IT'S mixed reviews for this week's films. We've got Ben-Hur and Hell Or High Water in the mix and Our Kind of Traitor released on DVD this week. 

BEN-HUR (12A) **
CINEWORLD, PLAZA, ODEON

KAZAKH-Russian director Timur Bekmambetov’s muscular remake of the historical epic, based on the novel Ben-Hur: A Tale Of The Christ, has big sandals to fill.
A 1925 silent version starring Ramon Novarro was one of the most expensive films of the era and garnered effusive critical praise.
For William Wyler’s 1959 reimagining, with Charlton Heston as the eponymous slave, critics fumbled for superlatives and the film received a record 11 Academy Awards including Best Picture and Director - an achievement equalled when James Cameron captained Titanic and Peter Jackson navigated the Lord Of The Rings trilogy.
Bekmambetov’s rendition won’t be nominated for an Oscar, let alone win a coveted golden statuette - not even for the slick digital effects in the climatic chariot race.
This Ben-Hur isn’t a sermon of rollicking entertainment to the secular multiplex masses.
Scriptwriters Keith Clarke and John Ridley hark back to the source novel and emphasize the religious elements, expanding the presence of Jesus (Rodrigo Santoro) in the title character’s odyssey of forgiveness.
A silky smooth narration courtesy of Morgan Freeman introduces Judah Ben-Hur (Jack Huston), whose influential Jewish family adopts Roman best friend Messala Severus (Toby Kebbell). The two men are as fiercely competitive and loyal as blood brothers, but Messala always feels slightly distant from his adoptive mother, Naomi (Ayelet Zurer).
“I’m just a lucky orphan your family took in,” the Roman ruefully reminds Ben-Hur.
In order to find his place in the world, Messala turns his back on a romance with Ben-Hur’s sister Tirzah (Sofia Black D’Elia) and enlists in the Roman army.
Three years later, the men are reunited in Roman-occupied Jerusalem where Messala has been entrusted with guaranteeing the safe passage of governor Pontius Pilate (Pilou Asbaek).
Unfortunately, a zealot harboured by Ben-Hur makes an attempt on Pilate’s life and the governor demands swift action.
“Rome is begging for blood. I have to give them some,” growls Messala, who condemns Ben-Hur to hard labour as a galley slave under the yoke of captain Quintus Arias (James Cosmo).
A cruel twist of fate delivers Ben-Hur into the clutches of Nubian Sheik Ilderim (Freeman), who helps the embittered Jew to exact revenge against his adoptive Roman brother in a high-profile chariot race.
Ben-Hur might be the shortest version of the story committed to celluloid thus far - Wyler’s masterpiece is 50 minutes longer - but Bekmambetov’s picture noticeably drags.
Huston and Kebbell are solid though neither possesses the charisma of an A-list leading man like Heston.
Faith conquers all, but audiences who keep the faith with Bekmambetov’s film won’t be rewarded in this lifetime.
Or the next.

HELL OR HIGH WATER (15) ****
CINEWORLD

HARSH times call for desperate measures in David Mackenzie’s riveting crime thriller set in contemporary West Texas, where avaricious, corporate-driven America has ravaged close-knit communities.
Hell Or High Water cranks up tension with deceptive ease courtesy of a lean script by Taylor Sheridan.
Director Mackenzie immerses us in the daily sweat-soaked grind of richly drawn characters, who believe their only course of action is to don ski masks and strike back at financial institutions, which have crippled friends and God-fearing neighbours.
These men might flout the law and occasionally spill innocent blood, but Sheridan’s script repeatedly emphasizes the rigorous moral code that the thieves follow on behalf of the disadvantaged people they love.
Toby Howard (Chris Pine) is determined to save his family’s Texas ranch from foreclosure by robbing banks with his fiery-tempered brother, Tanner (Ben Foster). They plan to hit branches of Texas Midland, which they hold responsible for their financial woes.
Their larcenous activities pique the interest of cantankerous Texas Ranger Marcus Hamilton (Jeff Bridges).
Hell Or High Water is another triumph for Mackenzie. Pine is a revelation in a role that ignores his pretty boy good looks.
Delicate shades of grey separating heroes and villains compel us to ignore our own moral compasses and root for hunters and the hunted.
Crime pays only those willing to risk everything.

DVD OF THE WEEK
Our Kind Of Traitor (15) ***

UNIVERSITY lecturer Perry Makepeace (Ewan McGregor) and barrister girlfriend Gail (Naomie Harris) are on holiday in Marrakesh, hoping to salvage their relationship after his indiscretion. 
At a bar, they meet rowdy Russian businessman Dima Krasnov (Stellan Skarsgard), who secretly gives Perry information to deliver to British intelligence with the instruction that it is “a present from the number one money launderer in Moscow”. 
British agent Hector Meredith (Damian Lewis) takes delivery of the information and Perry and Gail become valuable pawns in a deadlyme of espionage. 
Adapted from John Le Carre’s 2010 crime novel, Our Kind Of Traitor is a serpentine thriller, which simmers pleasantly but never turns up the heat sufficiently on McGregor and Harris’ do gooders. 
Director Susanna White choreographs some memorable interludes, but chase sequences aren’t particularly suspenseful. 
Hossein Amini’s script asks us to believe that a plummy academic would risk his humdrum life for a total stranger by virtue of his unshakeable goodness. 
That frustrating lack of clarity about the lead character’s motivation proves the film’s undoing.