8mm Forum: The New Ben Hur

8mm Forum

my profile | my password | search | faq | register | forum home

next oldest topic

next newest topic

»	8mm Forum » General Yak » The New Ben Hur

UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!

Author

Topic: The New Ben Hur

Paul Adsett
Film God

Posts: 5003
From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted August 19, 2016 12:59 PM

Send New Private Message

Edit/Delete Post

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.

--------------------
The best of all worlds- 8mm, super 8mm, 9.5mm, and HD Digital Projection,
Elmo GS1200 f1.0 2-blade
Eumig S938 Stereo f1.0 Ektar
Panasonic PT-AE4000U digital pj

| IP: Logged

Joe Taffis
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1592
From: United States
Registered: Jun 2003

posted August 19, 2016 01:04 PM

Email Joe Taffis

Send New Private Message

Edit/Delete Post

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

--------------------
Joe Taffis

| IP: Logged

Joe Caruso
Film God

Posts: 4105
From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted August 19, 2016 01:18 PM

Send New Private Message

Edit/Delete Post

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

| IP: Logged

Steven J Kirk
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 873
From: Southern England
Registered: Apr 2008

posted August 19, 2016 02:17 PM

Email Steven J Kirk

Send New Private Message

Edit/Delete Post

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.

--------------------
VistaVision
Motion Picture High-Fidelity

| IP: Logged

Brian Fretwell
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1785
From: London, UK
Registered: Jun 2014

posted August 19, 2016 02:20 PM

Email Brian Fretwell

Send New Private Message

Edit/Delete Post

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).

| IP: Logged

David Hardy
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 955
From: Johnshaven Village , Montrose, Scotland
Registered: Jan 2015

posted August 21, 2016 04:56 AM

Send New Private Message

Edit/Delete Post

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]

[Wink]

--------------------
" My equipment's more important than your rats. "

| IP: Logged

Mike Newell
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 826
From: United Kingdom
Registered: Jun 2003

posted August 21, 2016 05:33 AM

Author's Homepage

Send New Private Message

Edit/Delete Post

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

| IP: Logged

David Hardy
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 955
From: Johnshaven Village , Montrose, Scotland
Registered: Jan 2015

posted August 21, 2016 08:45 AM

Send New Private Message

Edit/Delete Post

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

[Smile]

[Smile]

[Smile]

--------------------
" My equipment's more important than your rats. "

| IP: Logged

Luis Caramelo
Master Film Handler

Posts: 494
From: Funchal
Registered: Feb 2011

posted August 23, 2016 02:37 PM

Send New Private Message

Edit/Delete Post

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...

| IP: Logged

Brian Fretwell
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1785
From: London, UK
Registered: Jun 2014

posted September 02, 2016 06:38 AM

Email Brian Fretwell

Send New Private Message

Edit/Delete Post

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!!

| IP: Logged

Osi Osgood
Film God

Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005

posted September 02, 2016 11:10 AM

Author's Homepage

Send New Private Message

Edit/Delete Post

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!

--------------------
"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "

| IP: Logged

David Ollerearnshaw
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1373
From: Penistone Sheffield UK
Registered: Oct 2012

posted September 02, 2016 01:23 PM

Author's Homepage

Email David Ollerearnshaw

Send New Private Message

Edit/Delete Post

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

--------------------
I love the smell of film in the morning.

http://www.thereelimage.co.uk/

| IP: Logged

Dave Groves
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 508
From: Southend on Sea, Essex, UK
Registered: Feb 2015

posted September 03, 2016 03:57 AM

Send New Private Message

Edit/Delete Post

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!

--------------------
Dave

| IP: Logged

James Wilson
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 230
From: Norwich, UK
Registered: Jan 2015

posted September 03, 2016 05:15 AM

Author's Homepage

Send New Private Message

Edit/Delete Post

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

--------------------
James Wilson

| IP: Logged

Terry Sills
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1423
From: Weymouth,Dorset,England
Registered: Oct 2012

posted September 03, 2016 03:50 PM

Send New Private Message

Edit/Delete Post

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?

| IP: Logged

Andrew Woodcock
Film God

Posts: 7477
From: Manchester Uk
Registered: Aug 2012

posted September 03, 2016 03:59 PM

Edit/Delete Post

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. 😂😂

--------------------
"C'mon Baggy..Get with the beat"

| IP: Logged

Terry Sills
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1423
From: Weymouth,Dorset,England
Registered: Oct 2012

posted September 03, 2016 04:51 PM

Send New Private Message

Edit/Delete Post

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.

| IP: Logged

Dave Groves
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 508
From: Southend on Sea, Essex, UK
Registered: Feb 2015

posted September 04, 2016 06:24 AM

Send New Private Message

Edit/Delete Post

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

--------------------
Dave

| IP: Logged

Andrew Woodcock
Film God

Posts: 7477
From: Manchester Uk
Registered: Aug 2012

posted September 04, 2016 04:20 PM

Edit/Delete Post

Me neither.

--------------------
"C'mon Baggy..Get with the beat"

| IP: Logged

Steven J Kirk
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 873
From: Southern England
Registered: Apr 2008

posted September 08, 2016 07:10 AM

Email Steven J Kirk

Send New Private Message

Edit/Delete Post

Chariots of Dire...

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

--------------------
VistaVision
Motion Picture High-Fidelity

| IP: Logged

Dave Groves
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 508
From: Southend on Sea, Essex, UK
Registered: Feb 2015

posted September 09, 2016 04:45 PM

Send New Private Message

Edit/Delete Post

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.

--------------------
Dave

| IP: Logged

All times are Central

Move Topic

Delete Topic

next oldest topic

next newest topic

Printer-friendly view of this topic

Visit www.film-tech.com for free equipment manual downloads. Copyright 2003-2019 Film-Tech Cinema Systems LLC

UBB.classic^TM 6.3.1.2