Fresh and Exciting

Absolutely the worst movie.

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Les femmes portaient brassières et slips, le texte trop moderne, c'est pas crédible. Quelques bonnes scènes dans le bateau et la course de char. On a l'impression d'être dans un futur éloigné au lieu du passé.

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.

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

The screenwriters of this movie should be utterly ashamed of themselves. From the very start of the movie lazy use of a narrator (Morgan Freeman) reading what sounds like a fairy tale ... to the end of the movie which wraps everything up in a 15 minute stint in ultra hokey fashion this is a train wreck of a movie.The final scene where Judah and Masala are riding horses through a pasture together with a modern day female vocal which sounds like it's straight out of a Starbucks commercial is cringeworthy. The Director takes every idea from the original remake (Yes, the Heston version was a remake too) and puts a twist on it which completely destroys the original premise. The acting/writing makes every meaningful moment a complete joke.Example, every scene with Jesus feels like it is written in like an afterthought and the acting is so bad it almost feels like the start of a parody. You literally can't believe it's real. The scene in the 60s version where Jesus gives Judah water and vice versa is probably one of the most moving moments in screen history. Part of that comes from the fact that Jesus is not acknowledged as Jesus. He's just a stranger who has some mysterious lure ... Jesus in almost treated like the light inside the briefcase in Pulp Fiction in the Heston version. Until the end, you don't realize the significance. In this version, Jesus is almost a story within a story that feels like another movie which was randomly edited in.To remake Ben Hur was absolutely unnecessary and quite presumptuous in the first place. To make it a campy version of the Heston version was laughable. Kudos to the Director for agreeing to do something so insane ... he would have to be crazy, an incredible egotist or desperate for money to agree to such a project.The most famous scene in the movie ... perhaps any movie ... is the chariot scene. I reserve criticism for this scene because I did find it fairly entertaining. CGI makes you realize how amazing the cinematography was in the original Heston version! The Director and screenwriters do manage to ruin it with their campy schtick however by adding unbelievable events. Such as Judah being dragged from the back of a horse drawn chariot traveling 40 mph through dirt paths for almost 60 seconds before he pulls himself up onto the chariot with only minor dust on his white shirt. Or during a race in a giant arena with tens of thousands of screaming fans and while commanding 4 galloping horses, Judah clearly hears Morgan Freeman's character yelling instructions from the stands. Come on ...Morgan Freeman plays the part with no emotion. I think they got him for the voice-over and then decided to write the part in. Judah is not there when the rain from Jesus's death cures his relatives of leperacy and instead Morgan Freeman randomly appears with a bag of money to secure their release.Perhaps most stunning is the fact that after the Chariot race, there is no confrontation between Judah and Masala. The writing in the original was unreal. Here, Masala lives and at the end of the movie the hatred between Judah and Masala is wrapped up in 20 seconds with a hug and then the cringeworthy final shot of them riding horses to guitar music. As if it never happened. I have to believe that the movie was supposed to be longer and the suits cut it down and forced awkward rewrites which placed an hour's worth of scenes into 8 minutes because that is how the movie ends. If not, I cannot imagine any screenwriter would allow their name to be attached.John Huston cannot carry the movie. He starts out looking like Russell Brand with long hair and a beard in the first part of the movie. Not sure why they didn't start him with short hair like when he finishes. At the end of the movie he looks more like a movie star. From the first scenes he looks more like a roadie for a rock band. Masala is ho hum ... you can tell he is acting. The brooding doesn't seem authentic. Freeman calls his part in as a 'mystical' all knowing character. Par for the course lately. The other characters are just set dressing. Pontious Pilate is depicted as an evil army general (played well by the actor for the script's calling) which is an odd way to write that character who was known more as a judicial type with a conscience.Overall this is just a mess ... so-so acting, terrible directing and horrendous writing. Even the cinematography is done in a way where you get dizzy and it feels like all the shots were shot too close and need to be pulled back. Oddly, the movie did go by fast which was a very good thing considering. Not as bad as Noah or some of the other biblical cash grabs but still bad.