Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 04, 2005 | | Summary | If it HAD to be made, surprisingly worthy. | Content
 | I am generally against remaking old classic movies. However, there are some that have worked for me; KING KONG, THE FLY, INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, even the current WAR OF THE WORLDS. The reason primarily is that they were genuinely REMADE with the current times.
CANDIDATE retains the basic premise of mind conditioning and Raymond Shaw's rather twisted relationship with his mother. The film starts in 1991 Iraq and follows through to the post-terrorism paranoia of today. There are many other changes in the story as compared to the original film, which, like it or not, is what remaking a movie is all about. If not, you end up with an inferior carbon copy of an original, like Gus Van Sant's PSYCHO (what the hell was that idiot smoking when he came up with that idea???). |
| Rating | | | Date | July 28, 2005 | | Summary | complicated | Content
| Like the original, complicated requiring close attention to follow. Some slow parts, boffo ending worth the effort. Not for casual viewing. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 13, 2005 | | Summary | An inferior remake | Content
| This movie ranks with the new "Planet of the Apes" as one of the worst remakes of a classic ever made. The original Manchurian Candidate was tightly plotted, perfectly acted, and socially relevant. Its plot was rich and layered, and above all subtle.
This new film loses it all in favor of pastiche. The basic plot, that of a platoon being brainwashed into believing they were saved by the most hated member of their squad, is all that survives. Raymond Shaw is changed from a crooked politician's son to the politician himself, and the transition is not successful on any level. The backstory involving Senator Jordan and his daughter Joslyn is all but absent, rendering one of the most powerful scenes of the original rather tepid. With Shaw now as the candidate for vice presidency, his hatred of his mother is largely superfluous to the plot and so is barely noticeable. Also, Major Marco's role reversal at the end is limp and his turning-the-tables cannot be explained as Shaw's was in the original. The big-business conglomerate as brainwashers does not work. Last but not least, the Queen of Hearts trick is gone, its replacement infinitely less intriguing.
What does it leave? It leaves a simple if suspenseful tale of brainwashing. Meryl Streep is effective as the mother but cannot match Angela Lansbery (in her defense, Streep's role is far less three dimensional than Lansbery's, and her character is simply not as malevolent).
Not worth it. Seek out the original, one of the greatest films ever made, and cast this to the dustbin of cinema history. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 03, 2005 | | Summary | A bit of a stretch but very good entertainment | Content
| Someone else's mind over someone else's matter. Not even mother gets her way. What made it fun was the surprise ending that ended exactly the way you expected it to end. That is always fun for me! The joy of successfully figuring out what will happen and it does.
Nice believable performances help make this a fun evening. Did they tie up all the lose ends? I might have to re-watch this sometime to double check. Some things seem unfinished.
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| Rating | | | Date | June 27, 2005 | | Summary | Excellent! | Content
| Note: Spoilers ahead.
This movie was one that required your utmost attention throughout and still you missed things. The DVD version is much better than the theater run because you can rewind and re-watch for things you missed. This makes it worth owning.
A group of soldiers are brainwashed to think that one of them was a war hero, when in fact nobody was in combat. The "war hero" was being pushed by his ex-senator mother (played brilliantly by Meryl Streep in her first truly "evil" role) into politics and is on the verge of a possible nomination for the vice presidency.
Some of the men start having recurring dreams that make them doubt what they thought was reality. Denzel Washington, who was leading the soldiers back in the Gulf War, wants to get to the bottom of it. Each time he gets close to some information he is told that he needs to continue taking his "medication" for the Gulf War syndrome.
Things really get confusing when Denzel is being followed by government people and locates a computer chip in his back, that has capabilities that Denzel's friend who is a computer expert says could not possibly exist.
The viewer can kind of figure out the Manchurian corporation is somehow behind everything and that it is all an elaborate plot to get the "war hero" into office. The tension mounts however, where the viewer doesn't know how things will play out and if Denzel's character will come out of it alive.
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