Tuesday, December 09, 2014

Review Tuesday: HERCULES (2014)

There are no new ideas, Hollywood just keeps resurrecting old ones.


HERCULES
A team of mercenaries realize they were duped into helping the wrong side in a conflict.
It's funny. I like Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. I find it even more amusing the way no movie seems to do well if they attach his name to it. I was shocked when they hired him for the Fast & Furious franchise, and I was even more surprised to see his name headline the latest Greek mythology movie based on HERCULES. 

It seems that the notion of the child of Zeus, the King of Greek Gods, and an ordinary woman intrigues the mind because this tale has been told and retold so many times in film. It's been a TV show, animated, and played by both Arnold Schwarzenegger AND Lou Ferrigno. This time around Dwayne Johnson got the job. 

The twist this time around is that you aren't sure how mighty Hercules truly is. His amazing feats are performed by him along with the very capable team of mercenaries that he travels with. They spread rumors of his amazing skills and then they can command a good fee and potentially win battles based on his reputation alone. 

The movie is a bit over an hour and a half. As an action movie, it does okay. It's rated PG-13, and considering that this is an old school swords-and-spears-on-the-battlefield kind of movie, they tone down the gore. Don't be swayed by that, completely. There's plenty of action and violence sequences to fill the 98 minutes.

I think they did a pretty good job with the casting. Johnson pulls off the Hercules thing very well. I felt that I was a little distracted by Ingrid Bolsø Berdal who plays the Amazon Warrior Atalanta. She's very attractive and looks startlingly like a young Nicole Kidman. My biggest gripe was the way they advertised Irina Shayk as Megara. She only shows up in flashbacks and has about ten seconds of screen time.

In conclusion, it's an action movie. If you want Shakespeare, you've come to the wrong place. But if you want to see The Rock clubbing green dudes over the head, then you will probably have fun with this movie.

AMAZON

IMDB

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