"Great deeds make us immortal." - "We can't all be so fortunate." Indeed, so this didn't help anyone's career, I presume. Assisted by two young ladies (Milly Carlucci, Sonia Viviani),Hercules looks for the lost 7 thunderbolts of Zeus. One for example is hidden inside an electric fire monster he must hit on the head to cause a short circuit. Hercules flies around in space a lot (this is after all a movie by the director of "Star Crash") and beats monsters painted by a five year old: Rotoscoping at its worst. The only thing I missed in the 80s video game look was a "Game over" text insert. The gods are beamed to Earth in a flash of green light with a squeaking electronic noise. Glowing shapes that reminded me of advertising for washing powder (cleaning ghosts or something like that) attack Hercules, men in rotten rubber costumes do the same - the adversaries look a lot cheaper than those in the first movie which was already abysmal. This sequel is less fun because it is less ambitious. The huge pathos of the first movie, trying to be monumental, is what made it so funny. Here, it's just a quick rehash, much less entertaining.

Strong and courageous Hercule (a stiff, yet sincere performance by Lou Ferrigno and two insanely hot babes -- tender psychic Urania (the delicious Milly Carlucci) and feisty Glaucia (the equally delectable Sonia Viviani) -- must retrieve Zeus' seven stolen thunderbolts and thwart an attempted coup by four rebellious gods. Meanwhile, the evil and vengeful King Minos (a gloriously hammy William Berger) gets resurrected so he can settle a score with Hercules. Writer/director Luigi Cozzi once again strikes out something rotten with often sidesplitting kitschy results: the supremely asinine script (among the perils Hercules faces are a hostile upright humanoid shag rug, yucky slime people, and a tribe of ferocious Amazon women, plus we get an unnecessary recap of the creation of the universe!),liberal use of stock footage from the first flick, subpar (far from) special effects, the ludicrously serious tone, an absurdly solemn narrator, dippy 80's video game style sound effects, terrible dubbing, crummy acting (Claudio Cassinelli as a decidedly unimpressive Zeus cops the top thespic booby prize; he resembles a bargain basement Santa Claus with his laughably fake white beard and wig!),ham-fisted use of strenuous slow motion, cheesy excessive rotoscoping, and a simply astounding climactic confrontation between Hercules and King Minos in outer space (Herc turns into a giant gorilla while Minos transforms into a savage dinosaur!) all add immensely to the considerable unintentional hilarity. Pino Donaggio supplies an exceptionally lively and stirring full-on orchestral score. Alberto Spagnoli's slick cinematography gives the movie a blindingly garish Day-Glo shine. A complete campy hoot.

Luigi Cozzi decided to bring back Lou Ferrigno to be Hercules one more time. Now, Hercules must search for the seven thunderbolts of Zeus, which have been stolen by renegade gods. There was only one trouble: he only had three weeks to film this one, so plenty of the story is padded out by showing scenes from the last movie.

The movie begins by telling the story of Zeus' Seven Mighty Thunderbolts that have kept peace throughout creation. But one day, Aphrodite, Hera, Poseidon and Flora (Margit Evelyn Newton, Maria Rosaria Omaggio, Ferdinando Poggi and Laura Lenzi) steal them, taking away the leader of the god's power and sending the moon flying at Earth.

The Little People tell the sisters Urania and Glaucia (Milly Carlucci and Sonia Viviani, who is in Nightmare City and The Return of the Exorcist) that only Hercules can save them. Zeus - remember how he had no power - sends Hercules back from the stars to help mankind, but the evil gods resurrect King Minos (William Berger) from the last movie and have Dedalos (transgender actress Eva Robin's) help him with her powers of science.

Hercules battles everything in this movie from giant apes to Slime People, a Gorgon, a knight that fires lightning bolts and hangs people from trees, the fire monster Antaeus, the Queen of the Spiders and then Minos, who transforms into a giant laser dinosaur, to which Hercules says, "Watch this" and becomes a laser King Kong. No, that's not the drugs talking. This really happens.

Zeus then grows Hercules as big as the universe and he moves the moon and Earth back to where they belong. Then, Urania sacrifices herself, as her body contains the last thunderbolt. Zeus then allows both her and Hercules to live amongst the gods in space.

Cozzi claims that this movie wasn't planned as a sequel. He was asked Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus to come in and save The Seven Magnificent Gladiators and they loved the scenes that he shot. Then, they asked him to write a story around them and film more footage with Ferrigno, all without telling him that he was really shooting another Hercules film.

While not as amazing nor as entertaining as the original, the end - with the laser monster fight - must be seen to be believed.