A Man Who Wants Nothing Cannot be Bought - Hercules and Godzilla

A few more films from my Amazon subscription, both based on legends old and new.

The first is based on one of the oldest Greek legends. After completing his twelve labours, a war-weary and haunted Hercules (Dwayne Johnson) and his companions Amphiaraus (Ian McShane), Autolycus (Rufus Sewell), Tydeus (Aksel Hennie), Atalanta (Ingrid Bolsø Berdal) and his nephew Iolaus (Reece Ritchie), are hired by King Cotys of Thrace (John Hurt) to defend his kingdom from ruthless bandits.

Despite a slightly shaky start, this turns out to be quite a good film. It's a good story and deceptive enough to keep you second guessing almost until the end; the special effects aren't too bad; and the acting is more than adequate, the effect of all the class British thesps in supporting roles encouraging Dwayne to raise his game above previous attempts. Recommended as an above average pizza movie.

In contrast we have as my second film, Godzilla: a remake of a remake of a modern Japanese legend. Fifteen years after his wife dies in a mysterious accident at a Japanese nuclear power plant, engineer Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston) breaks into the quarantined area with his estranged son Ford (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) to get answers.

I suppose that if you like the original Japanese movies, this will be quite a good experience, even nostalgic. For me, however, it was a little tedious. Most of the "A" listers had gone by the time the movie got going and all that was left was three huge monsters slugging it out in San Fransisco. In the dark.