Cult Movie Challenge 2018 | 47/52 | MonsterVision
Bored and meaty Hercules begs his father, Zeus, to let him browse around Earth. Zeus ain’t having it, saying humans are too tiring. Venus appeals to Zeus, and the annoyed Zeus sends Hercules down on a bolt of lightning. Hercules passes a Pan Am flight from Greece to New York, freaking out some ladies on board.
Hercules lands in the ocean, hundreds of miles from the nearest land. Juno begs Zeus to save Hercules, so Zeus sends an ocean liner to pick him up. Hercules annoys the captain by refusing to call him “sir” (no man is superior to Hercules!), and the crew fights him when he refuses to work, but Hercules makes an easy meal out of all of them.
— What's your name?
— Hercules. Very old family. Don't worry, I'm democratic.
Once the boat docks on shore, Hercules throws the crew members out of the way as he deboards without the captain’s permission. A pretzel salesman named Pretzie watches as Hercules flattens all of them, then hails a taxi for Herc and him. The cabbie drops them off in Central Park, but when Herc can’t pay, the cabbie tries to fight them, but Herc flips the cab and makes a run for it with Pretzie.
The movie follows Herc as he finds every excuse to pop that top, annoy some New Yorkers, and demonstrate his otherworldly strength.
— I like him, even if he's a little crazy.
— So do I, even if he did crack two of my ribs.
— A Greek peasant with delusions of mythological divinity. Fascinating.
I saw the version with Schwarzenegger’s voice, not the original dubbed one. The filmmakers originally dubbed his voice because of his thick Austrian accent, but that’s what we love about the enormous mound of flesh. In the credits, he is credited as “Arnold Strong, Mr. Universe,” the subtitle which he had earned just before filming began.
The script is going for comedy. While some of the jokes are quite labored, its lighthearted silliness is hard to hate. Schwarzenegger is arrogant but charming as a fish out of water. It’s really when the movie tries to step through its plot point that it gets boring.
Overall, I’m glad I finally saw this movie, because it’s not as bad as folks say. I mean, it isn’t good, but it goes down pretty easily.