New Ben-Hur adaptation

[Mattapoisett64]

It bombed. I used to manage a movie theatre and if a movie comes out this late in the Summer season, then it most likely is a big budget, projected flop. Hollywood saves all the good stuff for: Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. The farther away from those dates, the less confidence the studios have in the film making any money and the less worthy it is for us to spend our $$.

The movie’s full US release was August 19th - about 36 hours ago. A tad early to say “It bombed?”

 

[MrZoom]

The movie’s full US release was August 19th - about 36 hours ago. A tad early to say “It bombed?”

It has a $100 million budget, and is on track to make only $11 million in its opening weekend. Unless it has incredible legs, it will be a bomb.

 

[Hoosier_Daddy]

The movie’s full US release was August 19th - about 36 hours ago. A tad early to say “It bombed?”

I think we can say it’s heading that way…

It won’t make money… It won’t be a popular movie with many age groups.

 

[anon67074017]

It is unfortunate that films that portray Christianity positively do not do well commercially. I guess that is the modern world that we live in. We would rather see films made by people that do not know God.

 

[Joe_5859]

Haven’t seen it, but my parents did and they both loved it. My mom was extremely skeptical about it and hadn’t wanted to watch it until she saw some interview with Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, who are producing (and also brought “Son of God” and the Bible miniseries to screen).

Of course the Heston version is a classic, but apparently the faith themes are even more prominent in this version (which is somewhat surprising to me). I was skeptical, but now I definitely want to see it.

 

[Terra_Rosarum]

In the Heston version (and in the old silent Ramon Navarro version) they used real horses and chariots for the race, not computerized special effects.

 

[Yeoman]

I haven’t seen the trailer, but the one thing that’s really struck me is that the television advertisements emphasize Judah Ben Hur getting his “revenge” in the chariot race.

The chariot race was a great scene in the original, but it left Ben Hur the character hollow, to be followed by his second encounter with Christ.

After all, the book was subtitled “A Tale of the Christ”.

I hope the remake still is.

 

[Joe_5859]

I haven’t seen the trailer, but the one thing that’s really struck me is that the television advertisements emphasize Judah Ben Hur getting his “revenge” in the chariot race.

The chariot race was a great scene in the original, but it left Ben Hur the character hollow, to be followed by his second encounter with Christ.

After all, the book was subtitled “A Tale of the Christ”.

I hope the remake still is.

It’s funny that the advertisements indicate that because from what I’ve heard, this version is less about revenge than was the 1959 version and more about forgiveness.

 

[Lost_Found]

The movie emphasizes our Lord more than the original. How often can you say that when comparing today’s movies to the 1950s?
The concept of forgiveness is very, very well done in this movie. I went in skeptical, after being burned with the movie Noah a couple years ago - which was hollywood’s stupid story having nothing to do with the scriptural Noah. They suckered us in and got huge box office numbers the first weekend…afterwards it flopped). The new Ben Hur movie was the opposite. We went in expecting to see an even more watered down depiction of Christ than the 1950s version. But we got much more than expected. It’s been decades since I’ve watched the 1950s version which is considered a masterpiece. I can’t easily compare, but this new version was still very enjoyable to watch. It seemed to have everything you’d want in a movie. Just bring your earplugs for the action scenes.

 

[Luvz2travel]

The movie was ok but lacked a bit of soul. I felt I was watching “300” (a graphic novel movie) at times the way it was filmed. They could have stayed closer to the book, had different charactors and still have made a different movie then the 1950s version. I found the end to be a little unbelievable to me and hokey. I couldn’t see the adopted brother who had the roman outlook forgiving and forgetting within 5 minutes of see Ben again. It just didn’t ring true. The 1950s version was a better movie for story telling and had a better ending. Just my take. They should have put the money into making another more interesting story. No one really wanted this remake. Folks in Hollywood will do what they want though.