Journey to Bethlehem

I was a little unsure how cheesy this would be, but I saw a clip of Antonio Baneres singing his song and wanted to watch. I was really surprised how much I liked it! The songs were good, seeing Joel Smallbone was a great surprise, I love For King and Country. Is the story embellished ,yes, especially the Mary and Joseph part but I didn't mind that, I liked the actors so I was okay with the story liberties there. Baneras was so great - he has such a great singing voice - and the three Wise men were entertaining. Overall I really liked it and can see this becoming part of the annual Christmas movie rotation.

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.

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.

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.

Adam Anders did a spectacular job with his first film. This movie was an amazing success and quite an amazing musical for the Christmas season. There were a couple of bits of the beginning that were confusing, but overall, it was quite spectacular. The cast performed powerfully and comedic at the same time, especially Milo Manheim and Fiona Palomo. Antonio Banderas was an amazing, creepy, terrifying antagonist that will give you chills. The music was unique, well-written, and beautifully composed. It was a good twist of modern music for something that was set in ancient Israel. The humor was also really great and was perfectly timed. Overall, this was the best musical I've seen since The Greatest Showman and I would recommend people to watch this with their family in December for sure.