Ben-Hur Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		4.5
Overall		5.0

Ben-Hur Blu-ray Movie Review

He's baaack.

Even curmudgeonly Scrooge types might have been willing to send Warner Home Video a gift basket when their latest double (and/or triple or quadruple) dipping marketing strategy, nostalgically branded Diamond Luxe Editions, turned out to have actual new content involved. As Michael Reuben has discussed in Gremlins Blu-ray review, Natural Born Killers Blu-ray review and The Green Mile Blu-ray review, while at least some of the original Blu-ray releases are repeated in these new editions, there’s previously unreleased bonus content as well. I hate to be the one to throw a lump of coal into the festivities, but one of the crown jewels in Warner’s home video catalog, Ben-Hur, has received what amounts to a “simple” reissue for its Diamond Luxe Edition. While housed in the same hard plastic casing Michael mentioned in his review of Gremlins, this is otherwise exactly the same release (disc wise, anyway) as the Ben-Hur Ultimate Collector’s Edition that was released in 2011. (Even the “new” discs’ files have 2011 dates on them, identical to the first release.) The silkscreen printing on the discs is different, for those that care about such things, and the packaging is obviously different, but otherwise this is the same old Ben-Hur many of you already have in your Blu-ray collections.

Ben-Hur Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Please refer to the above linked review for comments on the video quality.

Ben-Hur Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Please refer to the above linked review for comments on the audio quality.

Ben-Hur Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Please refer to the above linked review for a list of the extensive on disc supplements (not to state the obvious, but this Diamond Luxe Edition does not include the non-disc swag discussed in the original review).

Ben-Hur Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you haven't picked up any of the previous Blu-ray releases of Ben-Hur, this "new" release offers all of the content of the original three Blu-rays, housed in a rather attractive hard plastic casing (rather peculiarly, the third disc is housed in a kind of flimsy cardboard sleeve affixed to the back of the hard plastic case). There's absolutely no need to double (and/or triple or quadruple) dip on this release for those who already own it. For newcomers, this release comes Highly recommended.