Two Gladiators (1964)

Original title: I Due Gladiatori

Peplum. Italy. Starring Richard Harrison, Piero Lulli, Moira Orfei, Mimmo Palmara & Giuliano Gemma. Directed by Mario Caiano.

ERA Home Video (Taiwan). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

Mediocre gladiator flick which left no permanent place in my memory. 2/5

Rather Kiss a Cobra (1986)

Original title: Meglio Baciare un Cobra

Indiana Jones-copy. Italy. Starring Andy J. Forest, Milly D'Abbraccio & Paul Muller. Directed by Massimo Pirri.

Toshiba (Japan). English dubbed. Letterboxed.

Even though it's supposed to be a Indy-rippoff this film plays like a dirty prison movie for the most part. Passable entertainment. 2/5

Sandokan Fights Back (1964)

Original title: Sandokan Alla Riscossa

Pirate/Exotic adventure. Italy/West Germany. Starring Ray Danton, Guy Madison, Mario Petri, Alberto Farnese & Raf Baldassarre. Directed by Luigi Capuano.

Elephant Video (UK). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

I love the Sandokan adventures but this one didn't do much for me. Also, Ray Danton is a lame Sandokan compared with Kabir Bedi, or even Steve Reeves. 2/5

Tarzan in King Salomon's Mines (1973)

Original title: Tarzán en las minas del rey Salomón

Jungle adventure. Spain. Starring David Carpenter & Paul Naschy. Directed by José Luis Merino.

Videofilm AB (Sweden). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

As far as euro-Tarzan ripp offs are conserned, this is the absolute bottom-of-the-barrell! But it's not without a certain Grade Z-charm. Z-Tarzan David Carpenter acts and looks brain-damaged (not surprised he never acted again) and spanish horror legend Paul Naschy plays the villian. 2/5

Colossus and the Headhunters (1963)

Original title: Maciste Contro i Cacciatori di Teste

Peplum. Italy. Starring Kirk Morris. Directed by Guido Malatesta.

NS (Taiwan). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

As many other films starring the ever expressionless (the Michael Myers of the pepla?) Kirk Morris it's cheap, illogical and badly made - but with a certain wild and bizarre quality that has its fascination! 2/5

Devil's Cavaliers (1959)

Original title: I Cavalieri del Diavolo

Sword. Italy. Starring Frank Latimore, Gianna Maria Canale, Anthony Steffen & Andrea Aureli. Directed by Siro Marcellini.

Worldwide Video (Holland). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

Very dated and stiff costume adventure with lots of jolly (read: annoying) song and dance numbers. 2/5

The Invincible Brothers Maciste (1964)

Original title: Gli Invincibili Fratelli Maciste

Peplum. Italy. Starring Richard Lloyd, Tony Freeman, Claudie Lange, Anthony Steffen & Ursula Davis. Directed by Roberto Mauri.

Force Video (USA). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

Very cheezy peplum with the dull Maciste brothers fighting an evil witchqueen and her henchmen in her underground dungeons. It works as 90 minutes of dumb/surreal entertainment for a lazy afternoon, I guess... 2/5

Zorro, the Navarra Marquis (1969)

Original title: Zorro Marchese di Navarra

Zorro adventure. Italy. Starring Nino Vingelli, Malisa Longo, Dada Gallotti, Daniele Vargas & Nadir Moretti. Directed by Franco Montemurro.

Video Screen (Holland). BETA. Italian language with dutch subtitles. Letterboxed.

Pretty dull, at least if you don't understand the language. Zorro's alter ego is a gay barberer in this one. 2/5

Wolfshead: The Legend of Robin Hood (1973)

Robin Hood adventure. UK. Starring David Warbeck, Kenneth Gilbert, Ciaran Madden & Sheraton Blount. Directed by John Hough.

S.T.V.P Video (Denmark). English language. Fullscreen.

This is the obscure pilot episode of a Hammer produced Robin Hood TV-series that never happened. It unsuccesfully tried to add a bit more realism to the formula. Pretty dire stuff, mostly of interest because a young David Warbeck played Robin (it's not hom on the cover though). 2/5

Sinbad and the Caliph of Bagdad (1973)

Original title: Simbad e il Califfo di Bagdad

Arabian fantasy/Comedy (?). Italy. Starring Robert Malcolm, Sonia Wilson & Luigi Bonos. Directed by Pietro Francisci.

Premium Video (Holland). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

Arabian fantasy flop from the director of the first two Hercules-films with Steve Reeves, gigantic hits at their time. It's a cheaply made and often boring film in which you're not always sure whether the comedy is intentional or not. This and the sci-fi flop Star Pilot (underrestimated in my opinion) effectively killed Francisci's career... 2/5

Carthage in Flames (1960)

Original title: Cartagine in Fiamme

Peplum/Historical. Italy/France. Starring Pierre Brasseur, Terence Hill, Daniel Gélin & Anne Heywood. Directed by Carmine Gallone.

DVD: Sunfilm Entertainment (Germany). English or german language options. Letterboxed. Good quality.

War and intrigue between Carthage and Rome. OK but not the most exiting peplum in the world. 2/5

Ark of the Sun God (1983)

Original title: I Sopravvissuti della Città Morta

Indiana Jones-ripp off. Italy/Turkey. Starring David Warbeck, John Steiner, Susie Sudlow & Alan Collins. Directed by Antonio Margheriti.

DVD: Pulp Video (Italy). English language options. Widescreen. Pretty good quality.

This Indiana Jones-copy is pretty slow and a little bit bit boring, but picks up considerable during the last half hour. Warbeck does his usual poor-mans-Bond thing. 2/5

Rather Kiss a Cobra (1986)

Original title: Meglio Baciare un Cobra

Indiana Jones-copy. Italy. Starring Andy J. Forest, Milly D'Abbraccio & Paul Muller. Directed by Massimo Pirri.

Tower Vison/Scanbox (Sweden). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

Even though it's supposed to be a Indy-rippoff this film plays like a dirty prison movie for the most part. Passable entertainment. 2/5

The People That Time Forgot (1977)

Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Adventure. UK. Starring Doug McClure, Patrick Wayne, Sarah Douglas, Dana Gillespie & Thorley Walters. Directed by Kevin Connor.

DVD: MGM Midnite Movies (USA). English language. Widescreen. Very good quality.

In my opinion the weakest of all of Connor's victorian fantasy films. 2/5

War Gods of the Deep (1965)

a.k.a The City Under the Sea

Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Adventure. UK. Starring Vincent Price, Tab Hunter, David Tomlinson & Susan Hart. Directed by Jacques Tourneur.

DVD: MGM Midnite Movies (USA). English language. Widescreen. Very good quality.

After an interesting first half this movie turns into another lame big studio moneyburner with too many boring underwater scenes. Tourneur's director skills was better suited for thrillers. 2/5

Golden Temple Amazons (1986)

Original title: Les Amazones du Temple D'or

Amazons/Jungle adventure. France. Starring Analía Ivars, William Berger, Antonio Mayans, Olivier Mathot, Eva León, Lina Romay, Alicia Príncipe & Emilio Linder. Directed by Alain Payet & Jesus Franco.

DVD: Shriek Show (USA). English dubbed. Widescreen. Good quality. The DVD cover has the credits confused with Franco's (better) Maciste Contre la Reine des Amazones!

Really, really dumb Eurociné cheapie that I believe was started by Franco and finished by pornographer Alain Payet. Pretty funny little film. 2/5

Gwendoline (1984)

Erotic Indiana Jones-ripp off. France. Starring Tawny Kitaen, Brent Huff, Zabou Breitman, Bernadette Lafont & Jean Rougerie. Directed by Just Jaeckin.

DVD: Severin (USA). Widescreen. English/french language options. Very good quality.

Emmanuelle-director Jacking clearly has no feel for the adventure genre. But at least he has the sense to throw in some S/M Amazons just when you're about to give up from boredom... 2/5

Colossus and the Headhunters (1963)

Original title: Maciste Contro i Cacciatori di Teste

Peplum. Italy. Starring Kirk Morris. Directed by Guido Malatesta.

Filmax (Spain). English/spanish language option. Widescreen. Good quality.

As many other films starring the ever expressionless (the Michael Myers of the pepla?) Kirk Morris it's cheap, illogical and badly made - but with a certain wild and bizarre quality that has its fascination! 2/5

Hawk the Slayer (1980)

Fantasy. UK. Starring John Terry, Jack Palance & William Morgan Sheppard. Directed by Terry Marcel.

Sonet Video (Sweden). English language. Fullscreen.

This cheap brittish sword and sorcery epic could have used better actors (most actors sleepwalk through their roles and only veteran actor Palance delivers fun over-the-top performance as the evil Voltan) and perhaps a little more exiting sets than a brittish pineforest. Still a reasonably entertaining little film that does the best it can with it's meagre resources - not the turkey it has often been painted as. Fans of the genre might want to check it out. 2/5

The Throne of Fire (1983)

Original title: Il Trono di Fuoco

Fantasy. Italy. Starring Peter McCoy, Sabrina Siani, Harrison Muller Jr. & Pietro Ceccarelli. Directed by Franco Prosperi.

VTC (Sweden). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

Another cheap sword and sorcery flick by Prosperi with the usual actors, but at least it's better than the slow-mo yawn The Invicible Barbarian. A slow-moving and very low budget film with a synth score that kind of works if you like the genre and watch it alone late at night. But of course it's not "good". 2/5