Rodrigo Santoro

BEN-HUR: Or How Hollywood Forgot How To Make Epics
BEN-HUR: Or How Hollywood Forgot How To Make Epics

Ben-Hur actually opens with the horses getting ready to bolt from the gates for the chariot race. That will seem heretical to audiences familiar with the Academy Award winning 1959 version of the story. Younger moviegoers may not even realize this is a remake, and may not even realize that the phrase “chariot race” used to refer to a big movie’s big action climax.

THE 33: Not Deep Enough

The 2010 Chilean mining incident was an enormous event that had the rare ability to unite most of the world to help the victims. The event gained massive media coverage and resulted in books, interviews, TV specials, etc. So, of course, a movie revival was inevitable.

FOCUS: All Style, No Substance

One of the worst clichés that appears in an alarmingly large number of movies is the “two kinds of people in this world” speech. In Focus, Will Smith’s suave con artist Nicky Spurgeon tells his protégé/part-time lover Jess Barrett (Margot Robbie) his version of the done-to-death cliché: there are two types of people, hammers and nails.