…Ben-Hur: Full Throttle Drift Racer might have been a better title for this misconcieved, sprawling folly…

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 31, 2024

The decision to film the major set-pieces in extreme close-up was ill-advised, and these murky and incoherent bits are further crippled by obvious CGI as well as rapid-fire editing that recalls those Ginsu blades in action on late-night infomercials.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 18, 2021

Remaking the classic Hollywood epic and 11-time Oscar winner Ben-Hur seems redundant - so 2016's Ben-Hur starts on the back foot.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 25, 2021

It glosses over familiar scenes and motifs, going through the same old routine without bringing anything new to the table.

| Original Score: C | Jul 11, 2020

For a movie that wants so badly to be epic-regular swooping helicopter shots of long lines of people walking along some ridge or cliff pepper the film-Ben-Hur lacks any sense of majesty or grandeur.

| Original Score: C- | Jul 2, 2020

Unfortunately, 'new interpretation' means changing the story dramatically and turning it into a slight rip off of Gladiator and we are not entertained.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 4, 2020

A spectacle worthy of Cecil B. DeMille but with a story that is more grounded and layered with softer, nuanced, more human emotional performances that go beyond the visual (and visceral) experience.

| Oct 31, 2019

Morgan Freeman as Ilderim commands respect and plays his role with an almost regal stature.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 4, 2019

Ben-Hur suffers from many faith-based genre pitfalls -- on-the-nose dialogue, unsubtle 'cross' imagery and parallelism, saccharine endings.

| Aug 19, 2019

It in no way rivals either the 1959 Technicolor version or the great 1925 silent one.

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 3, 2019

It actually had potential to be a good remake.

| Original Score: C- | Apr 12, 2019

In essence, this Ben-Hur is an empty husk, a digitally constructed bore that disappoints on just about every possible front.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Feb 15, 2019

(It) shares a message needed deeply ... With solid action sequences and a great performance from Jack Huston, the film's issues should be forgiven, in comparison.

| Original Score: 7.9/10 | Dec 7, 2018

In the end you just go...meh.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 30, 2018

It's still rather worthless, but there are a few praiseworthy elements here.

| Aug 28, 2018

A thrill ride in parts, as long as you can forgive the hokiness, wooden dialogue, and long-slog running time.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 23, 2018

A thematically confused and misdirected effort to reduce Wallace's story of faith and redemption into a Hollywood blockbuster in an age where the market has become desensitized to violence elsewhere that entertainment must go to a further extreme.

| Apr 30, 2018

The movie isn't really saying anything, and is just cruising on the fumes left over from our associations with a classic.

| Feb 1, 2018

The direction is uninspired, the script lacks a subtext, the two lead actors are appallingly anemic, and even the vaunted chariot race disappoints.

| Jan 10, 2018

Ben-Hur isn't the worst film of the year, but from a technical standpoint it certainly looks it.

| Original Score: 1.5/5 | Nov 20, 2017