Review – Hercules in New York

One of my standard insults for bad movies from the early days of big stars’ careers is the suggestion that they use their vast wealth to buy up all copies of their past mistakes. Usually that’s just a snide aside. But here, really honestly, were I Arnold Schwarzenegger I would devote whatever portion of my vast holdings was necessary to acquire the rights to this barking dog and put it out of its misery. Billed as “Arnold Strong,” the Austrian muscleman makes his narrative film debut in this odd tale of the ancient Greek demigod cast to earth to live among the mortals of the Big Apple. Clearly this is intended to be a send-up of the old Steve Reeves Hercules flicks, and as such I guess it’s supposed to be a comedy. To be sure, it’s plenty funny, just not in the parts where humor was intended. The jokes almost all fall flat, but the sheer awkwardness and ineptitude of the production more than make up the entertainment deficit. My personal favorite part was a scene supposedly taking place atop Mount Olympus in which car horns are clearly audible in the background. In the end, this is one of the all-time champs of the so-bad-it’s-good school of filmmaking. Mildly amusing