As far as the genre goes, that pretty must got invented by the Italians in the first place, this movie is actually not being the worst or silliest. But this doesn't mean that this movie is pretty bad and silly on its own though unfortunately.
This is one of the many Maciste movies, that got made over the decades. The character was an heroic strong-man, like for instance the Hercules and Samson characters were in Italian movies. However the character never really got known internationally, so must of the movies featuring him got released under different titles and his character also got named differently.
This time the main character is being played by the muscle man Kirk Morris, who actually played the character a whole bunch of times, as well as some other strong-man in many different Italian sword-and-sandal productions. Can't really say I was much impressed with him. Of course nothing wrong with his physics but he was really lacking the right charisma and definitely the right acting skills. To be honest, he looked quite silly with his boyish haircut and pearly white teeth.
It's not really a remake of the 1925 movie with the same title, since the movie pretty much follows a totally different story. The only thing the two have in common is that it features the Maciste character who has to descent to hell itself.
And in hell Maciste has to endure a whole bunch of silly ordeals. Watch Maciste dramatically opening a large door with his bare hands, lifts large phony looking rocks, or dance with a whole bunch of animals, such as a snake, a lion and a vulture. He's just holding and moving some puppets around, pretending that it are some real life animals attacking him. Really this is all that this movie is. But yes, there are actually far worse and far more silly genre examples to watch out there. This movie is actually pretty much alright for must part, which makes it all the more a shame that the story did not got worked out just a tiny bit better and also had some more exciting and original moments in it.
It's a predictable, campy, sword-and-sandal, adventure movie, that you at times still can have some fun with but unfortunately is far from a great movie.
4/10
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