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 Colossus and the Headhunters More at IMDbPro »Maciste contro i cacciatori di teste (original title)

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8 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
It Is Really a Bad Movie, 7 March 2010
3/10
Author: Claudio Carvalho from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Maciste rescues Ario, the son King Sandor, and his people from their land in a volcanic island that blows-up and they sail to the Land and Urias in a long and dangerous voyage. They are captured by the Urias but when the Queen Amoha meets Maciste, she tells that the traitor Kermis has joined the tribe of Head Hunters and slaughtered her people, but the warrior Taro has saved them from the annihilation; however, her father King Olibauna was missing in action. She asks Maciste to help her against the Head Hunters, but Maciste tells that he is protecting the tribe of Ario. When the Urias are attacked by the Head Hunters, Maciste decides to help Queen Amoha.

"Maciste Contro i Cacciatori di Teste" is really a bad movie and deserves the low IMDb User rating. The story has an abrupt beginning, a predictable screenplay, poor special effects and terrible acting. I saw this movie in a low-quality VHS released by Reserva Especial Video to make it worse. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "Maciste Contra os Caçadores de Cabeças" ("Maciste Against the Head Hunters")

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5 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
"Ohhhh, DON'T hop over the bodies...!", 24 April 2005
3/10
Author: lemon_magic from Wavy Wheat, Nebraska

This isn't the worst movie I've ever seen, or even the worse 'Maciste' movie I've ever seen...believe it or not, this movie is an order of magnitude better than "Maciste Against Hercules In the Valley Of Woe". It is a clunker of a sword-and-sandals movie, but it still has a kind of innocence about it, as if the actors and the film crew knew they were just churning out product, but still had some pride in their work.

For some reason, the folks who brought it over to the English speaking world didn't want to admit this was another in the series of terrible 'Maciste' movies and so it went by the title of 'Colossus and the Headhunters'.

The plot is a drunken walk which makes even the later Hercules movies look coherent and well thought out. The whole thing is really just an excuse to show off the physique of the actor playing Maciste/Colossus as he strains to open doors, pick stuff up, throw stuff, topple a tower onto some fighting villagers, etc. (There's also some decent sword fighting and a nice thing where he beats up bad guys with chains and other props.) But there isn't really all that much of him in the movie, which see below. It's mostly just minor character actors and extras running around in loincloths and armor and hitting each other with swords and clubs.

This guy named 'Kirk Morris' who plays Maciste is built pretty well. He resembles a latter day Strongfort or Maxim. But aside from a really tiny waist and some decent pecs, he isn't really all that impressive as a centerpiece for a film about a Body. It also seems to me that most of the time he's sucking in his gut so hard that he has very little energy left to 'act' with, and this also results in his tending to move as if someone stuck a poker up his backside. This could be why Maciste hardly DOES anything in this film, at least compared to a typical Hercules film where half the film is Herc front and center in the action, beating the stuffing out of the bad guys...Steve Reeves and Reg Park (and even "Alan Steele") could move quite convincingly on short notice,but poor Kirk Morris might have been somewhat out of his league in meeting action hero demands.

Yet another terrible dubbing job makes it hard to tell how good the writing and the acting actually is, but you can bet that this film started out as throwaway hackwork and was dragged down several more notches by the dub. I'll give 'em the benefit of the doubt and say that the writing and acting in its original language would be slightly better than a Republic chapter serial.

There is a hilarious moment in the MST3K version of the movie where three of the good guys set out from the ravaged village where a major fight has taken place in pursuit of the kidnapped princess, and they just skip right over some of the fallen corpses of their fellow villagers on their way out of the square. Mike and the Bots moan in disbelief, "Ohhhh, DON'T hop over the bodies...! That's just wrong!"

You'd be better off counting cross-stitch than wasting time with this movie, but it's harmless enough.

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3 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
Better than TRIUMPH OF THE SON OF HERCULES but that's not saying much, 6 April 2007
4/10
Author: Bryce David from Psychotronic land

Having seen TRIUMPH OF THE SON OF HERCULES first, I can categorically say that, aside from the really stupid title, COLOSSUS AND THE HEADHUNTERS was an improvement over its sequel. More entertaining with some good production values. The scenes at the crypt were excellent and effective. When they're on the raft and the island sinks, we see a shot of the exploding island from the raft, which is realistic looking.

The film starts slowly: talk, talk, talk. But once the action gets going, it gets better. People are massacred and women are kidnapped and "carried away". Ah, kids movies of the 1960s. To add more goofiness to the action, the music is often totally incongruous. At times, it's whimsical and upbeat even if what's going on is not.

Kirk Morris, aka Adriano Bellini, looks buff and healthy but he's a very bad actor. Thankfully, his talents were strictly focused on his physique. The one good thing about Morris is that, with his curly hair and all, he really looks Mediterranean, unlike most actors playing these kind of heroes in Sword & Sandal films. As bad at acting as Morris is, everyone in this film is on his level of bad acting, so he really doesn't stand out in this case. A school play as more convincing acting than this.

The film is also a colossal display of beefcake. There are three different "tribes" here. The people from the raft, the civilized people and the headhunters. The director obviously enjoyed cramming as many barely dressed men on screen as humanly possible.

Lastly, the best moment in the whole film is the dance by Maona(?) during the marriage ceremony. It has to be seen to be believed. Seriously, if you watch this movie, watch it just for this scene. The woman gives the most memorable "dance" in the history of cinema.

Is this worth watching? If you're not a fan of Peplums, no. Only Sword & Sandal completists like me should bother watching something like this and even then...but as bad as it is, I've seen much worse Peplums than this.

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1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Maciste Settles An Island Feud, 31 December 2010
1/10
Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Colossus and the Headhunters finds Maciste leading a bunch of people off an island that's about to do a Krakatoa in the ancient world. Possibly this was the lost Atlantis although the film never says so. They sail huddled together on one really big raft that should never have proved seaworthy that long for so many people, about 25 of them. Kirk Morris manages to get them miles away to a new island.

Where they find two feuding tribes, the bad people who are headhunters and the good people who aren't. A good people traitor has allied himself with the headhunters in the hopes of taking over everything. Maciste tries an isolationist policy, but when that doesn't work, you know who he's going to help.

That's the movie in a nutshell and other than admiring Kirk Morris's physique there just ain't anything more to it.

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A quest in confuse-o-vision, 14 March 2011
5/10
Author: InzyWimzy from Queens, NY

Who are these people? Where are we going? Are we the good guys or the bad guys?

This film has its stints of non stop action and mayhem and even more and more padding of either someone or a large group of people moving from point A to point B. It is hard to miss the kempt hair of Maciste (personally I prefer a chicken sub to cheesesteak) as he combats the merciless Headhunters. Note Nello Pazzafini playing one of the tougher baddies who also appeared in Danger!! Death Ray (Nello sure was in a lot of films!). More amusing stuff includes Amoa's Easter Egg hat hair, village bonfires, and death by archery. Also, one of the wackiest moments is the less than stellar choreographed dance to appease the gods by Amoa's right hand maiden Moana.

Not exactly up alongside the Hercules films, but fun in a goofy sort of way.

Fave line: "Then what happened?"

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Kirk Morris Flexes In, 27 February 2009
4/10
Author: wes-connors from Earth

For Italy and the world, handsome and muscular Kirk Morris slips into his Herculean loincloth, as "Maciste". He saves part of a tribe from the catastrophic blow-up of their island. Mr. Morris befriends less muscular Demeter Bitenc (as Ariel). Their splintered tribe sails to a new land, but has trouble mixing in with warring inhabitants. Morris tries to save beautiful Laura Brown (as Amoa), a tribal queen, from marrying the man who blinded and kidnapped her father.

Guido Malatesta's "Maciste contro i cacciatori di teste" was inappropriately re-titled "Colossus and the Headhunters" in the translation from Italian to English. There are some good sets and moderately exciting sequences. Some of the footage may be flown in from another movie, but it is nicely inserted. Morris makes a good enough "Maciste"; as you might expect, this isn't a film to showcase one's acting prowess.

**** Maciste contro i cacciatori di teste (1960) Guido Malatesta ~ Kirk Morris, Demeter Bitenc, Laura Brown

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3 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
It's Just Missing a Monster to be Classically Bad, 17 April 2004
1/10
Author: dbborroughs from Glen Cove, New York

With out a doubt this is one of the worst Sword and Sandal films ever made. Its absolutely stuck in the 1960's bad movie style that it was made and will never rise again except as something that the Mystery Science 3000 crew might rip apart.

Who made this? Can we stop them from ever doing it again?

The movie begins with and island blowing up and Maciste saving some of the inhabitants on his raft. If your jaw isn't hanging down around your knees by the time they have set sail you obviously haven't been paying attention. From there the group ends up on another island where two warring peoples are duking it out.

Did I say Island? Think Bavaria or the Alps, or somewhere with Vikings and Indians...and caves and...

Don't ask. Please don't, I lost the ability to speak when the island blew up and I don't know when I will be able to speak.

This is either a movie that will clear a room or fill it depending on how those in the room feel about picking on a really bad movie. This is a movie that must go on the list of all time clunkers- a talk backers treasure trove of stupid actions and dialog.

Frankly the only thing missing from making this the perfect bad movie, or the shining example of bad Sword and Sandal movie, is the fact that there is no monster. If this movie had a really bad monster of the rubber, or furry suit variety this would be perfect cheese... and a stuffed lion or tiger for someone to wrestle with...that would truly make it a perfect sit at home with friends and pick on the movie movie.

Under no circumstances watch this alone, it could prove deadly. I mean honestly, if you tried to watch this straight your brain would boil and you'd end up locked away in a padded cell and straight jacket until you die, because frankly its just that bad.

One out of ten, only because I can't go lower.

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1 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Pass the caffeine, 1 April 2007
1/10
Author: bensonmum2 from Tennessee

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Colossus and the Headhunters should come with a warning similar to those found on bottles of medicine. Inducing drowsiness or sleep is an understatement - leaving the viewer comatose is more like it. Colossus and the Headhunters is the very definition of a dull movie. Every single moment is a complete and utter bore. Erupting volcanoes and battles between armies have all the excitement of taking a bottle of sleeping pills. The actors certainly don't help matters any. The present all the life and vitality of a tree stump. Kirk Morris as Colossus (actually he's called Maciste (pronounced ma-cheese-steak) in the movie) is the worst offender. You would have to search far and wide to find a more unappealing, do-nothing hero. He's even late for the film's "climatic" battle scene.

If you must watch Colossus and the Headhunters, make sure you've just had a good nap, load-up on the caffeine, and grab some toothpicks to help hold your eyes open. You're gonna need it.

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2 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
I'm not your Cheese Steak!, 5 October 2006
2/10
Author: Dextrousleftie from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Lame, cheesy Italian movie(enough said) about a hugely buff David Hasselhoff wannabee who does just about nothing throughout the whole film except flex his pecs and walk around a lot. The 'plot' is about an island about to be blown up by a volcano, whose inhabitants just HAPPENED to be rescued by the over muscled pin head who shows up n a raft just in time! Either these folks have really efficient Gods, or this is all a dream sequence a la Dallas.

Anyhoo, these folk(most of whom are REALLY skinny guys in loin clothes) float around for awhile and then end up on another island. This 'island' has more land on it than the whole of Asia, but whatever. Cheese Steak...errr....Maciste...wandered around and then gets shot by some hunters, who apparently were following the grand centuries old tradition of getting completely soused before they went out to hunt. The survivors, meanwhile, are herded together by a bunch of guys wearing patterned table clothes on their heads and equally short, silly loin cloths(What is it with the Italians and their fascination with tiny loin cloths!). They all end up in the village of the Urius(I think that's what they were called, anyway), who are being threatened by a local tribe of head hunters. We're deep in HUH territory by now, because you're trying to figure out what Greeek island had that much mass, and was also infested with head hunters.

There's some fighting, which our 'hero' sits out of, but then this bloated puss actually does very little fighting throughout the film, despite the fact that he's the big, bad star. The people get taken by the head hunters, and their Queen is being forced to marry a bearded Kermit the Frog(okay his name is Kermes, but the way that everyone says it makes it sound like Kermit). There's long parts where nothing happened, and Colussus(or Cheese Steak, or whatever) wanders around a set with a gay guy. Then there's a climactic last fight, in which AGAIN out hero sits out most of it! Thn he leaves on his raft, and is followed by the Queen(so she likes gay men? Well, whatever floats your...errr....raft, Lady). He tells her that his life is nothing but danger, which is a laugh and half considering how little he actually did in this film. And th at's it, as they sail off into the sunset. I wish that they'd LITERALLY sailed off into the sunset, that would have been funny to watch.

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6 out of 18 people found the following review useful:
a truly awful experience, 14 January 2006
1/10
Author: jerome_horwitz from USA

Remember the first time someone put a stink bomb in your backpack, and when it broke it ruined everything in there and for the rest of the year your bag, books, and gym clothes still smelled like stink bomb?

Remember when there was that time you had the number 2 emergency and just couldn't make it to the restroom in time?

Remember the first and last time you grabbed the milk jug out of the fridge, opened it and with out hesitation quickly grabbed a couple quick chugs only two realize that it was no longer milk and had spoiled a few days ago?

Remember that feeling you got the first time you got pulled over by a police officer and you knew you were totally screwed and there was no way you were getting out of this one?

Remember the first time you really had a nightmare, and it really nearly scared you to death? Maybe you had sleep paralysis and thought you were being held down by some unknown presence and couldn't move, breathe or scream?

Do you remember any of that?

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