The Manchurian Candidate

Paramount Pictures presents

Starring: Denzel Washington, Liev Schreiber, Meryl Streep

Directed by: Johathan Demme

Rating: ***

Plot: After a small Marine unit survives an ambush in the first Gulf War it is believed that Sgt. Raymond Shaw (Liev Schreiber) is a hero who fought and killed the enemy. Years later as he runs for Vice President many of his fellow comrades in arms like Capt. Bennett Marco (Denzel Washington) have dreams of Shaw not doing any of the heroic things he claims and also have dreams that they were brain washed. Marco decides to investigate and finds that a major company called Manchurian Global is trying to sneak a brain washed candidate into the White House. How is going to stop them? A crazy ending a political issues ensue.

Acting: Denzel Washington rules. That is really all I can say. Training Day was one hell of performance where he didn't exactly deserve the Oscar but whatever. Then he starred in one of my favorite movies of the year called Man on Fire. Here even though this movie is flawed his performance is bright and powerful. Here he basically plays the rule Sinatra played in the original Manchurian Candidate. Denzel here of course plays a guy who has no idea what is going on so he runs around just as confused as we are. Still many moments in this movie you watch Denzel do his thing and you just sit back and enjoy because he is one power house actor that heats up the screen no matter what he is doing. Now Liev Schreiber who I can only remember from the Scream movies plays Raymond Shaw the pone in Manchurians power game. He is very good here but where I think this guy needs to be in movies is bad guys. If he would play a super villain I think he would just be stunning because something about him just is spooky, not in a bad way if that makes any sense. Beyond the two male leads we have the amazing Meryl Streep who I have been loving lately with her amazing performances in Adaptation and even Stuck On You. Here she plays Raymond Shaw's mother. She is one nasty bee-yatch in this movie and the only Oscar worthy thing in this movie is her performance. She made this movie have some spark without here this movie would be nothing but a confused memory but she makes this movie have a punch especially her first speech scene to some campaign guys. Great stuff, made me smile even though she was so evil!

Directing/Writing: If ain't broke don't fix it is my opinion. Remaking a classic your just asking for failure. Here though they had the right idea on how to remake a movie. You add something to it. Unlike the uber shitty Psycho remake this film tries to add some darkness and new edge to the old plot. To me the original is so good and is much better than this and is for sure rent or even buy (It is in my dvd collection). Anyway the movie is very dark we have some hard to watch scenes with executions and probe's and just spooky images that make this movie stand out alone only on that. The movie looses balance though through some sloppy writing and over the top directing. Some other things that pushed my buttons is that the time period of when this movie is set is not clear. George Bush's name isn't spoken but you know some upper cuts were there. We hear radio and television news announcements about the war on terror and how America is fighting wars in Africa and Indonesia so I guess it is suppose to be set in the future but it is never clear. Also the end speeds up very fast with some intense action and then slows down with a spooky and also slightly annoying ending leaving you wondering why you even bothered watching the film. Now this movie isn't as hard politically wise as many people think, this movie does just focus on characters has some hidden punches but this is no political film like Michael Moore films. Maybe that is a good thing, I don't know.

Overall: Some brilliant acting performances and some great visuals. Mixed with some interesting ideas and some dramatic elements. In the end though the film lacked the punch I was expecting to get leaving the glass only half empty in my eyes which also made me think why did they even remake this? Go see this and go see the original and have your own debate.