Home • Up • 300 • A Mighty Wind • Along Came Polly • American Wedding • The Aristocrats • The Avaitor • Bad Santa • Bewitched • Big Fish • Borat • The Bourne Supremacy • The Bourne Ultimatum • Bowling for Columbine • Brokeback Mountain • The Brothers Grimm • Camp • Cars • Chicago • Children of Men • Connie • Constantine • The Da Vinci Code • The Devil Wears Prada • Down With Love • Dreamgirls • Elf • Fantastic Four • Farenheit 9/11 • Finding Nemo • Hairspray • Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban • Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire • Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix • Hero • Hot Fuzz • The Incredibles • Intolerable Cruelty • The Italian Job • Kill Bill vol 1 • Kill Bill vol 2 • Knocked Up • The Ladykillers • The Last Samurai • Looney Tunes Back In Action • The Lord of the Rings:The Two Towers • The Lord of the Rings:Return of the King • Lost in Translation • Madagascar • Mambo Italiano • The Manchurian Candidate • Matrix • Matrix Revolutions • Mean Girls • Memoirs of a Geisha • Mission Impossible 3 • The Motorcycle Diaries • Mr. And Mrs. Smith • Mystic River • Ocean's Twelve • Ocean's 13 • Old School • Pan's Labyrinth • Phantom of the Opera • Pirates of the Caribbean • The Producers • Ratatouille • Rent • Sarah Silverman-Jesus is Magic • Scary Movie 3 • Scoop • Shark Tale • Shrek 2 • Shrek the Third • SiCKO • Sideways • The Simpsons Movie • Spiderman 2 • Star Trek: Nemesis • Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith • Starsky and Hutch • The Stepford Wives • Stuck on You • Super Size Me • Talladega Nights: The Legend of Ricky Bobby • Terminator 3 • Transamerica • Transporter 2 • Transformers • View From The Top • Volver • Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit • War of the Worlds • Wedding Crashers • X2: X-Men United • X-Men: The Last Stand

The Manchurian Candidate

Synopsis

This is a remake of the classic 1961 movie starring Frank Sinatra as the infantryman who was brainwashed in Korea and made into a political assassin.

In the new version, Ben Marco (Denzel Washington) and his unit are captured during the first Gulf War in '91. Fast forward 15 years and Marco's platoon-mate Raymond Shaw (played by Liev Schreiber) is running for vice-president of the US. Through dreams, a visit from another platoon-mate, and some Internet research, Marco figures out that they were all captured and brainwashed.

What I Thought

Did you see the original? It is awesome, with Angela Landsbury playing the evil woman that puts Alexis Carrington to shame, Frank Sinatra is awesome, and the whole plot is chilling, suspenseful, and very interesting to watch. Did you know that Sinatra delayed this movie from coming out for 25 years after JFK's assassination?

Anyway, rent it and see it.

Now, this remake.

Why? Which film company exec had the bright idea of remaking an amazing movie classic? Are Casablanca, Citizen Kane, or Gone with the Wind next?

I mean, it wasn't bad (the acting was a little weak and uninteresting, but so was the plot). It was slow. Sloooooow. And it had credibility issues.

Who's Marco's German friend who has the high-tech lab and the high-tech theoretical knowledge? I mean, is that believable that Marco just has a friend who has all this stuff? How about a Senator will believe an ex-military guy with an FBI file an inch thick, being followed by them, and a long history of mental instability and being medicated? I can't get in to see my own STATE rep (let alone Federal) AND I'm mentally balanced!

I don't think so.

I could write more. The music was good, the eerie background sounds were done well. But I'm quickly losing interest. That's how I felt in the middle of this movie.

 

All photos and text copyright Ryszard Kilarski, unless otherwise noted. Clip art, drawings, paintings are either free domain or copyrighted by the artists.