Despite their different origins, Judah Ben-Hur and his Roman adoptive brother Messala grow up together as friends. But over the years, Messala no longer feels at home in Judea, so he leaves his family to join the Roman army. As adults, the brothers are forced to takes sides when the people rise up against the Roman occupation led by Pontius Pilate. Wrongly convicted, separated from his family and sent to row a galley as a slave, Judah returns to his homeland years later seeking revenge...

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Choosing Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) to direct a new version of Ben-Hur, the legendary 1959 movie that was crowned with 11 Oscars, is a sad sign of the times. Needless to say, this remake has very ordinary ambitions: it’s all spectacle and noisy special effects. Taking the risk of retelling a classic story with significantly less time to do a proper job of it (2:05 vs. 3:32), 2016’s Ben-Hur offers no real satisfaction and never justifies its reason for being. Despite the efforts of Toby Kebell and Jack Huston, and some slightly entertaining, revised and barely edited action scenes (the famous chariot race), this remake is unnecessary. Which seems to be obvious to the public, since this big budget production is already considered one of the biggest box office failures of the year.