Tuesday, August 07, 2012

Footnote and Hercules Reviewed Here

A seriously dysfunctional Jewish family with academic credentials gets into a big stink over Talmud research in the 2011 film “Footnote” from Israel.  The angry dad in this movie views his son as a rival Talmud expert.  The U.S. version would feature father-son bond traders or pro-wrestlers.

With U.S. film choices meager at best, I needed to turn to foreign fare this week including “Hercules and the Tyrants of Babylon” which kind of relates to “Footnote” in that the Talmud has Babylon references.  The movie stars muscle man Rock Stevens who is actually Peter Lupus, featured on the “Mission Impossible” TV show.  Here he is the strong man who frees the beautiful nymph slaves from the evil Babylon clutches.  Being an Italian movie from the 60s the dubbing into English is sloppy (dialogue is heard but the lips don’t move).  It is not known if Rock/Peter made any other movies where bulging biceps were a requisite.  One can only hope.  American International Pictures takes credit/blame for this Hercules.i