Journey to Bethlehem (2023) - Sony

[rdodolak]

Sony is also planning a Blu-ray + Digital release for Journey to Bethlehem (2023). Looks like it will have a 16 Jan 2024 release date.

A young woman carrying an unimaginable responsibility. A young man torn between love and honor. A jealous king who will stop at nothing to keep his crown. This live-action Christmas musical celebration for the entire family, weaves classic Christmas melodies into new pop songs in a music-infused retelling of the timeless story of Mary and Joseph and the birth of Jesus. A unique new entry into the collection of holiday classic movies, this epic Christmas musical is unlike any before it.

[Bubbles-11]

Antonio Banderas????????

[Walter Kafka]

Jesus.

[James Luckard]

This looks like a camp masterpiece!

I think I may have to watch it.

You absolutely MUST watch this clip until at least 1:30, when Antonio Banderas says "Kiss the ring, babies" and by that point you won't be able to stop watching.

JOURNEY TO BETHLEHEM - GOOD TO BE KING - BUY OR RENT NOW AND IN THEATERS - YouTube

[Walter Kafka]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

This looks like a camp masterpiece!

I think I may have to watch it.

You absolutely MUST watch this clip until at least 1:30, when Antonio Banderas says "Kiss the ring, babies" and by that point you won't be able to stop watching.

JOURNEY TO BETHLEHEM - GOOD TO BE KING - BUY OR RENT NOW AND IN THEATERS - YouTube

Dear God.

A Wilhelm scream!

[James Luckard]

Also, I love how they don't even try and hide the fact that they used "Uprising" by Muse as the temp track for the song.

"This live-action Christmas musical celebration for the entire family, weaves classic Christmas melodies into new pop songs in a music-infused retelling of the timeless story of Mary and Joseph and the birth of Jesus."

Muse - Uprising [Official Video] - YouTube

This isn't typically what I play when I have my egg nog and gingerbread, but who am I to judge others?

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by Walter Kafka

Jesus.

Wept.

[HDTV1080P]

Journey To Bethlehem (brief user review)

Journey To Bethlehem is a Christian musical about the birth of Jesus Christ who Christians believe is the King of the Universe and Messiah (God in human flesh). This modern 2023 movie that was released on the Blu-ray format on 1-16-2024 is based on a true story. Journey To Bethlehem had a budget of $6 million dollars with box office sells of around $7.8 million dollars. Christians believe the New Testament and Bible is 100% historically and prophetically accurate and this movie has a little Bible prophecy surrounding the virgin birth. This rated PG movie is faithful to the historical New Testament record about Jesus while at times inserting some artistic license regarding a few events that most likely did not happen. Like the donkey kicking and knocking out a soldier to protect Mary most likely is artistic license. Also, the soldiers in the manger scene most likely also did not happen. But overall, Bible believing Christians will be happy with this musical since the movie is faithful to history. According to history Mary is a very holy person who protestants believe has committed very little sin in her life (Catholics believe Mary never sinned and is perfect). According to history Mary was a virgin and the only person in history that became pregnant with a child without having any sexual intercourse with a man (Without any sexual intercourse the Holy Spirit placed a perfect sinless seed in one of Mary’s eggs so that the Savior of the Universe could be born known as Jesus Christ the Messiah). Mary is a holy woman that never lied according to the movie, but the virgin birth caused a scandal around 2,000 years ago that skeptics still debate today. Some amazing angel scenes in the sky for this movie, along with interesting music at times. Even for those people that doubt the historical record this movie does have some interesting moments as a musical. However, Journey to Bethlehem core audience is Christians and some non-Christians might prefer other family friendly musicals like the Sound of Music instead. At times I found Journey to Bethlehem enjoyable even though this true story has been retold over and over for more than 2,000 years.

Video Comments

For some reason Journey to Bethlehem was not released on the 4K Blu-ray format but only received a standard 2K Blu-ray release. Journey to Bethlehem uses a total of 29.4GB of space out of 50GB on the dual layer 2K Blu-ray disc. The MPEG-4/AVC codec had an average bit rate of around 29Mbps for some scenes in the movie. Movie resolution is 2K (1080P) quality. Journey to Bethlehem overall has a nice color quality and resolution for a standard 2K Blu-ray release. This movie contains many different subtitle options for those that need or want subtitles.

Audio Comments

Journey to Bethlehem contains a lossless English 5.1 DTS-HD Master audio soundtrack and a lossless Spanish 5.1 DTS-HD Master audio soundtrack. Overall, I thought the surround sounded very good with all 5.1 channels active at times, including the subwoofer, rear speakers, center channel for voice, along with two front channels.

Extra Features

Journey to Bethlehem main disc menu and 100% of the extra features is 2K (1080P) quality using the MPEG-4/AVC codec. Main disc menu uses 2.0 LPCM stereo. While the extra features and most of the preview trailers use 2.0 Dolby Digital at 192kbps, one of the preview trailers is in 5.1 Dolby Digital at 640kbps. Meet Mary & Joseph lasts 2 minutes and 26 seconds. Deleted & Extended Scenes lasts 5 minutes and 46 seconds. The Heart of The Journey to Bethlehem lasts 4 minutes and 33 seconds. Meet Fig lasts 2 minutes and 10 seconds. Meet Mary’s Sisters lasts 2 minutes exactly. Meet Antipater lasts 2 minutes and 39 seconds. The preview trailers lasts 5 minutes and 23 seconds.

Conclusion

Journey to Bethlehem is a unique Christian musical about the birth of Jesus Christ who Christians believe is God in human flesh (King of Kings). The 2K video quality and 5.1 lossless audio was above average when compared to some other Christian movies released on the standard 2K Blu-ray format. The extra features were enjoyable to watch. I recommend Journey to Bethlehem to all Christians that enjoy watching Biblically based musicals.

[KilljoyEX]

It looks like it is available digitally in 4K, they should've done a 4K release..

[emailking]

Not religious but I liked this a lot. Some good music. And an interesting take with a twist.

[dukiejosh54]

Originally Posted by KilljoyEX

It looks like it is available digitally in 4K, they should've done a 4K release..

It only made around 6 million at the box office. I doubt Sony thought it would be profitable enough to release a 4k Blu-ray sadly.

[emailking]

I'm going to watch the blu-ray on my vacation and will let you know what I think on 8/8.

[emailking]

Originally Posted by emailking

I'm going to watch the blu-ray on my vacation and will let you know what I think on 8/8.

As promised, I am ready to tell you what I think. I watched this over my vacation with ice cream.

As I said before, not religious but I liked this a lot. Some good music. And an interesting take with a twist." Some of the religiousy bits I can do without. But just as the story goes this is such a unique and cool take it almost makes me wish it were true and went down just like that. I love the spunky Mary, she's not usually portrayed like that. About half the songs are really catchy, a couple aren't so good.

The picture of pretty incredible for a blu-ray. Definitely better than my 1080 stream. No sound system but I used headphones and all of the music sounded great over the headphones. Specials are handful of short character featurettes and then 3 "deleted' scenes but they were just extended versions of existing scenes. One of which was funny and I wish they hadn't cut. Also I should note Sony has a credits popup on this one, to the main menu or special features, and you have to down arrow it, and then the specials annoyingly start playing automatically are the credits are over.

If you liked this movie it's a great blu-ray. I definitely recommend at least watching the movie even if you aren't Christian.

[Mikezilla3k]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

JOURNEY TO BETHLEHEM - GOOD TO BE KING - BUY OR RENT NOW AND IN THEATERS - YouTube

Originally Posted by James Luckard

Also, I love how they don't even try and hide the fact that they used "Uprising" by Muse as the temp track for the song.

What the hell, it IS just Muse.