The Manchurian Candidate (Widescreen Edition)

Rating:
Summary: A Great Conspiracy Theory
Review: Believe it or not, this movie is much better than the original. Reasons: color adds much more realism to the setting, the sound/music in the new one is darker and more appropriate for each scene, and the story is applicable as a conspiracy theory much more today than the days of Communist threat, which always seemed less serious than it really was.

Most people believe the original was better because it's supposedly a classic, that should be respected always. However, only few classics can be appreciated by the modern era cinema-goers because times and movies were much more simpler and down-to-earth.

The remake will be popular to anyone who lived through the 90s and beyond, as it applies to that demographic more effectively.

Rating:
Summary: Should have been great -- isn't
Review: First, be aware that after paying $20 for this, Paramount expects you to sit thru 5 commercials before you can get at the movie. This situation is getting out of control. Its arrogance in the supreme that should not be tolerated.

This should have been a great movie. The original was great and they had that example to follow. The thrill and suspense are built into the script. This movie is lousy. One of the producers/directors discusses how the blurred background behind the actors was to achieve a "dream-like" perspective to the scene. He was proud of that "artistic license" but projecting the point of the movie was less important. The movie ends with the business tycoons only disappointed, not punished. Are there more brainwashed people left? Are they thinking of a sequel? Yes, and they should forget it.

One star for the actors. They did a great job in a difficult movie. Don't buy.



Rating:
Summary: It's not only good but important.
Review: Here is why:

The people who made this movie are sending an alert message to the rest of us. Watch the special feautures that's where the meat is located.

I liked the plot, the new angle and the acting. Stars for everyone. The ending is a little bit rush and perhaps superficial. Okay, it sucks, but they redeem themselves with the special feautures.

The message could not be clearer. After watching that, your trust in governments and outlook at national and international politics may change.

Rating:
Summary: Not all that interesting
Review: I never saw the original movie so I have nothing to compare this one to, but taken on its own merits, it isn't a thrill ride like the box promised when I rented it. In fact, it's rather dull and monotonous. Too many times you knew what was going to happen next thus taking away any suspense. I found the idea to be kind of a dopy one to begin with but it could have been pulled off and wasn't. To me, a good cast was wasted on this one.

Rating:
Summary: The worst remake of 2004. Worst casting.
Review: Please watch the 1962 vrsion instead.
The original "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962) included an all-star cast, Frank Sinatra as "Bennett Marco", Laurence Harvey as "Raymond", Janet Leigh, Henry Silva, John McGiver, James Gregory and Angela Lansbury. Angela Lansbury is so memorable in her role as "Mrs. Iselin", a very rare performance from Lansbury that it has never been duplicated. (Lucille Ball was once considered for the role).
The original black & white film was very effective in showing subliminal hypnotism and the film sucks you right into the storyline. Very dramatic 1962 film.
This film was made before the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. There are parallels in the film to Abraham Lincoln who was a President also assassinated.
Making a remake of this film, first of all, is very risky and casting and storyline should have been just right, but I am not pleased with Denzel washington in the role that Frank Sinatra is originally known for. Harrison Ford, Timothy Dalton or Clive Owen would have been a better choice. Meryl Streep as "Eleanor Prentiss Shaw" is perhaps the only interest I had in seeing this 2004 remake. There is no mystery, suspense, wonder nor intense hypnotizing going on as it did in the first film. The thrill is gone in this remake.
Please buy and see the original 1962 version "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962) with Frank Sinatra, instead of watching this 2004 garbage.

Rating:
Summary: A Very Entertaining, Well Done Film
Review: The first time I saw "The Manchurian Candidate." I went so far as to think it was the worst film of the year. But then I noticed that everyone around me started to like it, so I figured. Why not? I watched it again and you can tell by my review that I liked it this time. The film is truly brilliant, it's got great cinematography, the acting is spectacular.
Academy Award Winning director Jonathan Demme (Best Director, "The Silence of the Lambs.") is just amazing. The only true problem(s) I have with the film is, the ending which is way to drawn out, the beginning credit sequence (which is WAY TO DRAWN OUT) and the acting by Liev Schreiber is at some times horrendous. Schreiber is quite possibly one of my least favorite actors. The movies main character is Major Bennet Marco (Two Time Academy Award Winner Denzel Washington, Best Supporting Actor "Glory" and Best Actor "Training Day"). Marco served in Operation Desert Storm along side Raymond Shaw (Schreiber). The way things played out is rather mysterious to Marco. After the enemy opened fire, Shaw saved the entire crew and won the medal of honor. But, the crew also disappeared for three days. Now, Shaw is running for vice president (the man also happens to be somewhat of a mommas boy for Senator Eleanor
Shaw (the terrific Meryl Streep). Marco begins having dreams and begins to uncover a conspiracy that involved Shaw and Manchurian Global, a big time company. Now, before I saw the film I wasn't familiar with what was gonna happen. I didn't know about the conspiracy part which is what I think turned me off about the movie. But, after my second viewing I noticed that this movies melds (perfectly) a number of genres:
Drama, comedy, horror, action, paranoid thriller, etc. One of the most entertaining films of 2004, see "The Machurian Candidate". A-

PS, I have never seen the original. This review is for this film and is not compared to the book or original film in any way.


Rating:
Summary: WEAK REMAKE OF A CLASSIC FILM
Review: This film is a cheap remake of the classic 1962 thriller. There are certain scenes they try to steal, " My name is Eujineau"(sp?)in the train scene originally acted by Janet Leigh. Using the same phone # as in the original so they would have something in common with the good one. Manchurian Corporation replacing Manchurian China does not work. This film is chocked full of bad acting, a bad script, and a non-sensical plot. Skip this one. Not worth your time nor trouble.

Rating:
Summary: Very Good
Review: This was very good. Sometimes predictable, but often enough you are pulling for Washington, so the anticipation is higher. Acting is very good (I still dislike all the roles Streep plays, including this one). With current technology, it is much more believable then it might have been 40 years ago when it might have been written off as cold war paranoia. Scary. Not surprising that Demme also directed "Silence of the Lambs", where the scariness is more in the mind than in blood and gore.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty good remake
Review: Unlike the official review by Bret Fetzer, the film is not dismissible as "paranoid cinema". It happens to be dark comedy about the times we live in, even as it is a remake of a classic film. Probably the most real part of it is the background, the scenery of terror alerts, candidate photo ops with military escorts and fawning (fake?) crowds of well-wishers, as well as the boundless global ambitions of military contractors and others who play on fears with promises of security through hi-tech weapons and surveillance devices. The games are as old as those played by the MacBeth's, under it all. Power and paranoia intersect and always have. Streep is controlled wacky, dominantly insane, as a combination Barbara Bush, Hillary Clinton and some corrupt Roman empress who holds her son in sexual thrall. Denzel Washington credibly portrays the soft-spoken officer whose inner hell is contained within a disciplined and magnificent exterior. Other actors are not given so much scope as these stars. I wanted to see a little more range in "Eugenie Rose" and also in the "Prentiss Shaw" candidate. Would I watch it again? Maybe. That's why I gave it four stars. Five is for the first one with Sinatra.

Rating:
Summary: The Manchurian Candidate (Widescreen Edition)
Review: When his army unit was ambushed during the first Gulf War, Sergeant Raymond Shaw saved his fellow soldiers just as his commanding officer, Major Ben Marco, was knocked unconscious. Brokering the incident for political capital, Shaw eventually becomes a vice-presidential nominee, while Marco is haunted by dreams of what happened -- or didn't happen -- in Iraq. As Marco investigates, the story begins to unravel, to the point where he questions if it happened at all. Is it possible the entire unit was kidnapped and brainwashed to believe Shaw is a war hero as part of a plot to seize the White House? Some very powerful people at Manchurian Global corporation appear desperate to stop him from finding out.