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Cast: John Morrison (WWE's Johnny Nitro), Christian Oliver (VALKYRIE, SPEED RACER), James Duval (INDEPENDENCE DAY)
When a young man's bride is kidnapped by an evil king, he turns to Hercules for help. The fallen hero has been living in exile, banished for killing his family, but the young man's courage inspires Hercules. Together, they fight to rescue the bride and reclaim Hercules' honor.
Everyone loves Hercules even Hollywood who had to make two movies about him this year. Now it is The Asylum's turn as they release "Hercules Reborn" which stars John Morrison from the WWE. As with most Asylum films I was looking forward to sitting down to watch this, the trailer promised some fun but the one thing that was absent was any creatures like in The Rock's Hercules movie that is coming about but I was fine with that too.
The basic synopsis is as follows, In the midst of a bloody and ruthless coup, a callous Greek general seizes the young bride of an officer in his own army. When the distraught Arias turns to the legendary Hercules (John Morrison, WWE’s Johnny Nitro) for help, he discovers the fallen hero has been living in the shadows of exile; banished for brutally murdering his own family.
Angered and alone, Hercules refuses to help Arias at first. However, inspired by the young officer’s courage and yearning for his own salvation, the fearless warrior agrees. Together, they must battle the wicked general’s army, as well as demons of the demi-gods, in order to rescue the bride and reclaim the honour of Hercules.
The plot is pretty simple so I am not going to go into any more details here but I can tell you what I liked about the film, For starters I found the acting to be very good right from the start and I liked the costumes and locations as well. Secondly I did enjoy that they came up with a different kind of story with Hercules being a bit of a boozer after losing his family and how the soldier who is finding to save his lady inspires Hercules to redeem himself as well. Plus I liked the fact that The Asylum kept their portrayal of Hercules to the more human side, sure he is very strong in the movie but he also gets his ass kicked pretty good as well.
Besides liking the story I also enjoyed the little bit of comedy tossed in and the I thought the action scenes were well done as well. I also enjoyed the effects that were used, there are some nice killings and a good amount of CGI blood spraying going on as well which I really enjoyed.
"Hercules Reborn" is not going to win any major awards but it is a fun action/adventure film. If you are the type of person that watches and then bitches about every movie The Asylum releases do yourself and everyone else a favor and do not watch them, everyone else should find this is a pleasant way to past some time. I must also mention that I thought John Morrison did a really good job playing Hercules and he looked the part as well.
The film is on DVD and Blu-ray now with Special Features that include:
Widescreen Presentation
5.1 Surround Sound
Making of Featurette
You can order the DVD HERE and the Blu-ray HERE
Released by The Asylum Home Entertainment
*** Out Of *****