This DVD contains the first two Hercules: The Legendary Journeys Movie Episodes. When it comes to episode television released onto DVD or VHS I'm a big fan of Continuity. Especially if several episodes are to be put on one disc or tape, I don't go for the bologna that Columbia House does with 3 or 4 episodes on one VHS in no particular order with 3 different episodes from 3 different seasons. I'm glad that Universal began releasing the Hercules DVDs right with the episodes on the same disc being in date aired order. The VHS versions are only one episode per tape, so even though the DVD is "bare bones" you get the bonus of having two episodes. Plus they have the original openings to the episodes, very often in home versions the original opening credits have conformed to whatever was used when the show hit syndication, so often times episodes from the first season will look funky with credits that show sequences from later seasons. Before becoming a regular series, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys series started as part of Universal Studio's "Action Pack" series of television shows in 1994 (Shown in syndication on many stations that would become UPN stations). Shows that were part of the "Action Pack" were shown in a rotating basis. There were six shows in the rotation thus, they were an Action Six Pack. While Hercules was the most successful of the pack, by turning into a regular series and spinning off two series (Xena: Warrior Princess & Young Hercules) and an animated movie (Hercules & Xena: The Animated Movie: The Battle for Mount Olympus) other "Action Pack" shows included: Tekwar starring Greg Evigan (My Two Dads) based on the William Shatner "Tek" Novels. It was the next popular/successful of the pack. The Vanishing Son (Then Vanishing Son II, III & IV. Each movie appears to have been assigned a number.), Dean Stockwell (Quantum Leap) appears in The Vanishing Son II. Bandit (episodes titled "Bandit and...") based on the popular Burt Renoylds "Smoky and the Bandit" movies but this version bombed even with the lovely supermodel Kathy Ireland in "Beauty and the Bandit" in an attempt to raise ratings and attract that very sought after teen to mid-thirties male audience. I also thought that Kung Fu - The Legend Continues was part of this "Pack" but I'm not so sure. But I digress. Since this DVD has two episodes on it I've broken down my review into two sections, to give my opinions on BOTH episodes. EPISODE ONE: HERCULES AND THE AMAZON WOMEN "Hercules It's a Woman" Hercules (Kevin Sorbo) and his best friend/sidekick Iolaus (Michael Hurst) are asked to help a village that is being attacked by mysterious "Beasts". These "Beasts" turn out to be female "Amazon" warriors. Lead by their Queen Hippolyta played by Roma Downey (Touched by an Angel) who is deceived by and later possessed by Hera, Hercules' evil mother and queen of the Greek gods. Lucy Lawless (Xena: Warrior Princess) appears as Lysia the Amazon Queens' second in command. Hippolyta and her Amazons faithfully obey Hera. The Amazons have separated themselves from the men across the river they were previously their husbands and lovers. Hera has told them basically that Men are Dogs and are only good for procreation. For several years, it is unclear exactly how many, the Amazons have been ritually attacking the men for the purpose of procreation. "The Rules are No small talk...just sex". Female babies are raised as Amazons and the male offspring, are left by the river for the men to raise. Hercules of course saves the day but at a very high cost, a cost so high he pleads his case to his father Zeus "King of the Gods" played by Anthony Quinn. Zeus of course... well that would be telling now wouldn't it?
EPISODE TWO: HERCULES AND THE LOST KINGDOM "If you're trying to sacrifice yourself to the Sea God... He's not home." Hercules while searching for the Lost City of Troy, meets a girl named Deianeira played by Renee' O'Connor (Gabrielle in Xena: WP) who's trying to fulfill her destiny as a sacrifice to the Gods. They encounter along the way a slave named Waylin played by Robert Trebor (Salmoneus in later episodes). Hercules at last reaches Troy, which has been taken over by "The Blue Cult" a flock of Hera worshipers. Hercules with the help of Waylin and the people of Troy, the former occupants, reclaims the city and as a bonus good deed, which is a thorn in Hera's side, He saves Deianeira from Hera's clutches. OK! Now, the real reason you read the above synopsis in the first place. This DVD is wonderful. First off I'd like to remind fans of the WIDESCREEN format that this DVD is in the FULL SCREEN format because it was made for TV, so it's full screen, but not Pan & Scan, you ain't missing anything. I mentioned before in the intro of this review that this disc is a bare bones disc, the extras they have are cast bios of Kevin Sorbo and Anthony Quinn, but that is about it for the extras. The video quality is superb, I'm so used to seeing Hercules episodes either fresh off the air broadcast quality or from cheesy VHS copies it's nice to see how it's meant to be seen. The sound quality is also very good, in fact there were a few places when I thought some ambiance sound was coming from either outside or another room in the house. Both episodes were equal in quality for both picture and sound. If there had been a major difference I would have to have rated them individually and given the average for the overall rating. But since they were both equal I can rate the whole disc as one. Hercules: The Legendary Journeys - The Amazon Women/The Lost Kingdom is a wonderful adventure, make it two wonderful adventures. They might not be the best of the entire series but they are in the upper half of the pack. The campiness is only very slight in these stories and it's not loaded down with puns like some Hercules episodes have been known for. Fanatics of the Hercules/Xena series can count this as a MUST HAVE.
This DVD contains the first two Hercules: The Legendary Journeys Movie Episodes. When it comes to episode television released onto DVD or VHS I'm a big fan of Continuity. Especially if several episodes are to be put on one disc or tape, I don't go for the bologna that Columbia House does with 3 or 4 episodes on one VHS in no particular order with 3 different episodes from 3 different seasons. I'm glad that Universal began releasing the Hercules DVDs right with the episodes on the same disc being in date aired order. The VHS versions are only one episode per tape, so even though the DVD is "bare bones" you get the bonus of having two episodes (three in the case of the Xena Trilogy Episodes, which I plan to review in the near future). Plus they have the original openings to the episodes, very often in home versions the original opening credits have conformed to whatever was used when the show hit syndication, so often times episodes from the first season will look funky with credits that show sequences from later seasons.Before becoming a regular series, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys series started as part of Universal Studio's "Action Pack" series of television shows in 1994. Shows that were part of the "Action Pack" were shown in a rotating basis. There were six shows in the rotation thus, they were an Action Six Pack. While Hercules was the most successful of the pack, by turning into a regular series and spinning off two series (Xena: Warrior Princess & Young Hercules) and an animated movie (Hercules & Xena: The Animated Movie: The Battle for Mount Olympus) other "Action Pack" shows included:
Tekwar starring Greg Evigan (My Two Dads) based on the William Shatner "Tek" Novels. It was the next popular/successful of the pack.
The Vanishing Son (Then Vanishing Son II, III & IV. Each movie appears to have been assigned a number.), Dean Stockwell (Quantum Leap) appears in The Vanishing Son II.
Bandit (episodes titled "Bandit and...") based on the popular Burt Renoylds "Smoky and the Bandit" movies but this version bombed even with the lovely supermodel Kathy Ireland in "Beauty and the Bandit" in an attempt to raise ratings and attract that very sought after teen to mid-thirties male audience.
I also thought that Kung Fu - The Legend Continues was part of this "Pack" but I'm not so sure. This rotation system idea was used by NBC in 1979 with a very short-lived series called "Cliffhangers". The series was an unsuccessful attempt to bring back the "serials" format of the 1930's and `40's. Each week, three episodes of three different stories were shown, unfortunately only one complete story was aired, so in a frustrating the series lived up to it's title "Cliffhangers". The stories included:
"Stop Susan Williams" later renamed "The Girl who saved the world" and aired in it's entirety on USA Network. It starred Susan Anton, helping launch her acting career, and Ray Walston.
"The Secret Empire" in which a 19th century cowboy falls into a chasm and lands in a high tech futuristic (21st or 22nd century) city.
"The Curse of Dracula" (AKA: Dracula 79) Dracula brought to the modern day. It was the only story of the series to have all its episodes aired.
I believe there were a few more stories lined up, and upon completion of the Dracula story I believe a forth story was started. But I digress.
HERCULES AND THE AMAZON WOMEN (1 hr 31 min)
"Hercules It's a Woman"
Hercules (Kevin Sorbo) and his best friend/sidekick Iolaus (Michael Hurst) are asked to help a village that is being attacked by mysterious "Beasts". These "Beasts" turn out to be female "Amazon" warriors. Lead by their Queen Hippolyta played by Roma Downey (Touched by an Angel) who is deceived by and later possessed by Hera, Hercules' evil mother and queen of the Greek gods. Lucy Lawless (Xena: Warrior Princess) appears as Lysia the Amazon Queens' second in command. Hippolyta and her Amazons faithfully obey Hera. The Amazons have separated themselves from the men across the river they were previously their husbands and lovers. Hera has told them basically that Men are Dogs and are only good for procreation. For several years, it is unclear exactly how many, the Amazons have been ritually attacking the men for the purpose of procreation. "The Rules are No small talk...just sex". Female babies are raised as Amazons and the male offspring, are left by the river for the men to raise. Hercules of course saves the day but at a very high cost, a cost so high he pleads his case to his father Zeus "King of the Gods" played by Anthony Quinn. Zeus of course... well that would be telling now wouldn't it?
HERCULES AND THE LOST KINGDOM (1 hr 31min)
"If you're trying to sacrifice yourself to the Sea God... He's not home."
Hercules while searching for the Lost City of Troy, meets a girl named Deianeira played by Renee' O'Connor (Gabrielle in Xena: WP) who's trying to fulfill her destiny as a sacrifice to the Gods. They encounter along the way a slave named Waylin played by Robert Trebor (Salmoneus in later episodes). Hercules at last reaches Troy, which has been taken over by "The Blue Cult" a flock of Hera worshipers. Hercules with the help of Waylin and the people of Troy, the former occupants, reclaims the city and as a bonus good deed, which is a thorn in Hera's side, He saves Deianeira from Hera's clutches.
OK! Now, the real reason you read the above synopsis in the first place. This DVD is wonderful. First off I'd like to remind fans of the WIDESCREEN format that this DVD is in the FULL SCREEN format because it was made for TV, so it's full screen, but not Pan & Scan, you ain't missing anything. I mentioned before in the intro of this review that this disc is a bare bones disc, the extras they have are cast bios of Kevin Sorbo and Anthony Quinn, but that is about it for the extras.
Run Time: 182 minutes (2 x 1hr 31 minutes) Region 1 Layers: Dual Available Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround) Available subtitles: Spanish, French, English (captions) * Color, Closed-captioned, HiFi Sound Format: Original Full Screen (Made for TV).
The video quality is superb, I'm so used to seeing Hercules episodes either fresh off the air broadcast quality or from cheesy VHS copies it's nice to see how it's meant to be seen. The sound quality is also very good, in fact there were a few places when I thought some ambiance sound was coming from either outside or another room in the house. Both episodes were equal in quality for both picture and sound. If there had been a major difference I would have to have rated them individually and given the average for the overall rating. But since they were both equal I can rate the whole disc.
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys - The Amazon Women/The Lost Kingdom is a wonderful adventure, make it two wonderful adventures. They might not be the best of the entire series but they are in the upper half of the pack. The campiness is only very slight in these stories and it's not loaded down with puns like some Hercules episodes have been known for. Fanatics of the Hercules/Xena series can count this as a MUST HAVE.
