Blasting Hollywood for rehashing old concepts in favor of originality might be a more modern phenomenon, but it should be noted that 2016’s completely unnecessary and utterly pointless retreat of Ben-Hur was the fourth feature-length version of the story.
The 1959 Charlton Heston vehicle of the same name deservedly gets the most attention due to its status as an era-defining classic that earned almost $150 million at the box office (which is equivalent to roughly $1.5 billion today), and won an unprecedented 11 of the 12 Academy Awards it was nominated for.
That Ben-Hur was in itself a redux of 1925’s Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, which was an updated version of the 1907 short that only ran for 15 minutes. Quite why anyone thought it necessary to hand Wanted director Timur Bekmambetov $100 million to bring the tale roaring into the CGI era is anyone’s guess, especially when the blockbuster failed to even recoup its budget from theaters.
It’s already been lost to the sands of cinematic time after losing anywhere up to $100 million for MGM, while a 25 percent Rotten Tomatoes score underlines how inconsequential Ben-Hur V4.0 really was. It’s not a good movie, or even a halfway entertaining one, but it has turned out to be an unlikely smash hit on the streaming charts this week.
As per FlixPatrol, Jack Huston gearing up to take his chariot into battle to seek revenge on the man who ruined his life has secured a spot on the iTunes global rankings, although you’re much better off sticking with ol’ Chuck and his epic take.
Published: Jul 20, 2022 11:51 am