Most helpful customer reviews
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3.0 out of 5 stars
Why can't Anchor Bay make up its mind, Sep 17 2004
By A Customer
This isn't about the show, or even the DVDs, this review is strickly about Anchor bay and their ever changing packaging.
It seems that as far as Hercules, Xena and Highlander are concernes, Anchor Bay can't make up it's mind how many disks to put in a set, how to put the disks in the set, or how to produce the set itself.
The last box sets in all three series were half an inch thinner than all the others, making these last packs look very odd when put next to the others. This is mostly due to a new box design that Achor Bay is now using which puts two DVDs in a single plastic case, one overlapping the other, instead of one case per DVD which had been the case up till then.
This may seem like a small gripe, but at the price these sets are going for, they should all look the same. It's particularly irksome for Highlander, because up until season five this was turning out to be one of the finest looking DVD collections ever, but with the new size for Season Five the whole thing looks like a mistake or a new series. In short, it looks like hell!
The other part of the complaint is the number of disks. It's eight, it's nine, it's ten! The seasons all have more or less the same number of episodes, why does the disk count keep changing? In one box set the tenth disk is in a thin cardboard enveloppe and tucked in the package, in another it has its own plastic tray like the DVDs!
Come on Anchor Bay, pick a system and stick to it, how hard is that?
I don't know how much money they saved making this last change to the two disk trays, but I'm sure it wasn't enough to warant the change. If you want to look at a disk that happens to be at the bottom, you have to take the other disk out. With ten disks, looking for you favorite shows can become difficult, messy, and potentially you could damage a disk.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Hercules Delivers Once Again!!!, Jul 26 2004
Hercules Season 4 delivered once again with its thrilling episodes. In this season, Hercules returned with his best friend, Iolaus, to face new characters and greater obstacles. For a change, humor was a major element in the adventures of Hercules and Iolaus. The audience is taken on a journey of fun and wild adventures with the main characters. The myths and legends of Hercules also took a new twist with, "Yes Virginia, There is a Hercules" which again was a very humorous episode. The script was well written and will surely leave the audience with enough suspense to keep on watching to see how the following episodes develop. The season ended with "Reunions" as Hercules decided to accept the offer and managed to help some people before Zeus's true motivations became clear. Hera finally got to fight him head on and the results were pretty interesting and eventful. This was a good ending since the audience was brought full-circle, but is urged to continue the journey with the return of Hercules. Season 4 DVD has awesome video and audio commentaries with the cast and crew. In each case, they outlined some of the problems and some of the funnier moments shared on the set, as well as background information on the episode.There is also a CD ROM that includes Director and cast biographies, a trivia game, and a database of trivia called The Hercules Chronicles. The other extras included are a photo gallery and an interesting featurette. I definitely recommend any fan to purchase this DVD box set because of all the bonus features made it worthwhile.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
More Bruce, More Comedy, Jul 14 2004
In the tradition of Hercules The Legendary Journeys, that was established after it became a regular series as opposed to a run of two-hour made-for-tv movies, humor plays the largest role in this season. Improperly done, this would have fallen horribly flat but, as it stands and taken for what it is, this is easily the wittiest and most creative season of the series as Kevin Sorbo comes into his own as a comedic straight man/action hero.
In the season opener, "Beanstalks and Bad Eggs", Hercules and Autolycus (played brilliantly by Bruce Campbell) are out to rescue Lianna, who had been kidnapped by the giant Typhoon and taken to a castle in the clouds. Upon climbing a giant beanstalk, the two unlikely partners find Lianna in Typhoon's castle, caring for three golden eggs that belonged to the Harpies. Without spoiling the rest, the high points to watch are Autolycus' explanation of the art of love and one of the classic lines of the series concerning the harpies.
The usual mixture of Pop Culture references, legend, myth and fairy tale which, though strange bedfellows are somehow a great combination, permeate this seasons episodes. In "Hero's Heart" we have a standard episode where Iolaus (Hercules' sidekick played by the very talented Michael Hurst) loses his memory and ends up fighting his best friend. Although this has been done to death in the science fiction/fantasy genres, it plays well in the Hercules universe.
There are three homages to modern cinema in this set. "...And Fancy Free" is Hercules The Legendary Journeys' answer to "Dirty Dancing." "My Fair Cupcake" is obviously based on "Pygmalion" which later became the musical "My Fair Lady" from which the title is derived and centers around the character of Autolycus and his former girlfriend. Thirdly, the high point of the season in movie rip-offs, "Men in Pink." A completely undisguised send-up of "Some Like It Hot," is worth the price of the set by itself.
In what becomes in later seasons a reoccurring event, the episode "Yes Virginia, There is a Hercules" introduces us to "reality" as some of the many regular stars of the show take on the interesting task of playing the crew and production staff of Hercules The Legendary Journeys. It seems that after an earthquake in Los Angeles, Kevin Sorbo has disappeared and chaos insues. There are in jokes we only now as casual viewers become privy to in an incredibly enlightening commentary on this one.
There are no lack of continuitous episodes and guest appearances from the sister series/spin-off Xena Warrior Princess but, at this point I felt the two series had diverged in respect to tone. Hercules, and rightly so, will always be heavily influenced by Sam Raimi and his unique sense of humor which is shared by series regular Bruce Campbell who directs a large portion of this seasons best. There are very good reasons that "cross-overs" were rare soon after these episodes though.
When all is said and done, this is money well spent and I just watched them all on a lazy summer day and have no regrets about time spent. I recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the series while it was on or even want a little taste of the action and humor of the Spider-man movies. This is the same creative staff.
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