Troy (2004)

An American British Maltese peplum war film directed by Wolfgang Petersen, starring Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom.
Greeks, led by Achilles, invade Troy, defended by Hector. They fight, mostly over one woman.
This film was just like the armies depicted in it: astronomical number of cast members, slow moving, impersonal and only concentrated on war. There was an effort to give the plot a personal dimension by the conflict between Hector and Achilles and the multiple love affairs of Briseis. The characters were pretty shallow, probably because there were so many of them. The video all looked fine, except for where I saw the CG and live action separating (picture). We all know that shit ain't real! It was all very high contrast. The audio was actually good. Audible dialogue with appropriate music that was mixed well. Pacing is where we run into serious problems. The old Italian hour and a half peplum flicks were bad enough. This was THREE HOURS! I remember trying to watch it before and turning it off half way through because I got so bored. Overall, a modern sword and sandal peplum. I rate it bad for military and duration issues.

Maciste in King Solomon's Mines (1964)

An Italian action adventure sword and sandal film directed by Piero Regnoli, starring Reg Park.
The queen and child prince of a peaceful city escape as it is taken over by a violent man. They are captured and work as slaves in a gold mine. The local strongman, Maciste, who must save them, is also captured and has his mind erased by an anklet.
And yet another sword and sandal flick. This one was pretty standard issue. It had bar bending and lifting of heavy objects. Maciste also had his arms tied to separate teams of horses in an effort to pull him apart. The only thing that set it apart was that there were some African tribesmen in one part. Maciste also does a better job of bar bending than Hercules by actually removing the bars. I found a word for this type of film: Peplum. It basically means a sword and sandal flick. I'm rating this poor because it's the same crap as the other peplums.