BEN-HUR : Wednesday 31st August 2016.

'BEN-HUR' is the fifth feature length big screen adaptation of the 1880 source novel 'Ben-Hur : A Tale of the Christ' by Lew Wallace. First made in 1907 in the form of a fifteen minute film, it was remade in 1925 in an epic silent film, the classic William Wyler Directed epic of 1959 with Charlton Heston, and an animated feature in 2003 starring the voice of Charlton Heston and made by his production company. The 1959 production of 'Ben-Hur' against which this 2016 version will inevitably be judged was budgeted at US$7M and blew out to US$15M and was the most expensive film ever made for its time, and used 1.1 million feet of film for principal photography, that was edited down to 19,000 feet for the final cut. The theatrical release ran for 212 minutes, and used a cast of thousands, literally, including 200 camels, 2,500 horses, 10,000 extras with 365 Actors having speaking parts. Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Rock Hudson, Paul Newman, Marlon Brando and Leslie Neilsen were all considered for the role of Judah Ben-Hur which went to Charlton Heston. The film opened to huge critical acclaim and delivered US$74M in Box Office receipts delivering MGM Studios over US$20M in profits and saving it from bankruptcy. The film was nominated in 12 categories at the 1960 Academy Awards and won an unprecedented eleven including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Cinematography and Best Effects. It also won four Golden Globes and one BAFTA - all up 27 wins and 13 nominations. It's Oscar wins have not yet been surpassed, matched only by 'Titanic' in 1998, and 'Lord of the Rings : The Return of the King' in 2004. Will Timur Bekmambetov's 2016 retelling of this classic tale live up to those heady expectations - both critically and commercially - you'll have to decide for yourself!

And so for a whole new audience possibly unfamiliar with the source material or the earlier films, comes this US$100M production Directed by Timur Bekmambetov. Most of you will know the age old story set in AD33 with Jack Huston playing Judah Ben-Hur - a Jewish Prince who has grown up with his adoptive brother, Messala Severus (Toby Kebbell), a Roman orphan in privileged surroundings in Jerusalem. The two have grown up to adulthood very close, as if blood brothers, with their mother Naomi (Ayelet Zurer), father Simonides (Haluk Bilgier) and sister Tirzah (Sofia Black D'Elia) whom Messala has the hots for. There is also a servant in the household, Esther (Nazanin Boniadi) whom Judah has the hots for too, but because of their differing 'station' in life he has to keep his distance.

The film opens eight years earlier with the two brothers horse racing (they like to challenge each other) and although Judah crossed the finish line first he is thrown from his horse and is knocked unconscious hitting his head on a rock. Messala carries his injured brother home on his back some distance, and is nursed back to strength by his mother over night. After a couple of days the two men are laughing about their exploits. However, underlying their brotherly love for each other Messala feels alienated in his adopted family given their differing backgrounds - them Jewish and he a Roman by birth. Under cover of darkness Messala bids farewell to his brother Judah and makes off for Rome to join the Roman Army to conquer new lands in the name of the Roman Empire. Meanwhile Judah marries Esther.

Fast forward three years and Messala returns home to Jerusalem the all conquering hero and a decorated Roman officer under Pontius Pilate (Pilou Asbaek) himself. After reconnecting with his family, and celebrating over dinner, Messala asks Judah to consider acting as his informant against the 'zealots' - those that stand up against the tyranny of the Romans, who seem to be making an increasing nuisance of themselves much to the disgust and distrust of the Romans whose aim is to stamp them, their families and associates out at all costs. Given his status in Jerusalem Messala also asks Judah to ensure that a pending visit of Pontius Pilate to Jerusalem go without any incident and guarantee the Governor of Judea safe passage. Judah agrees to do what he can, but cannot make any guarantees.

Needless to say Pilates passage through the streets of Jerusalem does not pass quietly and an assassination attempt in made on the Governor by a zealot from the rooftop of Judah's house who was secretly being nursed back to health following an attack by the Romans. The zealot escapes, but the Romans descend on Judah's house and coerce a confession out of him to safeguard his family. Judah's father is killed in the process and the women are taken away for cruxifixction. Judah is sentenced to be slaved aboard a galley, and Messala turns his back on his once close brother. Whilst being marched towards his fate aboard the galley he stumbles and falls walking through the crowds of onlookers. Jesus (Rodrigo Santoro) comes to his aid, and offers him water with Roman soldiers looking on.

With Judah thrown in the galley to spend the next five years as a rower under the command of Quintus Arius (James Cosmo), he becomes a battle weary yet a strong and determined slave to find his freedom and his family. During a sea battle with a Greek fleet Judah's galley is destroyed with all souls aboard perishing, except his! Going down with his galley mates he frees himself from his shackles and clings to a mast, floating at sea for days under the fierce heat. Eventually he washes ashore and is found by the wealthy Sheik Ilderim (Morgan Freeman) who recognises Judah to be a slave and as such plans to hand him back to the Romans. Judah however, persuades him otherwise by agreeing to tend to a sick horse, given that he knows a thing or two about horses, and the Sheik agrees.

Having proved his worth with the horse and formed a bond with the Sheik's other horses, Ilderim agrees to train Judah to become a chariot racer. In Jerusalem the construction of the new Circus is nearing completion, and a grand chariot race is to be staged for Pilate featuring his champion charioteer, Messala. Ilderim seeks to engineer Judah's entry into the upcoming race by laying a huge bet on his man that Pilate can hardly refuse together with Judah's freedom, and so Judah's place in the race is secured together with Rome's finest and those others from more far away lands. In the meantime, Judah returns to Jerusalem and encounters Esther who has become a follower of Jesus, but her new ideals are in direct conflict to his in seeking revenge on his brother.

As the race approaches, Judah reconnects with Messala at the old family home supposedly in secret, but Messala rocks up with half the Roman Army in tow. Judah makes a hasty retreat to evade capture, but to retaliate for his insolence twenty Jews are rounded up and summarily executed in the street. By now Esther is completely at odds with Judah, sharing completely differing views on his desire to compete in the chariot race and eek out his revenge on Messala. Meanwhile it has come to light through a former Roman Army official that Judah's mother and sister are in fact still alive and were saved from cruxifixction. Judah travels to where they are imprisoned only to discover that they are now both lepers.

The action moves to the epic scene in the Circus where eight charioteers face off against each other - 'First to Finish, Last to Die' is Ilderim's advice to Judah, and to start off slow and let all others perish before moving in for the kill. And so it goes, in what is a reasonably executed race sequence but the end result is inevitable where good overcomes evil, and as all other fall by the wayside it leaves just Messala and Judah to battle it our for line honours. The race goes to Judah, as Messala crashes and burns and is flung from the wreckage of his chariot. The crowd goes wild that the Jew has prevailed and the Roman Champion is dethroned. In the aftermath, Ilderim walks away with his winnings and the freedom of Judah, and the zealots are empowered that one of their own has won the day and stood up and been counted.

Afterwards when the dust has settled, Judah seeks out his brother who has survived, but has had a leg amputated at the knee as a result of his injuries sustained in the race. The two reconcile their differences. Meanwhile Esther is present when Jesus is taken captive in the Garden of Gethsemane, and then paraded through the streets bearing the cross and wearing the crown of thorns. Jesus stumbles and falls under the weight of the cross, and Judah is on hand to help him, just as Jesus did in reverse years earlier, but is prevented from doing so by a Roman soldier. Judah attends the cruxifixction and makes eye contact with Jesus looking down from cross, muttering his last words 'forgive them, for they know not what they do'. At that the clouds close in, the skies darken and the heavens open with a downpour of torrential rain. . . and all around miracles occur - including Jadah's mother and sister being cured of leprosy. Ilderim pays their ransom so that they may be set free reuniting them again with Judah and Messala. And they all rode off into the sunset and lived happily ever after!

In the final analysis I thought this retelling of 'Ben-Hur' was better than critics give it credit for, but it is not up there with William Wyler's 1959 epic and nor is likely to garner any Academy Award wins or nominations for that matter I would think. Nonetheless, it is a solid enough retelling of the film that does not veer too far from the story as told in 1959 - it just condenses it into under two-thirds of the running time. The chariot race scene is well executed without being too violent or over bloody, the following of Jesus is not melodramatic or overplayed and contributes to Judah's story arc, and the building of the journey that both Judah and Messala take in their lives only to come full circle is reasonably well conceived, although different from Wyler's film in that Messala (Stephen Boyd) dies from his injuries after the chariot race. It's worth a look for sure and on the big screen too. The film has so far taken US$53M.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 25th August 2016

This week sees the US$100M budget release of 'Ben-Hur' - the fifth adaptation of the 1880 book by Lew Wallace - 'Ben-Hur : A Tale of the Christ'. The third big screen adaptation was made back in 1959 and stands the test of time to this day still as one of the classic all time swords and sandals epics. Back in its day the Bible and tales of the Roman Empire provided rich source material with other noteworthy epics of that era being 'Quo Vadis' in 1951, 'The Robe' in 1953, 'The Ten Commandments' in 1956, 'Spartacus' in 1960, 'Cleopatra' in 1963, 'The Bible' in 1966 and more recently of course we have had 'Gladiator' in 2000 and 'Exodus : Gods and Kings' and 'Noah' both in 2014 with a raft of others in between time.

The 1959 production of 'Ben-Hur' was Directed by William Wyler, was budgeted at US$7M and blew out to US$15M and was the most expensive film ever made for its time, and used 1.1 million feet of film for principal photography, that was edited down to 19,000 feet for the final cut. The theatrical release ran for 212 minutes, and used a cast of thousands, literally, including 200 camels, 2,500 horses, 10,000 extras with 365 Actors having speaking parts. Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Rock Hudson, Paul Newman, Marlon Brandon and Leslie Neilsen were all considered for the role of Judah Ben-Hur which went to Charlton Heston on a salary of US$250K for the thirty week shoot plus expenses. The film opened to huge critical acclaim and delivered US$74M in Box Office receipts delivering MGM Studios over US$20M in profits and saving it from bankruptcy. The film was nominated in 12 categories at the 1960 Academy Awards and won an unprecedented eleven for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Cinematography, Best Effects, Best Costume Design, Best Editing, Best Sound Design and Best Music Score. It also won four Golden Globes and one BAFTA - all up 27 wins and 13 nominations. It's Oscar wins have not yet been surpassed, matched only by 'Titanic' in 1998, and 'Lord of the Rings : The Return of the King' in 2004. Will Timur Bekmambetov's 2016 retelling of this classic tale live up to those heady expectations - both critically and commercially - you'll have to decide for yourself!

This week there are four new movie openings that offer comedy, drama, horror and a Biblical retelling of a highly acclaimed classic. Kicking off there is a much loved office manager from the small screen taking his musical aspirations on the road and to the big screen that is sure to have you cringing in your seat. Then a reimagining of a classic swords and sandals epic featuring one of the most famed race sequences in cinema history; with a good old Aussie outback horror story featuring a scary monster, missing persons, and the stuff of legend! Then we wrap up the week with an offering of opposites attracting as one young girl cares for an older man through a deep rooted connection that binds them both and from which they both find benefit in their own way.

Four different offerings this week which when combined with those released in previous weeks and still out on general release, give you plenty of reasons to catch a movie in the coming week. When you have done so, share your thoughts, views and opinions with your like minded cinephiles here at Odeon Online by posting a note in the Comments section below this or any other Post. We'd love to hear from you, and in the meantime, enjoy your film of choice.

'DAVID BRENT : LIFE ON THE ROAD' (Rated MA15+) - back in 1982 a very young Ricky Gervais teamed up with good mate Bill Macrae and formed new wave band 'Seona Dancing' which is best described as a mash up of sound and imagery heavily influenced by the styles of David Bowie, Gary Numan and the Wham boys - George and Andrew. They had two singles which charted at their highest point at #79 on the UK Singles Chart, and as a result of that lacklustre performance the band split two years later. What the band did however, was give Gervais his first experiences of entertaining to a live audience, and in front of the camera. Following this Gervais spent the next fifteen years working in offices, including that of UK Radio Station 'XFM' where he met his future writing collaborator Stephen Merchant. In time he was made redundant from the radio station and he began playing the egotistical self-opinionated buffoon version of his own office self that eventually was pitched to the BBC. The rest is comedy history with the Gervais character David Brent of 'The Office' running for just twelve episodes from 2001 through until 2002 over two seasons, with two Christmas specials in 2003, and 'The Office Revisited' a short film for Comic Relief in 2013. The series has been widely acclaimed, the recipient of many awards and nominations, remade in numerous countries and sold to over 80 countries worldwide, and, it made a superstar of Ricky Gervais.

Now in 2016 that character of David Brent is back with a camera crew returning to Slough to hook-up with the former 'Wernham Hogg' Regional Manager, who has been demoted and now works for 'Lavichem' as a travelling salesman flogging cleaning materials and female sanitary products. Brent however, still craves musical stardom and so takes leave of absence from work on a self funded national tour with his band 'Foregone Conclusion' in the hope of realising his dream and all the trappings that come with rock & roll fame. Having to fund the tour out of his own pension fund because of minimal ticket sales and needing to pay his band members and crew, we learn that the intervening years after leaving Wernham Hogg have been less than kind to Brent as the following camera, dialogue and documentary spotlight will reveal as the tour progresses. Written, Produced, Directed and starring Ricky Gervais, here we see the now 55 year old man-child Brent in all his sad, hopeless, excruciating yet ever hopeful persona quite possibly for the last time.

'BEN-HUR' (Rated M) - this is fifth big screen adaptation of the 1880 source novel 'Ben-Hur : A Tale of the Christ' by Lew Wallace. First made in 1907 in the form of a fifteen minute film, it was remade in 1925 in an epic silent film, the classic William Wyler Directed epic of 1959 with Charlton Heston and an animated feature in 2003 starring the voice of Charlton Heston and made by his production company. And so for a whole new audience possibly unfamiliar with the source material or the earlier films, comes this US$100M production Directed by Timur Bekmambetov with Jack Huston playing Judah Ben-Hur - a Jewish Prince of Jerusalem who is falsely accused of treason by his long standing childhood friend and adoptive brother Messala (Toby Kebbell) - a Roman nobleman. Surviving slavery for five years under Roman rule, Ben-Hur swears revenge on Messala for betraying him and his family, and so is taken in by Sheik Ilderim (Morgan Freeman) who trains him to become a charioteer for a show-down in The Colosseum which will see the two arch-rivals battle it out to the death, but not before a number of life changing encounters with Jesus (Rodrigo Santoro). The film has so far taken US$22M and has received average reviews at best.

'RED BILLABONG' (Rated MA15+) - Aussie's know how to create good quality horror thrillers on a tight budget that look and feel way more expensive than they really were to produce, and it seems that in this latest offering to join the genre we have another such case in point. Written and Directed by first timer Luke Sparke, this tells the outback story of two estranged brothers Nick and Tristan Marshall (Dan Ewing and Tim Pocock respectively) who are called back to their grandfathers property when it is left to them following his death. It is Nick's first time back in ten years having left the family home where he grew up because of a scandal that he ran away from. Tristan is the younger brother who has an axe to grind against Nick for leaving in the first place, but when a development company offer big money for the property Tristan needs to reach out to Nick for advice and guidance. As the two brothers are forced together by these circumstances, so they are drawn apart by the choices they need to make and what they learn of the property they have inherited and all of its dark, sinister secrets. As close friends and acquaintances start to go missing, and there are strange goings on around them they learn more of what will change their lives forever - but is it all real, mythical legend, a simple story or elaborate hoax that is lurking out there and seemingly stalking them all?

'THE CARER' (Rated MA15+) - Hungarian Writer and Director Janos Edelenyi has created an acclaimed comedy drama centring around Sir Michael Gifford (Brian Cox) a noted Shakespearean Actor suffering from Parkinson's disease with just one desire - to be left in peace and to be left alone to see out his days. Meanwhile, Dorottya (Coco Konig) a young and beautiful Hungarian Actress refugee has one desire too - to make it big on the English stage. The two are brought together by Gifford's daughter Sophia (Emilia Fox) after various caregivers have failed, and she needs to find someone who will offer stability, empathy and genuine care to look after her father and attend to his daily requirements. Needless to say, you can guess I'm sure that the two will hit it off forging a strong relationship that benefits both parties based on their mutual love and respect for Shakespeare, whilst those on the sidelines looking in will feel threatened and alienated by the new kid on the block muscling in on a sick old man with a hidden agenda (probably!) A predictable story but one that has been lauded for its nuanced performances particularly from Brian Cox and newcomer Coco Konig, as well as its strong dialogue and noteworthy support cast that include Anna Chancellor, Karl Johnson and Roger Moore.

With four new reasons to get out amongst it this week to your local movie theatre, be sure that you do, and don't pass up on the chance to see any one of these or those other films on general release as Reviewed and Previewed at this Blog. Then, share your thoughts with your fellow readers. In the meantime, I'll see you at the Odeon.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-