Last Days of Pompeii

Rating:
Summary: A monumental film of the old Romans with Steve Reeves
Review: A monumental film of the old Romans after the famous novel of Edward George Bulwer.
The film belonged in my young days (the sixties) to my favorite films. I admired particularly the good-looking Steve Reeves because of its
body. His partner was the young Christine Kaufmann, which became later woman of Tony Curtis. The movie-biographies are incomplete, the film were revised at sound and picture. Last Days of Pompeii is absolutely comparable with movies at this time like „The Robe" or
„Quo Vadis", maybe we miss only famous names of these films.

Rating:
Summary: DISGRACEFUL DVD release of a classic film. AVOID!!
Review: As a big fan of the Sword'n'Sandal genre I had really been looking forward to owning this movie, as I had seen it rated by many people as being THE best movie of this type.

Well first of all, I was extremely upset to find that this is yet another case of a lush, beautiful late 50s/early 60s period piece super-duper deluxe WIDE SCREEN movie being released in an el-cheapo panned and scanned FULL SCREEN version. In this movie's case, the vista must have been extra-wide, because it seems that at least 1/2 of the picture is missing at all times. Thus I found it IMPOSSIBLE to enjoy a viewing of this DVD. Not only that, but the print of the movie used is in extremely faded and poor condition.

This DVD boasts that as a bonus it also contains the full 1913 silent version. The print of the 1913 movie is in equally abysmal shape.

As for the movie itself, although it is very highly rated by many people, I personally did not enjoy it as much as Reeves' other flicks. The story centres around some oh so goody two-shoes Christians in Pompeii who are being persecuted by the oh so evil, underhanded and two-timing head priest of the local heathen-god worshipping temple and his equally heathen and Godless henchmen. I guess if you're a hard-core Christian you may enjoy it, but I found myself gritting my teeth at times at the utterly preachy plot.

It should be mentioned that this story was also made into a TV mini-series in 1984, and although it shared the same stilted plot with this movie, I found that it was still much more entertaining, enjoyable and watchable than this rather plodding and dated version. If the 1984 mini-series were to come out on DVD (hint, hint, DVD making people out there) --remastered and the FULL uncut mini-series that is--, I would be interested in owning it, what with its high production values and good actors.

As for this movie, if you're a Steve Reeves fan or a fan of 50s/60s Italian Sword'n'Sandal flicks you will probably still like it, but I would recommend waiting till a better DVD version is made. The lazy people who put out this present horrible version do not deserve to get another penny of anyone else's money.

Rating:
Summary: Last but not least
Review: Overall one of Steve Reeves best movies. Certainly his most lavish. Good sets, great arena scenes and quite a good ending showing (some of) the actual horrors of Pompeii'a destruction. Sure it's sword and sandel.But it's one of the best with some exciting action sequences. Mike Markowski....Dorchester, Ma.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointed
Review: We had read with interest the review from another person that gave the movie one star, and still thought we would try it ourselves. The movie is set for wide-screen so you miss most of the action. The acting is below average. We just returned from Pompeii and looked forward to seeing some scenery of how Pompeii looked prior to the volcano, but the setting was not of Pompeii. The plot was good and with good acting and directing, the movie could have been interesting. As it was, we cannot recommend it to anyone.