(Cert 12A; 98mins)

Director: Brett Ratner

Starring: Dwayne Johnson, John Hurt, Ian McShane

Half man, half god, Hercules is one of the greatest figures in Greek mythology. As the opening voiceover points out: “His father was Zeus. THAT Zeus” just in case there is any confusion.

Based on the comic books Hercules: The Thracian Wars, Brett Ratner’s take on the big guy is more than serviceable.

Apart from the solid presence of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson who’s like a Schwarzenegger who can talk proper, the cast is of unusually lofty calibre; John Hurt, Peter Mullan, Rufus Sewell and Ian McShane all bring a lot to the party.

The predictable story is offset by a light post modernism and the action is virtually non-stop.

Fantastic battles, with 3D arrows whizzing out of the screen into your eyeballs, feats of strength that are more Samson than Herc and a genuinely alert script make this a turbo-charged update of the Italian sword and sandal epics that Steve Reeves and Reg Park used to make in the Sixties.