HERCULES IN THE MAZE OF THE MINOTAUR (1994) *1/2 Kevin Sorbo's Hercules imitations could be sublime, when they were funny. The flying monsters (whose asses he was kicking), the whacking guys with other guys, the violence was so absurd that-if it was a statement of any kind-it was a mockery of the absurdity of violence. But while the violence was front and center, the main appeal was the utter silliness of it all, which was best communicated by the fact that everyone was clearly having a good time. There's not much funny in this film, and while the actors don't appear to be suffering they aren't laughing sincerely enough to make anyone jealous. It doesn't help matters that instead of a plot, the action is mainly a bunch of flashbacks. Lack of plot is hardly fatal to something like Sorbo's Herc, but as they're all action sequences they take away the possibility of more entertaining dalliances along the side-paths of the narrative proper. Even though this is inferior to several of the TV series representations, as always it is a milieu in which Sorbo is effectively perfect. In scenes where Anthony Quinn (nearly typecast as Zeus) gets all serious and Shakespearean, you have to concede that Anthony wins the gravitas competition, but you wonder where he belongs instead. Tawny Kitaen's Valley Girl in Greece act could probably play just about anywhere, and I wonder if it's more credible as she appears to almost constantly be on the verge of getting bitchy despite a script that calls for the exact opposite. Anthony and Tawny aren't incongruent with Sorbo, but they just don't flow with the Herculean milieu depicted in the way that some of the television actors did. Never mind, I really like the flashback to the giant sea monster, the exterior shots, especially the ones of its eyes.
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