Posted on 08/21/2016 11:09:05 AM PDT by EveningStar
During a weekend with three major new releases, holdovers “Suicide Squad,” from Warner Bros., and “Sausage Party,” from Sony, maintained their top spots at the box office. This means the big-budget reimagining of “Ben-Hur,” from Paramount Pictures and MGM, is one of the biggest flops of the summer.
The third version of Lew Wallace’s 19th century novel “Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ” took in an estimated $11.4 million in the U.S and Canada, which was only good enough for fifth place. It met analyst projections of $10 million to $15 million, though the studio was aiming for an opening of $20 million in ticket sales. Such a performance is an unequivocal poor result for a movie that cost about $100 million to make (after rebates). The film brought in $10.7 million internationally.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
You need to vote with your dollars or these movies will never be made. It is really a big screen/3D movie and soundtrack.
I do not go into movie theaters.
No actually, it was done by the couple that did the TV version of the bible. AND that’s what it is. A tv version of Ben hur.
Christmas was one of the better.
I suspect liberal critics were itching call this movie a bomb from the get go. I haven’t seen it, but liberal critics aside, it seems a lot of people do like it. May wait for this one to be streamed online, ‘tho.
Hello filmmaker.
Have you seen
“The King of Hearts” ?
Too few people saw this amazing French film and is top of the list for one that should be redone ...
Honestly, I just don’t do foreign films. I hate subtitles, and they are usually darkly shot (not that newer American movies aren’t too).
I agree. I read the novel, and although it was a slow starter, it really took off after a while. It helps if you’re used to the pacing of 19th Century novels.
Well check this out. From actor Alan Bates website about the movie.
http://alanbates.com/abarchive/film/king.html
Worth ripping off the idea and inserting to modern times.
Will keep secret
"Beautiful plumage"
I’m partial to Wilkie Collins, so I’m used to turgid prose. :)
I like Wilkie Collins, too. I have “The Moonstone,” “The Woman in White,” and a collection of his ghost stories.
With writers of this era, it might take the first hundred pages of a novel to adjust to the style. If you give it that, you can enjoy a great story.
For really long works - Anna Karenina, War and Peace - I get recorded books and listen to them in the kitchen while cooking or washing up.
I do that too! Just not Tolstoy. Had my fill of him in homeschool. :(
I've got the plays of Shakespeare in LP recordings, and some of the ancient Greek dramas. You can listen to them over and over again and never be bored.
Early one June morning in 1872 I murdered my father -- an act which made a deep impression on me at the time.
Grabs you with the first line and doesn't disappoint.
Complete SS of AB contains 3 categories: Horror, War, and Tall Tales. He fought (when it was unavoidable) in the American Civil War, so those stories are not very amusing, but they're powerful. The horror stories are excellent and I'm no fan of the genre. The tall tales is where you'll LOL the most.
My pastor reported that he saw it and liked it - very strong redemption message. I was wondering why so many people are panning it - maybe they don’t want to hear about salvation?
#66 There is a copy of Indiana Jones with an extra 21 seconds that explains this..... The Big Bang Theory, The 21-Second Excitation
http://www.watch-the-big-bang-theory-online.com/season-4/episode-8/the-21-second-excitation
The Big Bang Theory - Amy ruins the Indiana Jones franchise
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWE6M-rhh2U
Sheldon steals Indiana Jones movie that has the extra 21 seconds of footage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whWv07rIpmI
I have his “Civil War Short Stories,” and I’ve read several other collections.
I read my Greeks and Romans on the treadmill or the elliptical trainer, because they come in small paperback editions that are easy to hold.
That’s what I hate about TV writers—too clever by half. The story is about Indiana’s misadventures in getting wrapped up in the whole mess, not that he actually saved the world from the Nazis. I think Spielberg was making a point about the folly of trying to play God, for good or for ill, and the irrelevance of human machinations in the face of divine power—all while spinning one hell of a yarn. In a way the BBT writers got the point, almost, and then lost it going for snark. The U-boat thing is an actual plot hole, and a very big one.
The extra 21 seconds show Indiana water skiing behind the submarine......
I have the book and have never gotten past the first chapter
what...? You don’t like rapturous descriptions of dromedaries...?
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