HERCULES IN NEW YORK

title: HERCULES IN NEW YORK
year: 1970
cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Arnold Stang, James Karen
rating: ***

The original dubbed version, with Arnold Schwarzenegger's voice replaced by a guy who sounds like he should be doing FM radio voice-overs, is now sadly gone: we now have Arnold's voice that we all know... Arnold is Arnold no matter what film he's in... so the fact he's actually speaking kind of takes away from the cheesiness of the original. But it's still quite fun seeing him playing Hercules who, bored of Mount Olympus and his father Zeus throwing metallic lightning arrows, ventures to New York City where he takes up with nerdy Arnold Stang, his manager in the wrestling circuit, all the while befriending James Karen and his lovely daughter Deborah Loomis, punching-out burly sailors, battling a horribly-costumed bear in Central Park, and fighting not only the mob but the evil god Pluto. Like in all great/bad cult flicks, things flow wonderfully from one situation to the next. And then, before you know it, the movie's done: and you're a much better person for having survived it.