Newest Ben-Hur movie is half the length of Charlton Heston’s Oscar-winning film

Movie Title: Ben Hur

Grade: B-

Rating: PG-13, 124 minutes

In a Nutshell: I grew up watching the 1959 Oscar-winning original every Easter when it would play on TV.

As a Christian, I’m always grateful to see religious-based movies hit the Big Screen. However, as a Christian, I’m often disappointed.

While the Charlton Heston adaptation earned 11 Academy Awards, this 6^th version will be mostly forgotten. Watch the original instead.

Uplifting theme:

Things I liked:

This was filmed at the same site in Rome as the 1959 movie.
Some of the sets were actually very good.
The Roman ship battle scene was very impressive. You’ll want to take a deep breath when it’s over.
The chariot race towards the end was brutal, action-packed, and pretty exciting.
Cheers to married couple Roma Downey and Mark Burnett who keep trying to bring family-friendly, inspiring movies to Christian audiences. In fact, this adaptation shows more scenes with Jesus than any other version of Ben-Hur.
Jack Huston sells us on his character’s development.

Things I didn’t like:

It doesn’t seem to have the same heart and soul as the Charlton Heston version.
The first half of the movie was a bit of a snore fest.
Choppy editing.
There is a lot of very obvious foreshadowing.
This remake doesn’t really add anything new or even offer a different perspective to give audiences a reason to watch it.
A lot of CGI, although it was done well.
I always feel so sad for the horses in these sandal and sword movies.
I wanted to cry and really feel something, but the few touching scenes were too rushed.
Yeow! Yeow! Yeow! Yeow! (chariot race)
This remake is half the length of Charlton Heston’s famous film that lasted almost four hours. Granted, four hours is really too long for a movie (the popcorn only lasts 20 minutes). I guess you could call this version “efficient.”
This movie will give you a headache if you see it in 3D. 2D is perfectly fine and enough.
When you see Morgan Freeman playing the old sage, you know this movie isn’t going to be offering anything new. I mean, how many times have we seen him play that role already? Don’t get me wrong. I do love him. But wait, Morgan Freeman in dreadlocks? That’s new.

Interesting lines:

“You’ve done enough. Now pray!” – Naomi (Ayelet Zurer)

“That’s progressive.” – Judah

“It’s the truth.” – Jesus

“Well, that’s not very comforting to the dead ones.” – Judah

“You should have killed me.” – Judah Ben-Hur (Jack Huston)

“I will.” – Messala

Tips for parents:

Fighting, blood, suffering, drowning, trampling. In other words, LOTS of violent sequences.
Some kids just don’t like older movies, so this newest version of Ben-Hur will be a nice introduction to this loosely-based Bible story for them.