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The Manchurian Candidate
2004
U.S. Army Major Bennett Marco (Washington) cant sleep at night and he doesnt want to. Marco spends his days giving inspiring speeches about his platoons ambush in the Kuwaiti desert and the heroics of Sergeant Raymond Shaw (Schreiber), who won the Medal of Honor for saving Marcos crew. But at night, Marcos dreamlike .. Read more
| Starring | Denzel Washington, Liev Schreiber, Meryl Streep, Jon Voigt |
|---|---|
| Director | Jonathan Demme |
| Genres | Drama, Thriller |
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The Manchurian Candidate
U.S. Army Major Bennett Marco (Washington) cant sleep at night and he doesnt want to. Marco spends his days giving inspiring speeches about his platoons ambush in the Kuwaiti desert and the heroics of Sergeant Raymond Shaw (Schreiber), who won the Medal of Honor for saving Marcos crew. But at night, Marcos dreamlike memories of the desert turn sinister and terrifying. And Marco privately wonders whether the two soldiers who died in the firefight might have met darker fates than officially recorded and whether Shaw might not be the glorious hero that everyone thinks he is. When Shaw takes the national stage as a surefire candidate for vice president under the thumb of his controversial mother, Senator Eleanor Prentiss Shaw (Streep) Marco is forced to act on his growing suspicions. With military officials questioning his sanity, and the net of security tightening around Shaw, Marco races to probe deeper into the unimaginable, shocking truth before the White House is won.
| Starring | Denzel Washington, Liev Schreiber, Meryl Streep, Jon Voigt, Ted Levine, Jon Voight, Kimberly Elise, Jeffrey Wright, Bruno Ganz, Simon McBurney, Vera Farmiga |
|---|---|
| Director | Jonathan Demme |
| Studio | PARAMOUNT HOME ENTERTAINMENT |
| Run time | DVD: 2 hrs 9 mins Blu-ray: 2 hrs 4 mins Watch now: 2 hrs 9 mins HD DVD: 2 hrs 4 mins |
| Certificate | DVD: , Watch Online: |
| Genres | Drama, Thriller |
| Language | English |
| Dubbed | German |
| Hearing-impaired | English |
| Subtitles | Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Swedish, Turkish |
| Released | DVD: 04 Apr 2005 Blu-ray: unknown Watch now: 25 Aug 2009 HD DVD: 17 Sep 2007 Production year: 2004 |
| Watch now | £2.49 |
| Format | DVD |
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Critics' reviews (5)
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Gerard Butler goes gung-ho in this action/adventure film, for game fans everywhere... read more »
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Most helpful member's review
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38 out of 51 people found this review helpful
A bland remake of a classic film
The fact that Jonathan Demme's remake doesn't live up to the original comes as little surprise, unfortunately the film fails to impress even when taken on it's own merits. Pedestrian and uninvolving, it had me checking my watch within the first hour. It takes forever for the film to set up the basic premise and then never really delivers on it. The plotting is obvious and often ludicrous, leaving some gaping holes along the way.
'The Manchurian Candidate's main strength is in its fine cast, but not the leading man. Washington just seems to sit there in the middle of the screen for long periods, offering nothing of interest until he switches into his twitchy, sweaty, paranoid mode. It's probably the least engaging performance I've ever seen from this normally compelling actor.
Meryl Streep delivers her usual strong performance as Raymond Shaw's mother, and she gets all the best lines, but the real stand-out is Liev Schreiber as Shaw. He's convincingly slick as the aspiring polititian but also vulnerable and racked with doubt when he needs to be. John Voight is excellent in an all-too-brief role but Kimberly Elise is saddled with a very poorly-conceived character that she can't do much with.
The most disappointing thing about 'The Manchurian Candidate' is how a very creepy and unusual film has been transformed into a straight-faced, slick blockbuster, indistinguishable from many other conspiracy thrillers. Demme's tricksy, cluttered direction is annoying, as are his endless point-of-view shots(which worked well in the confines of 'Silence of the Lambs' but not here).
Demme does get one over on Frankenheimer's film with the well-orchestrated assassination climax, but too often this falls short. And its desperate attempts to make everything seem topical and relevant will ensure it quickly dates while the original continues to shine -
Most recent members' review
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3 out of 3 people found this review helpful
Intriging plot lacking dialogue, explanation and follow up.
The Manchurian Candidate has all the qualities of any amazing movie but ultimately lacks the precision of detail that you would get from a John Grisham novel or film. I feel that if the sub plots that were suggested at were followed through with conviction it would have helped this good movie become worthy of awards as the acting from a star cast and support from a quality ensemble was excellent.
I appreciate the Director was trying to make us feel as confused as the characters but he should have invested more in his actors to be able to deliver a higher grade performance by giving them more to say and he could have explained the story in a way that made us, the viewer, more involved in unravelling the plot. Some of his moves were fairly predictable but my wife and I still paused the film to discuss side issues that were only hinted at, like drug enforced enhancement of soldiers and the envolvment of big business in the war machine.
Overall 4*, highly enjoyable but ultimately lacking in the confidence of the viewers own intelligence. -
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