Consistently overlooked as one of cinema's greatest monstrosities Hercules in New York follows the curiously accented Greek god as he travels, or oafishly meanders, around 1970s Manhattan followed by faithful sidekick Pretzie, some gangsters, more Greek gods, angry sailors and, of course, a bear. This cinematic gem and precious relic of Arnie's first clumsy footsteps into film often goes unmentioned in "bottom 100 lists" which is strange as it seems easily comparable to Edward D Wood's "Plan 9 From Outerspace" and "Glen or Glenda?" the royalty of crap cinema. It's not that "Hercules in New York" is good, far from it, but it is so hideously bad that it becomes a lovable monstrosity, much like the Frankenstine's monster of cinema. The acting performances are ,for the most part, shambolic aside from maybe one or two more theatrical performances from Zeus and Hades respectively who are handicapped somewhat by a poor script and loud horn tootling in the background of the "Mount Olympus" scenes. The film also suffers at the hands of insesent mandolin playing repeated over and over again which seems aimed at making the audience's ears bleed. However, I would find it impossible to grant this film a 1 out of 10 as, simply, it is a comedy and it is genuinely funny allbeit at the wrong times for the wrong reasons. More importantly though I find it impossible to give any film which depicts the Governor of California fighting a bear in central park to the sound of creepy mandolin music a low rating.
Review of Hercules in New York
