Julius Caesar handpicks an army of men, lead by Claudius Marcellus, to fight against the Druids. The Druids are harboring a secret weapon - the Catapult.Not as good as I was hoping it was going to be. I was hoping for at least a 4 or 5 star out of 10 film but 3/10 is as good as it get for me. It's not a horrible film but it is luster-lacking and a bit drab the way the story is told. With that being said, it is one of the better films from Mill Creek's Warriors 50-pack. It's not the best of the Mill Creek peplum batch but it's not the worst from the pack either. I'll admit I was hoping for a bit more out of this one. I actually preferred the way the story was told and the way Caesar the Conqueror (1962) was filmed. I was hoping this movie would be as good as "the Conqueror".3/10

"Giants of Rome" is in some aspects a strangely premised sword and sandal movie. The main reason for that is that the central characters - the men on a mission - are Romans working for Caesar and the Roman Empire, fighting the inhabitants of what is now modern day France. If you ask me, that is almost akin to a movie about Nazis on a mission to penetrate and destroy some part of Allied forces, given that the Romans were conquerors and enslavers of foreign empires. But even if you can stomach that premise, chances are you'll still not find the movie to be very good. The action sequences all seem to be directed in a way to both be identical to each other and not particularly exciting. Actually, much of the movie (particularly the central third of the movie) is rather slow- moving and not very exciting. In fact, it makes the disappointment of the revelation of the "secret weapon" even more than you might expect. The movie could have been a lot worse, I admit, but even sword and sandal movie fans might find this a bit of an ordeal to watch.

Despite being one of the late entries in the peplum genre, GIANTS OF ROME is one of the better historical adventures from the period – and that's mainly down to the plot. Instead of utilising the tired, unoriginal uprising/court intrigue-style plot, top Italian scriptwriter Ernesto Gastaldi opts for a storyline that's more akin to a WWII spy thriller than a standard historical adventure. This makes for a fresh-feeling adventure yarn full of intrigue and a surprisingly high body count. I've always enjoyed films where a select band of characters are whittled down one by one, whether it be a swords-and-sandal adventure flick or a backwoods slasher.Here, the characters are varied enough to remain different and interesting. Harrison, one of my favourite actors, is the clear-cut hero Claudius; instead of being a warm good guy, Harrison is a ruthless leader, in one scene allowing a boy to be tortured to death – all for the sake of the mission! Harrison's coldness makes him an atypical protagonist and the film's all the better for focusing on his ruthless characteristics. A varied bunch of actors support him, including Ettore Manni (almost unrecognisable without the beard), sexy love interest Wandisa Guida (great in GOLIATH AND THE DRAGON and just as good here), a teenage boy, a strongman barbarian-type (played by Rulph Hudson, unfortunately his only role) and a cool bald knife-throwing guy. Facing them is a bunch of druids (!) led by a guy who looks like that chap out of KNIGHTMARE.Although the dubbed dialogue is about average for this genre, what I enjoyed were a bunch of well-directed action scenes that never disappoint. There are some fine battles on horseback, and a great, claustrophobic climax in a cave where our surviving heroes are picked off one by one. An underwater attack on a couple of rafts is very well shot, as is the bit where the strongman meets his fate as he faces down a horde of attacking cavalry, using his axe to cut the horses' legs out from under them! As well as this, there's a crucifixion, a bit of self-imposed torture from Harrison, and even a traitor in the group to keep things moving nicely along. Antonio Margheriti is one of my favourite Italian directors and he does himself proud once again with this adventure flick. Fans of historical films will have a ball

Playing almost like a Roman-era version of THE GUNS OF NAVARONE (1961) – with an elite group of specially-skilled soldiers handpicked by Julius Caesar to go on a suicide mission and destroy the Druids' secret weapon – this is an agreeable time waster which is moved along at a brisk and efficient pace by prolific director Margheriti. He was perhaps the most erratic of the three Italian genre specialists (the others being, obviously, Riccardo Freda and Mario Bava) who basically set the foundation of what today is referred to as "Euro-Cult"; I've now watched some 9 of his films and the most satisfying have been his 2 horror outings starring Barbara Steele – THE LONG HAIR OF DEATH (1964) and CASTLE OF BLOOD (1964).Sensibly, THE GIANTS OF ROME does not opt to make its heroes invincible (as was usually the case in films of this type) and despite a happy ending, all but one member of the group lose their life in accomplishing the all-important mission. The "secret weapon", however, turns out to be a major let-down: though one of the Romans expresses great surprise at never having seen anything like it, a little while later the leader of the group refers to it by name as if he had been around such devices all his life! Still, the most hilarious moment of the film came when the leading lady solemnly tells our hero her life-story which includes the fate of her father, one Fulvius Lucisanus (Fulvio Lucisano being a leading Italian producer of the time, though he doesn't seem to have had anything to do with this particular title!!)