I really wanted to like VENGEANCE OF URSUS but it's basically a kids film. There's nothing wrong with films aimed at kids as long as it still treats its audience with a certain amount of intelligence. Because this film is aimed strictly at kids here, the writers wrote a script that's full of easy and illogical contrivances. The movie suffered irremediably from it, no matter how much it tried. <br /><br />Scenes like the old man being stabbed on the wooden barge, while everyone on shore watches on and yet no one notices what just happened. This sets up the whole scene with the bad guys are trying to kill Princess Sira when she's on the barge with unsuccessful results because Ursus is there. The whole scene is an obvious set-up for facile heroics. One wonders why they even bothered to kill her when Ursus was there, visible for all, including the dumb villains, ready to save anyone in peril. And one wonders why they even bothered to kill Sira in the first place when the rest of the movie is about the villain, King Zagro, trying to force her to marry him?<br /><br />At one point, King Zagro actually marries Sira in a fake ceremony, with the Zagro's mistress standing in for the Princess. The Princess and mistress do not look a like so how does Zagro get away with it? The mistress (and bridesmaids) wears a mask during the marriage ceremony. Since when do women, certainly royalty, wear masks on their so-called happiest day of their lives? Everyone thinks that was the real Princess and they all rejoice in the new union of two Kingdoms. How easily duped. If marrying into a royal family was as easy as this, there would be hundreds of Kings out there. <br /><br />Ursus warns the Princess' father about Zagro's evil plot to marry her daughter and usurp his thrown. So what does the King do about this? He sends Ursus to the dungeon! When Ursus escapes from prison, the King is assassinated and Ursus is found with the knife that killed the King. How many times have we already seen this in other films?<br /><br />Evil King Zagro becomes King of Lecca overnight. When Zagro arrives at the new Kingdom, he's alone. No Princess. The Princess is not even there next to him, even if her father was just killed. You'd think the populace would be a bit suspicious about Zagro's intentions. Their king has been assassinated and Zagro is already there to take over, without the King's daughter to mourn the passing of her father? I mean, come on.<br /><br />At one point, Ursus has to prove he's innocent, that he's not the one who killed the King. So how do they go about this? By Divine judgment, or in other words, forcing Ursus to go through a series of feats of strength, like pulling against an elephant. Huh? That's a way to prove his innocence? But then after surviving those feats of endurance Ursus suddenly tells the ministers of the Kingdom about Zagro's army waiting in the forest nearby. When Ursus makes this announcement about the army, King Zabro literally appears in the room and the whole Kingdom is suddenly besieged by Zabro's soldiers.<br /><br />This begs the question: why didn't Ursus just tell the King about Zabro's army waiting in the forest before being sent to the dungeon? This would have prevented the King's death and Ursus' imprisonment and those feats of strength that could have killed him.<br /><br />This is my first film starring Samson Burke and I have to say that, physically speaking, he fits the bill for a S&S hero but the guy is kinda stiff! He stands in one arched position throughout the movie. He also looks a bit ridiculous swinging that Fred Flintstone papier mache club. No Peplum star, including Steve Reeves, looked serious with one of those silly props. The score is recycled music from other S&S films. The cast is the usual S&S actors, like Livio Lorenzon (seen in GOLIATH & THE SINS OF BABYLON and CHALLENGE OF THE GLADIATOR) and Gianni Rizzo (the TEN GLADIATORS films). There's also a kid, who's annoying but he's in one of the film's best scene: the kid hides in a vase and the leopard sniffs him there. The other memorable scene in VENGEANCE OF URSUS is the feats of strength. What's a Peplum without them? <br /><br />Like I said before, the whole script is riddled with such silly contrivances that it was almost impossible for me to enjoy it but being a fan of S&S films, it's watchable for sure, but then I would watch the cheesiest of them all and still be entertained. It's just not the best of the bunch.<br /><br />BTW, the title doesn't make any sense at all. There's no vengeance in this story.