Ben-Hur
Ben-Hur
PG-13 | 19 August 2016 (USA)
Ben-Hur Trailers

A falsely accused nobleman survives years of slavery to take vengeance on his best friend who betrayed him.

Reviews
Micitype

Pretty Good

... View More
Tayloriona

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

... View More
Abbigail Bush

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

... View More
Roman Sampson

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

... View More
rickeymcgaughey

Great character development. I was on the edge of my seat throughout the entire movie. A masterpiece production. Bravo!

... View More
Leofwine_draca

I'm no fan at all of cinematic remakes and the decision to re-do the Charlton Heston classic seems very silly to me when there are plenty of flawed works that could do with being revamped. This film's fine enough as a stand-alone production but it pales in comparison to the original movie. For a modern film it's pretty decent, with plenty of historical accuracy and some nice actors chosen for the main parts. I enjoyed it well enough, at least until that ruinous pop song comes on just before the end credits, and even the religious aspect is handled quite sensitively. Jack Huston is a likeable lead who undergoes a huge character arc, and Toby Kebbell brings passion and depth to what could have been a stock bad guy role. The story flags at times but is generally lifted by solid action, sometimes featuring pretty poor CGI effects. The climactic chariot race is nowhere near as good as the original's, but I was surprised that it's still very good, especially so given that Russian director Timur Bekmambetov has previously made some very bad films indeed.

... View More
TheLittleSongbird

To me, and quite a number of others, the definitive 'Ben-Hur' version (also the best known) will always be the one from 1959 starring Charlton Heston and directed by William Wyler, a film that epitomises the term epic in every sense and in many ways iconic. A very strong case can also be made for the 1925 silent version, a huge achievement in its day and awe-inspiring in its spectacle.Unfortunately, this cannot be said for this 2016 version of 'Ben-Hur', nowhere near in the same league as the other two, pretty much insulting to them and the source material, and a mess of a film in its own right. Judging it as a film on its own, a lot of it is disastrously executed and a few good things only just about salvages it from being bottom of the barrel. It's not one of the worst remakes like 'Psycho', 'The Wicker Man', 'Rollerball', 'Ghostbusters' and 'Stepford Wives' to name examples, but to me it's down there with the most pointless and one where one questions "what was the need".Its least bad assets are some nice scenery, the sea battle scene that delivers on the tension and excitement that is severely lacking elsewhere and Jack Huston. Huston may not be as imposing or as charismatic as Heston especially, but he cuts a dashing figure and brings a quiet dignity to the title role and at least tries to give some likability. Elsewhere, 'Ben-Hur' is a failure.Visually, only the scenery is halfway decent. It is however wasted by the film constantly being shot in a far too dark and murky way, chaotic cinematography and editing that looks as though it was done on a on-its-last-legs bacon slicer. The CGI is excessive, feels shoe-horned in and gives even more of an inept video game look. Even the costumes look cheap and very anachronistic to boot.Sea battle apart, the action is undone by clumsy and chaotic choreography/staging, director Timur Bermambetov (directing throughout in a lifeless fashion, highly suggestive that he was not right for the material and clearly had badly misinterpreted it) taking it too far with the brashness and grit and by such a cheap visual look. The chariot race, brilliantly done in the 1925 film and iconic in the 1959 one, is too murkily shot, too choppily edited and too brash to be remotely exciting.Was not expecting music on the same level as one of a kind Miklos Rozsa, but this aspect was not only uninspired and forgettable it completely jars with the period and like Marco Beltrami had forgotten what kind of film he was scoring for. It's not the only thing that fails to gel. Failing even more are the forced and heavy-handed religious and cultural elements and especially one of 2016's most cringe-worthy, embarrassingly out of place and pointless scenes in Jesus' epilogue.'Ben-Hur' is very poorly written, with lots of melodrama and awkwardness and no heart or intrigue. The story really struggles to find its own identity and brings forth few ideas of its own. The famous scenes incorporated are completely diminished generally in impact, thanks to the visual ineptitude, being far too brash and breakneck in pace and the over-emphasis on the gritty tone. There is nothing epic here, instead one isn't ever entirely sure whether to consider it a completely soulless biblical drama or a completely humourless parody of 'Life of Brian'.Regarding the cast, near-uniformly poor. Excepting Huston, who still isn't particularly great. Toby Kebbell fails to bring much threat or complexity to Messala, who is more stock than menacing or conflicted. The scenes between him and Huston are too soap-operatic to be believable. Simonides and Quintas are so mishandled in screen time (under-utilised) and development (one-dimensional) that the point of them being there is questioned. Faring worst are Rodrigo Santoro, trying too hard as Jesus in an interpretation so bizarre and out of kilter it was like he accidentally wandered into the wrong film, and the normally dependable Morgan Freeman looking like he wasn't even trying.Overall, a mess with a lot of elements executed disastrously. There is definitely far worse out there but this was near-incompetent stuff with a few small salvageable elements. 3/10 Bethany Cox

... View More
robairlb-29914

well it is a great movie and who cares about the history if it is true or not since no one was there and no one knows if it is true or not...to me as an audience i enjoyed every moment of it, the story is amazing and the places where it is filmed is great, good music and the last chariot scene is brilliant

... View More