Hercules rescues a virgin named Deianeira from a cult. She tags along with him on his way to the lost city of Troy. Second of five TV movies that preceded the Hercules: The Legendary Journeys TV series. This one's possibly my favorite of them all. That's due to Renee O'Connor's extremely likable personality, charm, and comedic talent. She would, of course, go on to bigger things as Xena's sidekick Gabrielle in the Hercules spin-off. After this movie, Tawny Kitaen would play a character with the same name as O'Connor's character here. I don't believe they are intended to be the same character since there's no mention of this movie in the next one. The two actresses couldn't be more different, physically or otherwise. Whatever positive qualities Ms. Kitaen has, and I can think of two obvious ones, she is not as good an actress or comedienne as O'Connor. This is also the first appearance in the Hercules world of Robert Trebor, although playing a different role than the comic relief character Salmoneus that fans would come to either love or hate.

As with the other movies and the later TV series, this is a fun, colorful adventure shot on beautiful New Zealand locations. There's humor, drama, action, and some decent special effects for television. Nothing highbrow here but good old-fashioned escapism.

Hercules and the Lost Kingdom starts with a messenger (Alex Beasley) locating Hercules (Kevin Sorbo) & asking for his help to free the lost kingdom of Troy from the evil reign of the 'Queen of the Gods' & the evil Blue Priest (Nathaniel Lees). Hercules accepts & after some advice from his Father Zeus (Anthony Quinn) about how to find Troy he sets off on his quest. On his way Hercules saves a young woman named Deianerira (Renee O'Connor) from being sacrificed & takes her along with him, Hercules first task is to find Queen Omphale (Elizabeth Hawthorne) & a compass she has that will point the way to Troy. Hercules & Deianerira also have to face gangs of thugs, giant sea monsters & ninja's in purple capes & joke shop masks on the way to liberate the lost kingdom of Troy!

This American, New Zealand co-production was directed by Harley Cokeliss & is one of six feature length made for TV episode of the popular Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (1995 - 1999), well I think so anyway, it followed Hercules and the Amazon Women (1994) & preceded Hercules: The Legendary Journeys - Hercules and the Circle of Fire (1994) & I have no idea how this compares as I've not seen any of the other's or indeed any of the original TV series. The script by Christian Williams is good natured, light hearted fun, if you don't take it too seriously then quite a lot of fun can be had & even contains some half decent mildly amusing dialogue. It moves along at a nice pace although as a whole the story feels a little empty with Hercules not having much trouble finding Troy & not encountering much resistance once there. Having said that I tend to think it's squarely aimed at pre-teen children with very slapstick fights & comedy sound effect music, suits me down to the ground then... The character's are thin & undeveloped but then this isn't trying to win any Oscars is it? I would have liked a better bad guy as well, everyone likes a cool bad guy to hate & Hercules and the Lost Kingdom does itself no favours by not having one. Since this is made for TV it isn't going to have the production values of a Hollywood blockbuster, the cinematography is bland & unexciting, the effects are surprisingly decent especially a pretty good sea monster that doesn't get to do much unfortunately, the ply-wood sets & tea cloth costumes look a little on the cheap side though. The violence is as tame as it gets & there aren't many fights anyway. The acting is of not very high calibre as one would expect. Hercules and the Lost Kingdom is a perfectly entertaining & fun way to pass 90 odd minutes if your in the right mood & like this sort of medieval fantasy adventure stuff. Worth a watch for all ages.

This, the second of five TV movies that would lead up to the Hercules TV show, starts of with a giant coming to do battle with Hercules (Kevin Serbo). Afterwards, Herc is beckoned to help the people of the lost city of Troy escape the clutches of Hera, the queen of the Gods in the form of a water creature this time. So accompanied by Deianeira, a girl he saved from sacrifice to the Gods, despite her wishes, he goes off on a new quest to find the fabled kingdom. Even though I missed Michael Hurst as Iolaus in this one, I enjoyed seeing Robert Trebor (who would go onto the series later on) as the comic relief as Waylin the Slave. All in all, I found this film to be better than the first outing, but it's still not as good as the eventual show would become. Also In my previous review of "Hercules and the Amazon Women", I was extremely remiss in not mentioning the late Anthony Quinn as Zeus, well he's great in this as well as all the other Hercules telemovies.

My Grade: B+