Maciste contro i mostri

Can't get the theme song out of my mind! The monster in the lake was pretty good, probably took up most of the budget, and if it had been featured more, say wreaking havoc among the two ice age tribes and having an apocalyptic fight with the toothy hero amid exploding volcanoes, hurtling moons and collapsing ice cliffs, it would have been a decent club-and-sandal flick. But it got killed after just a few minutes, spear thrown through the eye from almost the next county...ouch! The other monsters would have seemed more lame had it not been for the human actors...made even paper mache look good.

But it's set in the Ice Age, which makes it pretty unique for these types of movies, so a little more interesting than it would have been otherwise. It would make a nice Friday night double feature with "Goliath and the Dragon" if you had some pizza and beer.

I actually quite enjoyed this, even though the production is pretty woeful. Tapping into the mythology, we meet the shockingly wooden but muscular Reg Lewis as "Maxus". He is strolling the land looking for some good to do when he encounters a tribe of sun worshippers who have been brutally attacked by the cave-dwelling moon worshippers. This event was especially annoying for "Aydar" (Lucia Marin) who was just about to tie the knot with the feisty "Moah" (Margaret Lee) who has now gone and got herself taken captive by the evil "Fuan" (Andrea Aureli). Luckily, this young man manages to convince "Maxus" to help them, and so our adventure begins. Nope, the conclusion is never in doubt but along the way we have a sort of Ali Baba-esque cave, loads of maidenly sacrifices, some angry gods, great stone-axe combat and best of all - a dragon! The dubbing seems to be largely over English dialogue, which takes some getting used to and the camerawork is certainly nobody's finest work as it frequently suggests that few of these actors were in the same room at the same time. Much of the limited jeopardy relies on the noisy audio and lively score, but that works if you just take this for what it is. A cheap and cheerful adventure that is decently paced and quite good fun.

Fire Monsters Against the Son of Hercules (1962)

** (out of 4)

Maciste (Reg Lewis), the son of Hercules, is wondering around when he runs into two members of a tribe that worships the Sun. They are being attacked by large fire breathing monster so Maciste kills it. Flash forward and the Moon worshipers are starting to kidnap the women from the Sun tribe so they go to Maciste for help.

FIRE MONSTERS AGAINST THE SON OF HERCULES, the American title of this Italian movie, isn't a film that is meant to be taken serious. Outside of the Mario Bava film HERCULES IN A HAUNTED WORLD, this is the first in the series that I've seen and from the start I couldn't help but think of the Toho Godzilla series with the poor dubbing and rather silly special effects. Of course, I'm sure many people would say the only way to fully enjoy this or even judge it is by watching the original Italian cut but I don't have that available.

As far as this American edit goes, I thought it was actually entertaining as long as you don't expect too much from it. The performances are pretty much what they are and it's certainly hard to judge them with the atrocious accents and dubbing. Poor Maciste appears to be dubbed by someone simply holding their breathe. The film does contain quite a bit of action, which helps keep it move at a nice pace and it's certainly never boring.

As for the title monster, it's a real doozy and appears to have been made from supplied bought at a dollar store. Yes, it looks incredibly cheap and silly but it somewhat adds to the charm.

Repackaged for American audiences as part of the SONS OF HERCULES series, COLOSSUS OF THE STONE AGE opens with the most fantastically phenomenal theme song of all created time and space! Amen!

A tribe of nomadic, prehistoric types, dressed in fuzzy bathroom throw rugs, builds a village. They should have checked out the neighborhood first, as there's a monster in a nearby lake!

Thankfully, the shirtless mound of muscle known as Maxus (Reg Lewis) arrives in time to slay the creature, and to speak in a voice that's loud enough to set off car alarms, if they had such things in olden times, that is.

It's not long before beautiful village women are dancing around in headdresses, apparently designed by Dr. Seuss. A rival tribe attacks, and several lives and throw rugs are lost.

Good Lord!

The marauding miscreants have absconded with the women! Have no fear! Maxus returns to lead the men on a rescue mission, and to battle those who've wronged them so wrongly. Fighting and more female dancing ensue.

Also, watch for Maxus' struggle against a dragon that resembles a float in the Rose Bowl parade! Annnd, a band of horn-helmeted cannibals!

Fine entertainment for fans of our muscular heroes...

A so-so Peplum set at a Stone period in a Cro-Magnon humanity , in which ferocious tribes battle among them and there are wild , giant monsters. There shows up Maciste : Reg Lewis, who comes upon two warring tribes . The main tribe is led by a barbarian chief : Andrea Aureli who attacks the enemy and abducting the women to sacrifice them by beheading . Then they asking for help Maciste or Maxus , Son of Hercules .

A run-of-the-mill Peplum with the particularity being set in remote times, in a fantastic Earth full of astonishing monsters and two violent Homo Sapiens tribes , the Moon worshippers and the Sun worshippers . It contains spectacular battles , human sacrifices , eclipses, earthquake, cliffs collapsing , fantastic caves, men falling to chasm and anything else . Besides , here turns up surprising monsters made by regular Carlo Rambaldi who created most of them in the Peplum sub-genre . Rambaldi was a crafsman who worked hardship through the 60s , 70s, and 80s making special effects , make-up , scale-model and monsters in most of Italian films , in fact he was hired by Steven Spielberg to make ET . Stars Reg Lewis who was one of various Hunk-Men along with Steve Reeves , Gordon Scott , Rock Stevens , Dan Vadis , Brad Harris, Ken Clark, Richard Harrison, who emigrated from US to Italy to play absurd mythological Peplums , however none of them topped in popularity to Steve Reeves. Here appears some familiar faces from Italian Spaghetti , thrillers , Peplum as secondaries, such as : Andrea Aureli, Luciano Marin , Nello Pazzafini and Margaret Lee , Klaus Kinski's wife.

It contains a decent cinematography by Giuseppe La Torre with gorgeous outdoors from Ljubijana , Slovenia and shot in Incir De Paolis Studios , Lazio , Rome . This routine motion picture was regular but professionally directed by Guido Malatesta. He was an artisan who wrote and directed all kinds of genres with penchant for adventures , historical and Peplum, such as : Fire over Rome, , Colossus and the Headhunters, Raid of the Giants, Tarzana the Wild Woman, Goliath against the giants , La Rivolta Dei Barbari, I Predoni Del Sahara , Samoa , Son of Black Eagle , Mask of Scaramouche , Poppea's Hot Nights, Samson versus Pirates , Catalina of Russia, Giuditta e Olofferne, Zorro versus Maciste , Revenge of the Gladiators Maciste avenger of the Mayans , among others. The film will appeal to Club and Sandals subgenre fans . Only for Peplum enthusiasts.