Maciste contro i mostri

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.

This movie has some tribal squabble that is dull, otherwise the spots of actual life size monsters used are impressive.

This particular peplum is a prehistoric item as Maciste goes back to the caveman era and helps out one tribe which has been dislocated by the Ice Age to settle on some new lands. It seems as though the other tribe that was there before isn't happy about these late arrivals hunting in their forests and want them removed.

Bodybuilder Reg Lewis of Mae West's review plays the legendary Maciste here. He's got to deal with all kinds of prehistoric beasts including a multi-headed hydra. One thing I swear I can't understand is how Maciste avoids pneumonia when he insists on going in his usual loincloth while everyone else is bundled up in animal skins. But his body is what the movie-going public is paying to see.

Nothing here you haven't seen in One Million BC and a few hundred other successors.

Reg Lewis is back as Maxus/Germanicus (Maciste). Maxus happens upon a two primitive tribes: the good sun-worshipers and the evil moon-worshipers. The two tribes are battling it out because the evil moon people want it that way and end up capturing some of the sun people. Luckily for the sun people there are monsters that destroy the cave they are held in and Maxus is there to save them. OH and there is hydra in the film.

Barely entertaining film. It has it's moments of being okay but those moments aren't that grand. You'd think I would like this one with all the big monsters in it but I find it only barely tolerable to skim though.

2/10

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.