The Manchurian Candidate (2004)
Years after his squad was ambushed during the Gulf War, Major Ben Marco finds himself having terrible nightmares. He begins to doubt that his fellow squad-mate Sergeant Raymond Shaw, now a vice-presidential candidate, is the hero he remembers him being. As Marco's doubts deepen, Shaw's political power grows, and, when Marco finds a mysterious implant embedded in his back, the memory of what really happened begins to return.
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why do people think this is a good movie.. the soundtrack alone ruins it.. why the hell did they play so many crappy songs.. where did they even find that many crap songs.. the opening was garbage.. how many songs did they play in the first 5 minutes lol.. plot was undeveloped, characters underdeveloped.. this is not a good movie.. not to mention the doctor they leave it unresolved, and in such a crappy way. sad too there was a lot of good actors in this horrible movie
Gulf war veterans Ben Marco (Denzel Washington) and Raymond Shaw (Live Schreiber) are comrades in Kuwait in 1991, but when their platoon is attacked under mysterious circumstances the two men end up separated with little recollection of what happened after their platoon was attacked. Fast forward 13 years and the two men meet again under very different circumstances and both men soon learn that they were part of a terrible experiment.First of all I would like to say that I have not seen the original film so anyone who wants a blow-by-blow analysis between the two films is best off looking elsewhere, but for what it's worth this is my take on this version of The Manchurian Candidate...I believe that this is categorised as a Conspiracy thriller and in that respect it works very well; it's easy to become swept up in the paranoia of the whole thing and the fact that Washington's character is always just about on the right side of sanity helps to keep things interesting and help give the film a sense of urgency. Although some elements of the narrative are slightly predictable (clearly there is a government conspiracy of some kind involved), but in these type of films knowing what is involved is only half the battle and knowing why said party is involved and how this aspect of the story is going to be resolved is the other half of the puzzle and that's where The Manchurian Candidate does come good. Live Schreiber is the other strong link in the film and is on the other side of the fence in the early stages - in comparison to Washington's character he is apathetic and content in his elevated position in society and although he thinks Washington is crazy at first he slowly starts to believe that his old commander is perhaps more sane than anyone else. These two characters are what drive this picture forward and they manage to steal the limelight from veterans such as Streep and Voight - the former to me shows off a bit and the latter isn't given much to do.What I liked about this film though is that it is a clever film with a strong narrative, but it's never a film that goes overboard by trying to be too clever - in other words it doesn't tie itself in several plot twist knots. The ending is clever, but it's clever in a way that gets you thinking rather than being a silly curve ball style ending.My only real criticism with this film (and it is minor) is that Demme does get carried away stylistically at times - some of the dream sequences are overdone and a tad silly, but that's about as far as my criticism goes with this film. As I mentioned earlier, I haven't seen the original film so cannot comment on what that film is like, but for fans of conspiracy thrillers this version is definitely worth a look.
On the look out for a cerebral thriller, I came across this ten year old re-heat of the 1962 Frankenheimer film. Jonathan Demme is someone who you want to believe is a genius (Silence of the Lambs). Unfortunately watching this you can't help but feel that the screenplay for the afore mentioned must have laid things on a plate for him. Whilst there are some of his trademarks, notably the trade mark tight to camera eye-lines...there's nothing really here about the filmmaking that indicates any form of expression beyond just doing it by the numbers. Yes, there are a few tiny skin crawly moments (the tattoo face lady montage) where you think things might just get a bit Jacob's Ladder on you but the film never really hits any frights, down mostly due to its slavishly naturalistic aesthetic choices which is surprising given Demme was collaborating with very hot (at the time) DP Tak Fujimoto who shot dark classics including The Sixth Sense. Denzel is watchable as always and that's something worth the 5 dollars. It's probably also the best Liev Shrieber has been, perfectly cast as a golden boy political hopeful. Another example of "if it ain't broke.."
One can watch Hitchcock's Psycho again and again even knowing the plot, as the seemingly simple style combine with surprising and brilliantly quirky performances to create a memorable experience. Because I know and admire the original and unsettling Manchurian Candidate, the plot surprises in the competent remake are telegraphed, and even though the theme of an American president controlled by corporate forces is more than timely, it was hard for me to get personally involved in the convoluted story.That said, Meryl Streep has a grand time essaying The Mother From Hell, and Liev Schreiber plays her zombie-like spawn with more conviction than boring Laurence Harvey did in the original. who merely seemed to be type-cast. My recommendation: if you haven't seen the original, this can be an excellent conspiracy thriller, as the craftsmanship is exceptional, and it is tightly pulled together; if you are an old fan of the original, the disorienting shivers won't be there, but it's still interesting as a comparison, and it's a well-made construct.