Matt Greene
What it lacks in subtlety it makes up for in blandness. The performances are great, but they spend so much time uncomfortably staring directly through the screen and into my soul that I can't ignore the overtly broad and ridiculously conspiratorial dialogue. I really should've watched the original first.
generationofswine
Have you seen it? No? There is likely a very good reason for that...it stinks.Like nearly ALL the endless remakes and reboots that have been plaguing movie goers for the past decade or so....all this is, is a heartless version of the original.It has no heart.It has no soul.It is a retelling of a film that we all love and cherish...and it adds nothing to the story. It improves nothing but the special effects--which held up very well over time--and in some cases belittles the fans of the original...particularly in the fact that they remade the movie at all, without adding anything clever to it.Like so many other remakes it is a hallow shell of the original.
Tss5078
The remake of The Manchurian Candidate is one of the few Denzel Washington films I've never seen. To be honest, the story just didn't interest me that much, but it started streaming this month, so I gave it a shot. As expected, it's a someone complex story, that at times was difficult to understand, however an all-star cast manages to pull it together at the end. The story begins in Iraq during the Gulf War, when a U.S. Army platoon goes missing for three days. Even they were unaware of what happened to them, until one of the men starts having nightmares, and bodies start turning up. Denzel Washington plays the commanding officer, who takes it upon himself to investigate the strange deaths of his men, almost a decade later. As always, Washington is at the top of his game, giving off that infectious intensity, that keeps you on the edge of your seat through every step of the investigation. Washington is paired with Liev Schreiber who is one guy that has always just rubbed me the wrong way. It's not that he's a bad actor, there is just something about him and the characters he plays that is inherently unlikeable. He wasn't bad in this film, but being a similarly intense actor, meant that the chemistry with Washington was almost non-existent. The story is complicated and in the beginning of the film, it's going to be somewhat hard to watch. As the film proceeds and the elements become more clear, the film gets easier to watch, and the ending really pulls everything together. The Manchurian Candidate is one of those films that you think is going to be a bust, some people may even turn it off, but those who stick with it will see that it just gets better and better until a surprise ending brings it all together. If I were the writer of this film, I would have made the beginning of the film more intense and less confusing. The truth is the most important parts of a film are the beginning and the end, and without a strong opening, a lot of people will be turned off to the film and have the wrong attitude throughout. If you manage to stick with it, The Manchurian Candidate is great, but it does take a while to get there.
museumofdave
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.
AD
