The Ten Commandments (2007 film)

The Ten Commandments
DVD cover
Directed by John Stronach
Bill Boyce
Produced by Cindy Bond
John Stronach
Trevor Yaxley
Written by Ed Naha
Starring Christian Slater
Alfred Molina
Elliott Gould
Narrated by Ben Kingsley
Music by Reg Powell
Production
company
Huhu Studios
iVL Animation
Sparky Animation
Ten Chimneys Entertainment
Distributed by Promenade Pictures
Release date
  • October 19, 2007 (2007-10-19)
Running time
 88 minutes
Country United States
Canada
Language English
Budget $10 million
Box office $1 million

The Ten Commandments is a 2007 American computer animated film directed by John Stronach and Bill Boyce, and released by Promenade Pictures. The film follows Moses from his childhood, as the adopted son of Pharaoh, to his adulthood, as the chosen one of Yahweh and liberator of his people.

The film is narrated by Ben Kingsley, and stars Christian Slater as Moses, Alfred Molina as Ramses and Ellott Gould as God. It was released to theaters on October 19, 2007, and received negative reviews, with criticism directed towards the animation and acting. The film was released on DVD on February 5, 2008.

Plot

The Pharaoh is a nervous man, outnumbered by his Hebrew slaves; he orders them to be worked harder, that doesn't break their spirits, so he has all the newborn male babies killed; Moses' parents are not keen on a dead baby, and put him in a basket and send him down the river, where the Pharaoh's daughter adopts and raises him as her own; his playmate is Ramses, the Pharaoh's son. As teens, they wrestle, but Ramses does not like Moses much, and Moses is exiled from town after Moses comes to the aid of a slave being beaten, and the beater is killed.

They all grow up, Ramses is now Pharaoh, God speaks to Moses, telling him to get the Hebrews from Egypt into the promised land. Ramses says no, the ten plagues come, and Ramses gives in only when his son is killed (as God's spirit kills all the first-born Egyptian sons). Moses leads the people from Egypt, ditches Ramses and his army at the parting of the Red Sea, and Moses receives the Ten Commandments and delivers them to the Hebrews. Moses puts Joshua in charge of leading the people the rest of the way.

Cast

Box office

The film opened in 830 theaters in the United States and grossed $478,910 on its opening weekend.[1] Brandon Gray of Box Office Mojo wrote that it and Sarah Landon and the Paranormal Hour had "two of the worst national debuts of all time".[2] The film ended up grossing $952,820 in the United States and $99,087 elsewhere, for a total of $1,051,907.

Reception

The Ten Commandments received mostly negative reviews from critics. The film currently holds a 14% approval rating on review-aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 21 reviews. Joe Ledyon of Variety gave a negative review, calling it "a well-intentioned misfire featuring 3-D CGI animation that recalls lesser vidgames [sic] of the mid-1990s".[3] Keith Phipps of The A.V. Club wrote that it "fails on every conceivable level" and "seems to have been made using public-domain software, and targeted squarely at kids impressed by any brightly colored moving objects".[4]

A negative review came from Roger Moore of the Orlando Sentinel, who wrote "a big-name voice cast doesn't cover for a script that may hit the Biblical high points but somehow misses the dramatic heart of the story", and that "the filmmakers certainly could have used a little Veggie Tales humor".[5] Lou Carlozo of the Chicago Tribune was more positive, stating "There's an endearing, earnest quality to The Ten Commandments that transcends its star-studded cast and computer-generated animation".

References

  1. ↑ "The Ten Commandments (2007) (2007) - Weekend Box Office". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2007-10-24.
  2. ↑ Gray, Brandon (22 October 2007). "'30 Days of Night' Leads Lifeless Crowd". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 25 February 2018.
  3. ↑ Leydon, Joe. "The Ten Commandments". Variety. Retrieved 25 February 2018.
  4. ↑ Phipps, Keith. "The Ten Commandments". The A.V. Club.
  5. ↑ Moore, Roger. "The Ten Commandments (2 stars out of 5)". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved 25 February 2018.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.