting and there was total loss of centre channel for 5 mins. You BS them. They'll give your $10.00 back. :P

I wouldn't waste £20.00 on this. I'd sooner buy cat food for my cat.I could tell from the tv spot I saw early this week. (the trailer I watched yesterday) it was just another Pompeii (2014) that will bomb. I wouldn't even shoplift the bluray for dtsHDMA 7.1 or Atmos.
 

Tony J Case

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Is it a good movie? Naw - but it is entertaining. Its like an eighties Cannon Films action flick with a bunch of mercenaries but with arrows in ancient Greece instead of machine guns in Vietnam. Replace The Rock with Dolf Lungren and you've got the movie just 30 years on.
 

andySu

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Tony J Case said:
Is it a good movie? Naw - but it is entertaining. Its like an eighties Cannon Films action flick with a bunch of mercenaries but with arrows in ancient Greece instead of machine guns in Vietnam. Replace The Rock with Dolf Lungren and you've got the movie just 30 years on.
I'd like to watch Death Wish III. that was Cannon Films, release and yes I paid to see that at the cinema than rented on VHS 6 or 8 months later.
 

Vic Pardo

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Tony J Case said:
Okay, just got back from seeing this with my mom -

I suppose the biggest complaint that could be leveled against the film is that the trailers out and out lie. From all the trailers, you get the impression that the movie is The Rock kicking ass through the D&D Monster Manual against hydras and three headed dogs and so on. The movie, however
is all about a man who has been living on a reputation of being the Son of Zeus. The only reason Hercules is who he is, is because the survivors of his enemies and the soldiers who see him in battle playing Chinese Whispers. No demigod, no Hera, no Zeus - just a man who is very, very good at kicking ass and very good at marketing.

Now, of course I would love to get a proper Greek Gods Hera Zeus demigod 12 tasks extravaganza on the big screen, but I thought that Hercules - for what it is - wasnt too bad. I though the whole
"Herc is the product of marketing"
angle was kind of clever, the acting was solid on all fronts (John Hurt, Ian McShane and The Rock are all brilliant if occasionally over the top), the action was well paced, the soundtrack was strong, the humor bits were not bad and the running time didn't overstay it's welcome.

All in all, not the best thing I've seen this year, but worth 10 bucks admission.
Sounds like a live-action version of Disney's HERCULES from 1997. Presumably without the songs.
 

Tony J Case

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You know, never saw the Disney Herc, so I cant compare the two. Way better than your average Peplum flick (although not as good as some of the really awesome Sword and Sandals flicks - and Hercules in New York) - and yes, no songs save for a wildly out of place hip-hop song over the end credits.
 

TonyD

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Apparently this movie is closely based on a comic book and the writer of that book recieved no credit at all and Alan Moore wants a boycott. Anyway I'm not sure why som one goes into a topic just to crap all over movie he hasn't even seen. Then tells people to Lie to theater management to get a free movie.If that was supposed to be funny, it wasnt.
 

Edwin-S

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TonyD said:
Apparently this movie is closely based on a comic book and the writer of that book recieved no credit at all and Alan Moore wants a boycott.Anyway I'm not sure why som one goes into a topic just to crap all over movie he hasn't even seen.Then tells people to Lie to theater management to get a free movie.If that was supposed to be funny, it wasnt.
I thought it was kind of odd that Alan Moore would call for a boycott of a film over lack of a credit, so I looked the story up. Actually, Moore wants a boycott of the film because he says that it is wretched, and that Brett Ratner was basically crass to release the film so soon after the death of the author of the comics, Steve Moore (no relation). Steve Moore was the writer on a comic series that I used to collect called "Axel Pressbutton and Laser Eraser". It's kind of a shock to find out this way that he passed.

Apparently the outfit, that Moore did the Hercules series for, contracted him in a manner that he would have no involvement in either credit or monetary compensation if a movie was made from his comics. Alan Moore also claimed that Steve Moore only learned about the plan to make a movie based on his comics a few months before he died. The story closed with a quote from Alan Moore in which he said, "The only consolation is that his name wouldn't be going on it". Now that is the sort of thing I would expect Alan Moore to say, since he is famous for refusing to allow his name to be credited on movie adaptations of his comics.

I'll skip this film out of respect for Steve Moore. The practice of cutting creators and/or their estates out of profiting from translations of their stuff to other mediums really needs to stop.
 

Lou Sytsma

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I echo those posts that say this is not a great movie but it is a good, entertaining movie. Undoubtedly Ratner's best directing effort to date and the first I felt he showed some artistic flair instead of his usual workman like effort.

The Rock continues to improve as an actor and he also continues to look physically bigger in each subsequent movie he appears in.
 

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