Synopsis
A falsely accused nobleman survives years of slavery to take vengeance on his best friend who betrayed him.
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Cast
- Jack HustonJudah Ben-Hur
- Pilou AsbækPontius Pilate
- Rodrigo SantoroJésus Christ
- Morgan FreemanSheik Ilderim
- Ayelet ZurerNaomi Ben-Hur
- Toby KebbellMessala Severus
- Nazanin BoniadiEsther
- Sofia Black-D'EliaTirzah Ben-Hur
- Marwan KenzariDruses
- Moisés AriasGestas
Recommendations
- 60
The Guardian
Surprisingly, many of Bekmambetov’s updates work well. - 60
Village Voice
In paring down and streamlining its source material, this new version also saps its heft. - 50
Screen Daily
Timur Bekmambetov’s Ben-Hur remake offers robust spectacle and some decent performances. But ultimately, the director of Wanted and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is, perhaps unsurprisingly, not the ideal filmmaker to capture this timeless story’s more nuanced emotional range. - 50
New York Daily News
All the flash and sizzle of modern movie effects can't make up for a once spectacular tale that feels not just scaled-down, but shrunk. - 50
Entertainment Weekly
This arena, unfortunately, is no Thunderdome. The chariot race is sloppily framed, choppily edited, and droopily choreographed, with special effects that look like they needed another few passes through the CGI machine. - 42
IndieWire
The good news is that the story of Ben-Hur is so rock solid that not even the director of “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” can screw it up completely. - 40
Variety
Minus a hero who has the macho charisma to wrap a movie around him like he owned it, the new Ben-Hur is an oddly lackluster affair: sludgy and plodding, photographed (by Oliver Wood) in nondescript medium close-up, an epic that feels like a mini-series served up in bits and pieces. - 40
Empire
It’s an adequate retelling, mostly, but with moments of eye-rolling ineptitude.
