HERCULES THE INVINCIBLE is a low budget sword and sandal adventure for Dan Vadis, the good-looking muscleman with limited acting ability. He isn't one of my favourites of the peplum genre but he certainly gets a lot of screen time here and the plot seems to lurch from one strong-man heroic act to the next. The film was dubbed and re-edited before release in the States as THE SONS OF HERCULES IN THE LAND OF DARKNESS. A strongman goes on a perilous quest when an evil queen takes over the kingdom. There are fights with lions, bears and dragons, alongside battles with mounted soldiers. Expect rivers of lava, collapsing kingdoms, falling bridges, and the usual bar-bending. A pity about the extremely lame comic relief sidekick, but then you can't have everything. This isn't one of the best of its type, but it's good for a laugh regardless.

Right off the bat I have to say this is not about Hercules but about the SON OF Hercules Ercole/Argolese. Most likely "son of" refers to a follower of Hercules. Like father, like son - Argolese is like his "father" so I guess it is a Hercules movie in a way.This one does have some light comedy in it - including the man in the bear suit scenes. Babar gives us some comical lines and looks - the real comic relief of the film.Not only does this peplum action-adventure "Hercules" film give us some light comedy, it is a fantasy film since we have a witch and a dragon. It does feel like a Dungeons and Dragons movie in it's way. And it has all the makings for a film that I enjoy. This one might be my favorite "Hercules" film from the 60s series.6/10

I only saw this movie because I heard it was the worst Hercules movie ever made, or the worst movie made based on Greek mythology. Whatever the standards, this is quite bad. The biggest drawback is the special effects. I mean, that has to be the fakest looking dragon I've ever seen in my whole life. This movie fails because the buildup is so poor. Almost everything is talked about in the first ten minutes and then the plot just goes from random place to random place. There's little point in keeping up, because you're so uninvested. Many scenes just go on way too long for no reason, especially the parts with the elephants and Hercules opening the door.This film also lacks humor in every sense of the word. For all the flak I give this, I will admit that the backgrounds and sets are actually quite good. They really do come off as quite colorful. That's certainly not enough to save this. I'm used to seeing bad movies like this on MST3K, but not this time. Why didn't they ever use this on the show or even Rifftrax? Maybe they will someday. *1/2

The soundtrack truly has beauty this movie almost doesn't deserve. This flick has Ercole fighting against a lion (to save the princess) and a bear, who follows the buffo for the honey the bad guys have smeared on his face before they tried to sacrifice him. There's also a scene where Vadis has to withstand 4 (!) elephants who try to tear him apart. The dragon-fight is taken as footage from the movie "Le fatiche d'Ercole", and the dancing scenes are also obviously "stolen" from another Italian masterpiece. You see Vadis running around in the caves of the cruel subterranean people (who love to sacrifice kids in order to gain their youth and women for their beauty) and beating up their soldiers, a cowardly comic relief character at his side who presents a contrast to Herc's unfailing braveness. The complete second half of the movie plays in the caves and becomes a little tiresome after a while. The opening sequence of the film is perfect though...in its own way.