In The Beginning

Rating:
Summary: What?
Review: ...What? How can someone base a biblical story on a movie? If a screen editor can't keep a Stephen King book true to the story how can we expect so much of the greatest work ever known to man. One of the first books we know of........the format of binding which our modern books are derived from. Come on people....movies are nice, but they are JUST movies. Look to Ted Turner......as far as biblical stories he remains the most accurate to date (within reason). I mean just read the bible............Moses didn't do all the stuff the movies said.......it was Aaron who did it all following Moses who was following God. Don't depend on hollywierd so much for the truth. For instance......Moses was slow of speaking..........didn't show that in any of the films except for the one on TNT........Moses was played by Ben Kingsly I believe. Point of fact people.....Charleton Heston Didn't even believe in God when he made The Ten Commandments (notice its not called Moses.....aimed at some reviewers). He didn't start his religious movement until later when he realized that the Ten Commandments would be his first and last great work other that Ben Hur...still closely a religious film (Planet of the Apes was a classic.....but could have been played by any actor)...and how much money people are willing to spend on easy religion. Good luck and God bless........the info is there if you can read and are willing to look for it.

Rating:
Summary: In the Beginning I thought...............
Review: As I first started to watch this I was really excited, because one of my favorite movies is Moses. As you go along, you see how many important things they cut out and it is so chopped up. Someone who knows nothing about Moses, may enjoy this, but once you have seen Moses with Charlton Heston, this movie does not even begin to match it. The best Actor was Martin Landeau, he was quite good. The rest of it left something to be desired. I guess the funniest part was when Eve ate the fruit, come on, was it really blackberries and not an apple!!!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: In the Beginning I thought...............
Review: As I first started to watch this I was really excited, because one of my favorite movies is Moses. As you go along, you see how many important things they cut out and it is so chopped up. Someone who knows nothing about Moses, may enjoy this, but once you have seen Moses with Charlton Heston, this movie does not even begin to match it. The best Actor was Martin Landeau, he was quite good. The rest of it left something to be desired. I guess the funniest part was when Eve ate the fruit, come on, was it really blackberries and not an apple!!!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: Great Beginning...but...not so great after that...
Review: I originally watched this miniseries when it aired on NBC in the fall of 2000. I specifically remember watching the first 2 hours and realizing I could find a better way to spend my time than sitting through the last two hours.

The performances are uniformly mediocre, with only Martin Landau standing out as Abraham. The scenes of creation, including Adam and Eve, as well as the Fall, are quite nicely told through flashback, as Abraham tells the story around a campfire. But, it quickly falls apart after that.

If you really want to watch the story of Joseph, Moses, and the rest, I recommend watching the animated films JOSEPH and PRINCE of EGYPT. If you want to watch a classic story of Moses, go with THE TEN COMMANDMENTS--it's a classic that still rates close to 5 stars!

Rating:
Summary: Great Beginning...but...not so great after that...
Review: I originally watched this miniseries when it aired on NBC in the fall of 2000. I specifically remember watching the first 2 hours and realizing I could find a better way to spend my time than sitting through the last two hours.

The performances are uniformly mediocre, with only Martin Landau standing out as Abraham. The scenes of creation, including Adam and Eve, as well as the Fall, are quite nicely told through flashback, as Abraham tells the story around a campfire. But, it quickly falls apart after that.

If you really want to watch the story of Joseph, Moses, and the rest, I recommend watching the animated films JOSEPH and PRINCE of EGYPT. If you want to watch a classic story of Moses, go with THE TEN COMMANDMENTS--it's a classic that still rates close to 5 stars!

Rating:
Summary: THIS WAS A GOOD MOVIE!
Review: I recommend this movie to anyone who desires to know more about the events that occurred in the Old Testament, this is a close as you'll get to the actually truth. I bought the VHS and was so pleased with the characters, costumes, location and scenes that I loaned the movie to friends and other family members. Well, somewhere along lending it out someone liked it so much never returned it to me. So, I purchased another one. I also own the Ten Commandments and it is a good movie as well, however, if you know the Bible, you will also know that Mose had no romantic relationship with an Egyptian princess. (this love triangle was added to the movie). All I say is if you want to know what really happened in biblical times, buy this movie. I'm sure after you've seen the movie it will build up your curiousity to read the bible. It's a keeper.

Rating:
Summary: Yeah! It's about time!
Review: I was very impressed with In the Beginning. Are the others reviewers insane? The Prince of Egypt or The Ten Commandments are better films? The Prince of Egypt places the story of the Exodus to about 1220 B.C. and not 1446 B.C. and Heston's Egypt is about as antiseptic as a floor of an operating room. You could perform surgery on those palace floors. Landau and the others are great. At least the script writers read the book you know, you've heard of it, The Bible. In the Beginning is biblically accurate and outdoes the current Jesus films, the Noah's Ark fiasco and some of the TNT films. This gives me firm confidence that NBC has writers that are literate unlike the other networks.

Rating:
Summary: good cast and above average TV production
Review: Originally a 4-hour miniseries for NBC, with a large international cast of well-known actors, this telling of parts of the first five books of the Bible is interesting, and on the whole flows well, though it crams a lot of story into one film, therefore skipping many major events.
It starts with Abraham, as he travels to the land of Canaan, in about 2000 B.C., and along the way he recites the narrative of the Creation (which has some nice visuals), the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve, their temptation (the fruit here looks more like a small fig in a very thorny tree) and their expulsion from Eden.

There are some fine performances, among them Martin Landau as Abraham, Jacqueline Bisset as Sarah, Bill Campbell as Moses, Amanda Donohoe as Potiphar's wife, and Fred Weller as Jacob. Eddie Cibrian as Joseph seems at first out of place, looking more like a modern day hunk, but he grows with the part, and has the most touching scene in the film, when he is reunited with his father Jacob. In the small part of Jethro, the great Alan Bates is marvelous. Other name actors include Diana Rigg (mature Rebeccah), Geraldine Chaplin (Yocheved), David Warner (Eliezer), and Christopher Lee is a theatrical, entertaining Ramses I.

At times there's quite a bit of license taken with scripture (for instance, there is some incredulous dialogue between Moses and Jethro after the parting of the sea, where Moses doesn't seem to have much faith in God), and similar to other TV Bible films, the parts that take place in Egypt are full of gaudy sets and costumes, as well as some characters who have an almost Alice Cooper look in the makeup department, especially Pharaoh's magician (Victor Spinetti).
Filmed in Morocco, with lovely cinematography and score, this one is certainly worth a rental if you like Bible epics.


Rating:
Summary: The Good, The Bad, and The Hoaky
Review: The Good: the film stayed very true to the books of Genesis and Exodus and presented them in a way that was entertaining and easy to follow. This would be a good introduction for those with little experience with the Hebrew Bible, or could be used in conjunction with a Bible study. The Bad: the film presented the story without any of the "bad" parts recorded in the Bible. Sarai being given over twice to another man (Gen 12:10-20; 20) was left out, as was Jacob's relations with the servants of his 2 wives (Gen 30:1-13), the rape of Dinah (Gen 34), and Moses brush with death (Ex 4:24-26). Portraying the Patriarchs as purely saintly overlooks their humanly faults that the Bible conveys without pretext. The Hoaky: the make-up and sets were excellent throughout the film, but when it came time for the plagues and the exodus, the hoaky special effects and the over-the-top acting on the part of the Egyptians ruined the last 30 minutes. But overall, it was a worthwhile film, an excellent adaptation of the Biblical story. This would make a good addition to your family video library or a good donation to your church library.