Ben-Hur | ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆

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Thanks to my friend Dan for providing this great interview on the remake of an old standard.

My wife, Meredith, and I went to see Ben Hur in 3D at a cozy theater in Mariemont, Ohio. My wife had seen the original and I had not. She promised not to spoil the story for me before we saw the movie. The 3D parts were great!

The story centers on hatred. How do you react? What does family mean? And what would Jesus say? In the end, as any Ben Hur movie must have, we have an action-packed chariot race. I especially enjoyed Pilate's comment at the end of the race. For someone like me who did not know the story, I was happy with how the movie ended.

I could see a similar style to this movie as other stories from the Bible that were also produced by Mark Burnett and Roma Downey. Namely, there was lots of action. And you shouldn't get too caught off guard when a character says the right thing in the wrong situation, or just out of order. The spirit of the message rings true. I liked the moral message of how to deal with hatred.

As for the acting and the story, the story developed too slowly. In general, the characters were hard to relate to. Had there been more chemistry among the cast, this could have been a much better movie. Overall, I'd give the movie ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆. We went to see it in the theater to show our support for movies with moral themes.

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