PEPLUM DVD reviews

I recently bought a couple of DVDs and Blu-rays and wrote about it here. I already mentioned the HERCULES and HERCULES UNCHAINED Blu-rays from Japan so I won't review them. Here's a quick rundown of the regular DVDs.


THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII - German DVD (Starlight/ Intergroove edition)

Steve Reeves in the arena. Spectacular.

Even though I already have this movie from various sources I wanted to see how good this German DVD was since I heard good things about it. Well, it's good but not as great as its reputation. Though the image quality is excellent pretty much throughout (see above) a couple of scenes are really badly transferred. See below. All in all, it's good but not great. Can't wait for the Blu-ray of this spectacular movie. Includes English, German and Italian audio.

Angel Aranda. Awful transfer during this scene. 

COLOSSUS & THE AMAZON QUEEN - German DVD (ALIVE AG edition)

Rod Taylor, Ed Fury and Dorian Gray.

I bought this German DVD in hopes of having a great version of this: no cuts and such. Well, the DVD is good but it's cut. The original version has brief title cards which have all been cut. Maybe the fact that they cut the original text, which were in Italian, because it would have been too complicated to translate those short scenes. Oh well. I like it but since there's no English or Italian audio, only German, the DVD falls short of being recommended. It was cheap though. Only 4 Euros.


MACISTE - AVENGER OF THE MAYANS - Spanish DVD (Naimara edition)

It says Ingles, or English, for audio but there's no such version

I bought this DVD of this rare movie because it stated on the back that the English track was included. I highly doubted it since it would have surface on the internet but I bought it anyway and lo and behold, there's no English track included. Not recommended at all.


GRANDES FILM CLASICOS DVD set (Impulso edition) -

I bought this set to see how good the transfers were. They are all excellent. Italian and Spanish audio included. I prefer watching the Italian version. The transfers are definite upgrades over what version were available out there. SAMSON & THE SEVEN MIRACLES OF THE WORLD is uncut. It includes the 10 minute missing at the start of the US cut. The previous copy of ATLAS IN TE LAND OF THE CYCLOPS was not bad but this one is beautiful. And SON OF SAMSON is the best upgrade. It looks so much better than any of the multiple versions I have in my collection. Some scenes are a bit too dark but the scenes set in the exterior are gorgeous. So, overall this set is very good. I wished they had the English audio. It would have made the set even greater.

Films included:

ATLAS IN THE LAND OF THE CYCLOPS (1961)

Gordon Mitchell in a scene from the movie. Good transfer.

SAMSON & THE SEVEN MIRACLES OF THE WORLD (1961)

Hélène Chanel seen in the 10 minutes cut from the US version. Good transfer with the contrast a bit too high.

SON OF SAMSON (1960)

Chelo Alonso and Mark Forest. This scene is a bit too dark but overall this transfer is a vast  improvement over the only US release.


THE CONQUEROR - US DVD (Good times home video)

This edition was release in 1999. It's still very good. Though the package says the aspect ration is 2.35:1 once I ripped the DVD it came out as 4:3. It's widescreen with black bars on top and bottom. I just had to remove the black bars and got a full widescreen version of this. There's a HD version scheduled (or already released?). I don't mind this movie at all and I don't understand why it's so hated. It's basically a B-movie with a great cast and production. Let's not take it too seriously. It only cost me $3.00 for the DVD so it was a great bargain. English, French and Spanish audio included. Without a doubt this is the best deal from this haul and I'm very happy with it.