8mm Forum: The New Ben Hur

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Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on August 19, 2016, 12:59 PM:

I just read a review in the paper of the new Ben Hur movie. It got only 2 stars. Apparently the famous chariot race scene, all with CG digitized horses and people, is a mess, and no match for the iconic real life chariot race of the Charlton Heston version.
The movie is expected to lose millions of dollars, and you have to ask why they even bothered to remake it.

Posted by Joe Taffis (Member # 4) on August 19, 2016, 01:04 PM:

I stopped going by critic reviews a long, long time ago. Some of my favorite films were hated by the critics...

Posted by Joe Caruso (Member # 11) on August 19, 2016, 01:18 PM:

Throwing in with Paul on this - As an actor, I apologize for the waste of celluloid, soem talent and very little originality - I know there are only seven original plots, that's another story - BEN-HUR was a great film by 1920 standards with Bushman and Navarro - The then-remake of 1959 attained greater acclaim (Oh, that Rosza score and variations on a theme) - The thought of a remake with best talent and location work, well, it certainly bears watching over and again - I'm again sorry, but with all the tech advances, this does darn little to elevate or garner any appreciation for a film of this epic - Not putting down the technicalities, they can enhance a supernatural work of course, but even then I'm old-fashione about some aspects - My nickel, Shorty

Posted by Steven J Kirk (Member # 1135) on August 19, 2016, 02:17 PM:

On the subject of action scenes and stunts it is a world of diminishing returns. The chariot race or the car chase in BULLITT, the audience knows and still can appreciate now looking back that it was all done for real. At least to large extent. It seems as if it could really happen and looks like it. Car chases now are ridiculous somersaulting CGI capers and people just laugh. I've been in the cinema and heard precisely that. I don't know how film-makers come back from this. Only you might make a 'real Ale' film with a 'pledge' of 'no CGI was used' as part of the publicity.

Posted by Brian Fretwell (Member # 4302) on August 19, 2016, 02:20 PM:

It would be ironic if the CGI chariot race showed tyre tracks from the camera car as the 1959 version is supposed to (I haven't seen them - I'm too busy watching the action).

Posted by David Hardy (Member # 4628) on August 21, 2016, 04:56 AM:

I wonder if it will get a release in the UK so I can get a
chance to see how bad it is .
Mind you Charlton Heston's hammy acting in the 1959 version
has not aged so well as the rest of the film. [Wink]

Posted by Mike Newell (Member # 23) on August 21, 2016, 05:33 AM:

I think it is scheduled for either Aug 26th or Sep 7th release in th UK but it will be blink and you miss it a lot of big blockbusters like Independence 2 and Star Trek have gone brough this summer very quickly. Film studios are lucky that a lot of the oversea market makes their box office returns these days particularly Far East and China. US market represents only 25%to 30% of the take. Between overseas returns , tv rights plus DVD and Blu-Ray they will make a profit. Sure their executiv producer "an absolute nobody "has been awarded her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the last month.

They don't

Posted by David Hardy (Member # 4628) on August 21, 2016, 08:45 AM:

Mike thanks for that information.
I will keep an eye open for it at the nearest Digima.
[Smile]

Posted by Luis Caramelo (Member # 2430) on August 23, 2016, 02:37 PM:

hi! just would like to say with Wall do respect to the crew guys of this production,they must be masoquists.

in these days ,unfourtanely,cinema becames na houge industrie,instead what we usualy call A R T...

Posted by Brian Fretwell (Member # 4302) on September 02, 2016, 06:38 AM:

Now set for release at my local IMAX (digital) screen cinema on Sept 7th. I went past and the big poster up is for the new Brigit Jones episode that is out later.
Seems they don't think Ben Hur will do well!!

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on September 02, 2016, 11:10 AM:

Thanks for mentioning "Bullit' with that great car chase! I bet McQueen really had his agents and incurance companies "blowing a gasket" over his insistence of doing his own stunt work on that car chase!

Posted by David Ollerearnshaw (Member # 3296) on September 02, 2016, 01:23 PM:

I remember thinking that green VW Beatles were very popular in San Francisco. Still a great film though.

Posted by Dave Groves (Member # 4685) on September 03, 2016, 03:57 AM:

Well the cost appears to be shared by Paramount and MGM so they must be expecting some sort of return. I asked at our local cinema if it would be showing and they said the posters for the film had been taken down upstairs and they had no indication, as yet, whether their bookers had actually booked it. Typical of some of our cinema chains. I emailed them last year to ask if a certain film would be showing and the manageress said she'd contact their booking group. Still waiting for a reply. I suspect 'Ben Hur's' chariot will roll right past us!

Posted by James Wilson (Member # 4620) on September 03, 2016, 05:15 AM:

Looks like another Dads Army.
Why bother to reinvent the wheel?

Posted by Terry Sills (Member # 3309) on September 03, 2016, 03:50 PM:

Talking of remakes - They are making them of 'Are you being seved'
'Porridge', 'Till death us do part', and others. What a waste of time. They will never be as good as the originals. What has happened to comedy writers? Have we lost the art of producing classic comedy to be reduced to scraping the barrel by producing these second rate remakes?

Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on September 03, 2016, 03:59 PM:

Agreed Terry. They belong in the era they were first written for.

An Alf Garnett couldn't survive nowadays in today's society.
Nor Leonard Rossiter, maybe Ronnie Barker in Porridge, but then again.. where are you gonna find another genius like Ronnie Barker or any of the above mentioned for that matter?

As for "Are You Being Served", to me, it was only ever mildly amusing to begin with!
Certainly no "Rising Damp" or "Faulty Towers", more like Terry & June! 😂😂😂

The comedy was genius for the era it was written, but that's where it belongs and that's where it should stay.

It's difficult to write comedy now I'd say and it remaining clean.
The world is more savvy, diverse and cynical now, not to mention multi cultural and therefore far more pc.

Can you imagine "Love Thy Neighbour" being on telly now?
Or would Julian Clary and Fanny The Wonder Dog or Mike & Bernie Winters make a living today?

Not so sure myself. 😂😂

Posted by Terry Sills (Member # 3309) on September 03, 2016, 04:51 PM:

You're right Andrew but the world might have become more diverse and pc, but at the cost of good old fashioned comedy which should not be restrained by such nonsense. Just glad I was born in an era where these things were not an issue.

Posted by Dave Groves (Member # 4685) on September 04, 2016, 06:24 AM:

Can't imagine Benny Hill even getting a look in today. How things have changed.

Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on September 04, 2016, 04:20 PM:

Me neither.

Posted by Steven J Kirk (Member # 1135) on September 08, 2016, 07:10 AM:

Chariots of Dire...

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/sep/08/ben-hur-review-bekmambetov-jack-houston-morgan-freeman

Posted by Dave Groves (Member # 4685) on September 09, 2016, 04:45 PM:

Well, I've seen it and enjoyed it in 3D with just 5 other people!!
It can't be compared in any way with the Charlton Heston epic. It somehow comes across as a rather ordinary film. The 3D was ordinary, the picture quality was ordinary, and I missed the colour and sharpness of the older production. But, having said that it wasn't anything like as bad as I'd been led to believe and even The Daily Mirror gave it three stars. It was a non demanding couple of hours with the chariot race scene occasionally looking like a carboard cut out. But, so what. I got in for half price!! Can't be bad.

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