Reg Lewis is back as Maxus/Germanicus (Maciste). Maxus happens upon a two primitive tribes: the good sun-worshipers and the evil moon-worshipers. The two tribes are battling it out because the evil moon people want it that way and end up capturing some of the sun people. Luckily for the sun people there are monsters that destroy the cave they are held in and Maxus is there to save them. OH and there is hydra in the film.Barely entertaining film. It has it's moments of being okay but those moments aren't that grand. You'd think I would like this one with all the big monsters in it but I find it only barely tolerable to skim though.2/10

The monster barely puts in a cameo in this half gladiator/half cave man film where the good guys are all blondes and the villains all brunettes. What does exist of the Hydra (Fire Monster) is one of the silliest looking creatures in cinema history that looks like a monster face painted on somebody's index finger with the camera up real close to try and fool its audience. The rest of the film (following a "Blob" like theme song obviously added to the American release print) mainly surrounds the alleged son of Hercules (named Maciste) stepping in to save the day as he battles the dark-haired villains to free the light haired captured slaves after they've been conquered. While some of the action sequences are actually pretty intense, this is as forgettable as gladiator movies can get.

This particular peplum is a prehistoric item as Maciste goes back to the caveman era and helps out one tribe which has been dislocated by the Ice Age to settle on some new lands. It seems as though the other tribe that was there before isn't happy about these late arrivals hunting in their forests and want them removed.Bodybuilder Reg Lewis of Mae West's review plays the legendary Maciste here. He's got to deal with all kinds of prehistoric beasts including a multi-headed hydra. One thing I swear I can't understand is how Maciste avoids pneumonia when he insists on going in his usual loincloth while everyone else is bundled up in animal skins. But his body is what the movie-going public is paying to see.Nothing here you haven't seen in One Million BC and a few hundred other successors.

This movie is chronologically challenged. First off, it takes place in the Ice Age and stars the Son of Hercules,Maxus. Hercules himself, however, wasn't born until several thousand years later in Ancient Greece. How could his son appear in a movie that takes place thousands of years before he was born? The movie never answers that question and frankly, has bigger chronological fish to fry, namely, Reg Lewis' haircut. It's an old b-movie axiom, that while technology changes in these movies from that which we experience in the present, hairstyles will always remain constant to the time period in which the movie was made. In other words, the Son of Hercules sports and Elvis haircut, or what my mom would call a "Duck's @ss". And it works, for this type of film. It's just the type of anomaly that makes these movies amusing. And Reg himself makes an interesting hero.He is a rather easy going avenger, and with that hair I kept expecting him to break out into a rambling, rockin' rockabilly tune all the time. He plays Maxus a little like you think Elvis would have, and if he would have pushed the Elvis bit a little harder, we'd have a bona fide classic on our hands. Mr. Lewis is sufficiently beefy to make a convincing if low-key Hercules.Basically there are two tribes in this part of the world, the good Sun tribe and the rotten Moon tribe.Maxus befriends the good tribe by saving their crown prince from a water dragon. He hurtles a spear about 200 yards and nails it right in the eye. He then waves and quickly departs, because he never knows where he'll be needed next. This leaves our prince Idar, to romance his harpy of a girl friend, a babe that looks a bit like Ann Margaret. I couldn't really make out her name, but I think it was Brian(?) Brian pesters Idar, who just wants to spear fish, until he marries her in a ceremony where she promises to raise his children and skin his catch. Furthermore, if she fails to obey him, Idar can have her put to death. Both seem content with this arrangement. Ah the good old days. As soon as (And I mean this literally) they finish the vows, the evil moon tribe attacks! There is some pretty good fighting and the bad guys make off with the good guys women. After this it's pretty by the numbers. The good guys find Maxus wandering around the woods and recruit him to their cause. There are some good fights, Maxus gets buried up to his neck in the earth and is then freed by an earthquake, and a few more papier mache monstrosities are ferociously dispatched by the hero. Somewhere along the way another hottie named Moa or Mona joins Maxus' team and of course the two eventually ride off together. And yes, Maxus has the shiniest pecs I've ever seen. They are shiny on mountaintops,in caves, even underwater. Not a bad Herc movie at all, and the theme song is kinda catchy and fun. I wonder if there's a way I can make a ring tone out of it.