Journey to Bethlehem

Scene stealing megalomanic King Herod (Antonio Banderas) hams up marvellously in this enjoyable if totally forgettable pre-Nativity Christmas story. He presides over the kingdom of Judah towards which three magi are heading when they espy a bright star in the sky portending an event of great importance. Meantime, the well educated Mary (Fiona Paloma) is regaling against an arranged marriage with a man she's never even met! Anyway, times being what they are, she has to acquiesce and meets the fairly easy on the eye Joseph (Milo Manheim). It's not exactly hate a first sight, but one night she get's another - more celestial - visitor who leaves her with quite a belly ache. She tells her folks, then her would-be husband and is soon, unsurprisingly, on her own... Quite why Gabriel couldn't just have told everyone at once? Anyway, the increasingly paranoid Herod gets wind of this impending miracle and uses the three kings and his son Antipater (Joel Smallbone) to track down and destroy the potential usurper. That fact that we still celebrate Christmas eliminates any sense of jeopardy so this is essentially just a light-hearted piece of musical theatre that uses the two slightly soporific stars to tell us a story of when Mary met Joseph. The songs are standard fayre with plenty of perfect choreography, some earnest lyrics about love and loyalty (and a fun song from Banderas about absolute power) before Omid Djalili's visiting Melchior tries to explain what myrrh is for. It's wordy, cheesy but joyous seasonal stuff that I was rather surprised to find got a cinema release in the UK. You shouldn't hate it.

What if you re-imagined life before Jesus. And then attempted to sanitize the idea that Mary was an ambitious post-teen who had aspirations to be a teacher but accepts the task of being a surrogate to Mom to God. Typing this out loud I laugh to myself how silly it may sound. And perhaps that's what the moviemakers thought too. So they inject it with non-memorable songs. But they're so semi-polished to the budget from a studio that pumps its money into Marvel stuff and reserves some dough to throw at faith based flicks like this. Yes, it's clearly a religious movie. I mean, it IS about Jesus. But it doesn't necessarily slap you across the face with it. They astutely let you have some fun with it. With some pratfalls and silly humor, they did something smart and NOT take it all that seriously.

However, it still stops short of being all that interesting. Antonio Banderas plays King Herod with great evil fun. He knows what movie he wants to be in and commits to some bizarre behavior that taps into madness.

Look, the stakes are very low in this flick. They dump all the ugliness and violence of those days and gives you an abridge overview of the "Greatest Story Ever Told" Take this statement for what its worth.

If not for the stunning Fiona Palomo who plays Mary, it's hard to say the flick is all that watchable. It seemed a little bit...cheap. Obviously this is a budgeted piece that whiffs at Hallmark Holiday level flicks. There is nothing particularly dramatic. Fiona plays Mary sweet and innocent. With wide-eyes and wholesome quality, it's really hard to NOT like this movie.

It's a good flick to fill boredom during the holidays but I didn't find it all that re-watchable.

Finally an amazing beautiful earthwarming movie. The best musical since lalaland!

Beautifully acted. Beautiful songs and music.

A treat! The whole family enjoyed the new twists and we will go to the theatre to see it again.

Banderas is wonderful and so are the other actors. MARY and Joseph are a treat.to watch singing and acting.

The magis were fun and entertaining. Herod son... also a great actor besides being.handome...lol....but my favourite is Fig...the dinky!!!.a Great actor too! LOL

Beautiful picture and setting. Beautiful script.

I wish there were more movies like this one!

A must see.

I don't mind musicals, but they aren't necessarily my favorite genre of film. I saw the trailer for this movie and thought it looked corny, however, a friend wanted to see it so I thought I'd give it a chance. I have to admit I was blown away. Yes they do take artistic license with some of the nativity story, but the most important aspects are featured so I don't think anyone would say it was heretical. What really captured my attention though was the musical performances. The singers were amazing. The musical score was top notch. As I was watching it other artists and productions came to mind to compare it with. One of the early songs Antonio Banderas sang reminded me of the Imagine Dragon song Believe (it wasn't exactly like it, just gave me that strong hard edge vibe that fit the horrid King well). A song that Mary sang reminded me a little of the film The Greatest Showman. I even got Evita and Yentl vibes. The quality of the performances were that good. If you like musicals you should like this one. And, it doesn't stop there. The cinematography was done well and the production value was high quality. Great costumes, make-up, and set design. I couldn't find how much their budget was, but if it was low you sure couldn't tell it. I hope people give it a chance. The more people who go the longer it will stay in theaters. I might even go again if it doesn't leave theater's too quickly. It's a good family friendly movie, just right for this time of year.

Like many reviewers I'd never heard of this film and had little interest in watching it .... until I read the other reviews.

Thanks so much in persuading me to watch this little gem of a film.

Clearly the best musical (by a very long way) in recent years, is The Greatest Showman.

This film however, on a mere fraction of the budget (only $6 compared to $84 million), has produced a brilliant soundtrack and thoroughly entertaining movie, that's at least 70-80% as good.

A modern retelling of the birth of Jesus and even though I'm in no way religious, leaves you with a big smile on your face and a glowing warmth in your heart.

Do yourself a favour and treat yourself to this little gem.