Reg Park is Hercules.

There is a new wave of articles bitching about Hollywood remakes and sequels and prequels and general unoriginality lately. One of my issues with Hollywood is the faces. It's been talked about a hundred times before, but don't you get sick of seeing the same famous people all the time?
This is one of the draws for me, to independent and foreign films. Sometimes I want to see people I don't recognise from anything else.

Reg Park was a world class bodybuilder. He had ten Mr. Universe titles and was a mentor to Arnold Schwarzenegger. He was the second man to ever bench press 500 lbs. But I only learned about these things in researching Reg Parks for this post. To me, Reg Parks IS Hercules!

Aside from yelling at Arnold Schwarzenegger off screen and presenting an award in Pumping Iron, Reg Parks only made sword and sandal films. Five of them to be exact. Four were Hercules films (or renamed as Hercules films after release) and one was part of the Maciste series.

Hercules in the Haunted World and Hercules The Avenger are amongst the best of the genre. You can get both of them on Netflix.

Sorry to sound like an old fogey with my "In my day..." crap. I really try not to think like that. BUT another big bitch I have with Hollywood is the pussification of the action star. I knew action films in the U.S. (thanks, Derrick, for turning me onto Tony Jaa) were tarnished beyond repair when little Tommy Cruise rode a CG explosion in Mission Impossible. CG allowed for the pretty boys to become the action heroes.

Now, look at Reg Park's face. LOOK AT IT! He is not a pretty man. He is a man who strangles lions.

"Don't trust the shadows of Hades!"