RengaOtoko
This movie was dreadful. Biblically very inaccurate. Moses was 80 years old when he led the people out of Egypt, the movie has him about forty. Moses was about forty when he fled Egypt, was gone for forty years, and was with them wandering for forty years. Moses was 120 years old when he died, and was denied the privilege of crossing over to the promised land. I realize movies use a lot of "poetic license" as the biblical account isn't that long, but, if making a biblical movie they still need to reflect the facts known, and keep the general flavor of the main biblical character, this movie fails in this aspect, and in many others.Even though the 1956 version has its problems as well, theatrically it was much better.
Clayton Van March (Hallows_Eve_Chocologic)
Truly, this is the most grand made-for-television production ever made. It is made on a true epic scale of Biblical proportions. Filled with many spectacular riveting scenes, and eye-catching visual effects, this tells the Biblical tale of Moses like no other. What people have to know, is that this version is NOT a remake of the original DeMille masterpiece. This is a knew imagining of the inspired story, which took place 3,500 years ago. It is a RENEWING of this tale, to the modern generation. Most younger viewers these days would fall asleep through the 1956 version if they watched it now. There was a particular style of Acting, Production, and Direction back then, glitziness, and that was the only form of film allowed in Hollywood. The characters' personal lives were not even thought of to be explored. They had no personality, they were just people on the screen, that you spent a few hours staring at. But since the late 70s, early 80s, THEIR lives jumped out of the screen, and into YOUR lives. You felt sorry for them, mourned for them, shared they joy and happiness. This miniseries really used that personality technique. Never before had I understood the lives of these monumental figures as I do now after watching this. Well-known actors such as Dougray Scott(Ever After), Naveen Andrews(Lost), Omar Sharif(Lawrence of Arabia), Mia Maestro(Alias), Paul Rhys(From Hell), and an array of many other stellar talents, not to mention 20,000 local Morroccan extras, battle the many tough characters and personalities of the Biblical story of the Exodus. Padma Lakshmi was also a superb pick for drop-dead-gorgeous Princess Bithia, Moses' adoptive mother, Matthew Sim was a top pick for the Demon-Possessed Soothsayer and his notable line "Bring down every horse and it's rider!", Karim Saleh was great as Joshua, Susan Lynch was a lovely Miriam, Linus Roache was a bold Aaron, and Richard O'Brien had a great guest appearance as the Tutor.Acting was not the miniseries' only strong point, of course. The Cinematography was breathtaking, exploring the great beauty of Ouarzazate, Morrocco, which seems very similar to the Holy land. Robert Dornhelm's Direction was fabulous, Robert Halmi Sr.'s Production was extremely worth all the possible turmoil producing can be, and the script by Ron Hutchinson made this miniseries possible, and enjoyable. Without his great script, there would be no film, we have to remember that, and he did a very good job at it.The costumes by Ann Hollowood made you feel like you had traveled back in time, the make-up by 9 talented artists was very down-and-dirty, as it would have been, the emotional score by Randy Edelman was splendid, and the sets were first-class. But what was truly grand, were the Visual Effects and the CGI animation, that re-created the Burning Bush, the Ten Plagues, the Parting of the Sea, the purification of the bitter waters, Mount Sinai, and the giving of the Holy Laws, it is surprising that only 5 people were on the FX team.Filled with drama, suspense, action-packed war scenes, spectacular miracles, and amazing talent, The Ten Commandments two part 2006 miniseries is the most Biblically and Historically accurate version ever made, and I will cherish it in my home. Watch it with the Bible on your lap, or the Koran, or the Jewish Midrash, and you'll see accuracy also. Television and RHI Entertainment has finally hit Adulthood.
kindofhere
So, I haven't actually seen this movie, but the last person's comment was that Moses is made out to be a whiner, and that later in the movie he has the believers slaughter the unbelievers and cuts a second set of tablets. If that's the case, I really want to see this, because that's far more biblically accurate than the deMille's movie. In the Bible Moses *was* a whiner to begin with, and when the golden calf incident occurred, he had the tribe of Levi kill about 3000 people, and then God told him to cut new tablets to replace the ones he had broken. Just thought I'd say it to clarify that yes, it actually is in there, no matter how unpleasant we may think it.
zone171
Despite being a nonbeliever I find religion very interesting. So I thought I would give this film a shot. It's not actually worth the rating I gave it, but I thought I would try to offset all the one star ratings it's been given by angry religious people. Anyway, to fully enjoy this movie I suggest doing what I did, namely read all the reviews of it while watching it. It's very interesting how the ratings range from top to bottom. Also the reason I'm writing this review is that it seem most if not all the other reviews are written by religious people who all compare it to the bible. Thats all good but viewing it as fiction, which the bible obviously is to me, might enable one to enjoy it differently. Well here it is: The acting range from laughable to pretty good 5 or 6 times. The special effects are nothing special these days, but acceptable, since they aren't really the drive of the movie. I quite liked the sets and the costumes, but I honestly don't know what they are supposed to look like historically so they might not be authentic. Overall what carried this movie was the story. Now the story was had a lot going for it interesting twists and turns. But unfortunately thats not enough. A really good story needs to not only have interesting exiting plots going on, it also needs to be believable. In case you don't know the story already I won't mention anything, I'll just say that having studied psychology and sociology for many years I found the behavior of many of the characters less realistic and the plot seems quite naive. So there... . enjoy 4 stars from me because I actually learned something.
