The most overrated piece of crap I've ever seen...

Rating: Null/10 (22 September 2002)

...and believe me, I have seen a lot of them in my time as a DVD reviewer. Maybe it's just the fact that Ben-Hur won eleven Oscars, but to me, that just goes to show how weak the seperation of Church and State was in Hollywood during 1959. The one thing I had to say when Ben-Hur was finally over was that I watch films for entertainment - when I want a sermon, I'll turn on my television at about four in the morning and laugh my butt off at Kenneth Copeland et al. By staying up to that time, I will probably be in the same dazed, apathetic stupor that this film put me in, anyway.
I also would have thought that a 2.55:1 film would have some interesting photography in it, but there is absolutely nothing here that hasn't been done better in other widescreen films such as Lawrence Of Arabia or even Mad Max. The shots are just simply uninteresting and uninvolving, with maybe the sole exception of the chariot race. The chariot race was the one point in the film where I wasn't checking the Time Remaining display on my DVD player at least once a second, but I have still seen this type of scene done much better in films that had similar practical limitations, such as Grease or Mad Max 2.
I won't bore you any further with why this film bored me and almost had me wanting to destroy the DVD it was contained on. Suffice to say that I am glad films aren't make like this anymore. If the fundies in America who want to force all films to be made like this had their way, I'd probably shoot myself because I wouldn't have any other idea what to do with myself. I would rather die than be forced to watch this piece of Christian propaganda masquerading as a classic film ever again.