Director Timur Bekmambetov
Staring Jack Huston, Toby Kebbell, Rodrigo Santoro
Rated M
Score 3/6

Judah Ben-Hur, a prince falsely accused of treason by his adopted brother, an officer in the Roman army, returns to his homeland after years at sea to seek revenge, but finds redemption.

I suppose considering that I took the old man to see this one it was take your father to work day (kind of). For the record no I did not refresh my memory by watching the 1959 version of Ben-Hur before going to see this one and considering I have vague memories of the last time I watched it was about 25 years ago watching the ’59 version is on the list of movies that I am going to review as soon as I can. Before going into this one you should know that this version has been labelled a re-adaption, reimagining or new interpretation when we all know that it is a remake (especially considering that this is the fourth remake with the original released in 1907 and subsequent remakes released in 1925, 1959 and an animated version released in 2003).you should also know that the 2016 version is 89 minutes shorter than the 1959 version and as I recall there were no sessions on the friendly neighbourhood cinema’s larger screens.
This version of Ben-Hur is an okay movie; there were some decent enough performances from both Jack Huston and Toby Kebbell and some pretty decent action spots during the chariot race. But when it gets down to it this REMAKE doesn’t have the same epic feeling as its ’59 predecessor. It was almost as if the filmmakers involved with Ben-Hur’s production where not entirely up to the task of exceeding the legacy of the ’59 classic and as we all know (except for the world’s studio executives) the reason for remaking a movie is to make a better version.