Hercule à New York

Over a decade before his movie career exploded and eight years before even Pumping Iron, Arnold Schwarzenegger starred in this cheapie B comedy playing the Greek demigod Hercules, who has been banned from Olympus by Zeus. Schwarzenegger can barely speak a line of coherent English at this point (the film is probably more commonly seen with his performance dubbed, but his original voice is available nowadays). Funny thing is, he's by far the best actor in the picture. Everyone else is just cringe-inducingly awful. The movie as a whole might have actually been watchable, if it weren't for the painfully stereotypical Jew performance by Arnold Stang, who dominates much of it. The film has Schwarzenegger (dubbed Arnold Strong) doing Schwarzenegger-ish activities like weightlifting, throwing cars around and getting into various fights. What would you do if you ran into a 22 year-old Arnold Schwarzenegger and he was annoying you? Start a fight? Well, if you're in this movie, that's what you do. It happens like ten times.

Wow, this movie has to be seen to be believed! I can't believe that Arnold "Pretzie" Stang was overlooked AGAIN by the Academy! A finer piece of work I have not seen! Except perhaps by that guy in the bear suit. Now that was some great acting as well.

Of course, this is all from the perspective of being drunk, which is what you would have to be to like this movie! :P

That scene is by far the funniest yet horrible scene in film legacy. Arnold is in a chariot with his date when somehow a bear is on the loose in Central Park. For no apparent reason he runs off to fight it. They cut to the bear, And it stands up. Clearly, you can imagine the trainer behind the camera saying "BEAR UP" and it stands up. Now when Arnold fights the bear, It is a man in a costume which looks like it was purchased in Harlem. The back of the mans neck is showing as clear as day while him (the bear) and arnold duke it out. The man is swinging his fists like a MILL. You just cant take your eyes off it. And if you do, you are missing out on the funniest man vs. man (in a animal costume) fight in Film PERIOD.

This movie honestly is kinda funny. The acting is okay, but silly. The dialogue is bad, but at the same time funny. The story is silly, and random things just sort of happens. Hercules wants to come to earth, his father refuses, he pisses his father off and he send Hercules to Earth, and because Arnold speaks with such a thick accent, all the characters in the movie can't really understand him. Lots of random stuff happens, and then all ends good.

Funny scenes: 1. Arnold waves at an old lady from outside a plane and she overacts afterwards 2. Arnold fights with a bunch of sailors with a block of wood 3. Arnold refuses to pay a taxi driver for his services and destroys his taxi 4. Arnold fights a guy he just met inside a house 5. Arnold goes on a date with a girl and takes his shirt off and starts flexing in public 6. Arnold fights with a grizzly bear who happens to be at Central Park 7. Arnold becomes a wrestler and his manager signs him to a bunch of mobsters 8. Arnold walks around destroying a bunch of college athlete's records

7/10 "It is really not THAT bad. It is bad, but not THAT bad."

This is a very bad film--there's no denying this. Imagine having a young Arnold Schwarzenegger (whose command of English was MUCH worse than when he did his movies in the 1980s) playing a Greek god who comes to New York for a few laughs! Now the concept COULD have actually worked--if the leading man hadn't been barely cognizant of the English language. And, had the writers not been chimpanzees, the story could have been turned into a cute little tongue-in-cheek tale. But, in the end, through total incompetence, it's a dreadful movie. BUT, for people who like watching stupid films and laughing at them, then they are in for a treat with HERCULES IN NEW YORK!

The film begins in a very minimalistic Mount Olympian headquarters for the gods. Including the cost of the pillars, I think the set was created for about $47.50. Well, in this sketchy looking layout, the gods are all standing around when Hercules announces he's bored and wants to go back to Earth. Zeus forbids him and they argue. Ultimately, Zeus tosses him out of the sky onto the earth and from here on Hercules has a lot of adventures. For the most part, Schwarzenegger plays the role like he's a lovable moron...goofy and looking a bit like Jethro Bodine when he first went to the big city! Among the exciting(?) adventures he has are various wrasslin' matches, fighting an escaped bear (a guy in one of the worst bear suits I've ever seen) and hanging out with Arnold Stang--a man who has somehow learned to talk entirely through his nose. I'd tell you more about the story, but really don't think it's all that important. Suffice to say, Jethro runs around New York (often with no shirt) and gets into wacky trouble.

As far as the research for the writers goes, I think they'd have been better off if they'd read a few comic books or asked the average high school student for advice. When it comes to knowing even the basic information about the Greek gods, they often got is completely wrong--mixing Greek and Roman names for the gods again and again (for example, Juno, Venus and Hercules are Roman names and Zeus and Nemesis are Greek) as well as having little understanding (or care) about the gods themselves (Mercury was NOT Hercules' brother, Pluto was NOT the Devil nor did he live in Hell, etc., etc.). In addition, at the end of the film, Samson (from the Old Testament) and Atlas (whose job it is to hold the Earth) come to the rescue!

There are also two versions of this film. Traditionally, the version most have seen has a dubbed voice for Arnold, as he's occasionally barely comprehensible. But, this is also really silly as the voice is very robotic and obviously not his. This is the case with the version posted on IMDb (though, oddly, this version also lacks music and many basic sound effects). For those wanting to see and hear Arnold, the DVD has the original restored voice--but won't give you the option to hear either one. Additionally, at the end, when he talks to Stang from the radio, it's NOT Arnold's voice but that of the robot-dude.

Overall, the film was a shoddy and silly mess. But there was a certain goofiness that make it fun to watch despite its many, many obvious shortcomings. Not a good film at all, but fun to watch if you need a laugh.