Hercules in the Maze of the Minotaur (1994)
Hercules has settled down with his wife and children, but misses the good old days traveling around having exciting adventures. Then one day he is persuaded out of his farming "retirement" to help a distant village which is being attacked by an unseen monster. "Hercules in the Maze of the Minotaur" is the fifth out of five made for TV movies that spawned the series "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys".
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Best movie of this year hands down!
An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.
The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
Hercules, married and a father of three, is settled down and longs for the adventures of his past, which leads to lots of flashbacks. Eventually he does get a chance for new adventure and heads off with Iolaus to fight the Minotaur.This is the fifth and final of the Hercules TV movies before Hercules: The Legendary Journey was launched. In a way, it serves as a good primer for that series because it's basically a clip show. While I enjoyed the Hercules TV series, they did do a lot of clip shows where they showed past clips from episodes with a few new scenes to fill time. This was done to save money but still meet the ordered per-season episode count. Not sure what the excuse is here but it's probably about saving money as well. It's nice to see Michael Hurst back as Iolaus. His chemistry with Sorbo is great and the Hercules/Iolaus friendship provided the show with its buddy comedy heart. Tawny Kitaen's sexy as ever. Anthony Quinn appears as Zeus for the last time. A miniature Rose McIver plays one of Hercules' kids. The Minotaur looks pretty cool but the excessive flashbacks are annoying. It's the least of the five movies but still entertaining.
Hercules sits his kids down to tell them stories of his past, trying to recapture a little of his glory years. Yet deep inside he yearns to be going out on adventures. Michael Hurst is back as Iolaus, so it must be cause for celebration. right? RIGHT??!!? Wrong. Half the story is flashbacks to the other previous TV movies, thus making this one a tad lame to sit through, but sit through I must since it leads up to the great TV series. The parts that new are good but the flashbacks kill it and make this the least engrossing of the TV movies. Pity as this was the one that came closet to capturing the feel of the subsequent TV series.My Grade: C-
This is the fifth and final episode of the Hercules television movies. This movie contains a lot of flashbacks of the other four movies. Because of this the story itself slows down and most of the times the flashbacks are annoying. And that is a shame, because this could be the best episode of them all, because it has the best plot. It could have been so much better if they put King Minos and all the others in the movie as well. But in stead we just see the Minotaur. But still, this Hercules-movie is a good and enjoyable action/adventure movie with good acting, great locations and a good climax. It still is a lot better than the tv-show that followed.
Of all the Hercules tv-movies that were made, this one manages to achieve the tone and theme of the Legendary Journeys. Kevin Sorbo and Michael Hurst have good chemistry with each other. My only problem with this tv-movie was the flashbacks. In my opinion, they really just slowed things down. Other than that, this pretty good and should be seen.