What The Heck. The new Manchurian Candidate is to the original Manchurian Candidate what the Manfred Mann "Quinn the Eskimo" is to Bob's original "Quinn the Eskimo." Bad, bad, bad. Ending "new twist" was stupid and didn't make sense. Nothing made sense. Not to mention that saying a guy's full name (?!) is about seventy-thousand times less cool than suggesting he pass the time by playing a little solitaire.I, too, was most seriously displeased, to quote Lady Catherine de Burgh. I thought Liev Schrieber was quite good, and Meryl Streep and Denzel put in their usual solid performances. But they tried to hard to Update the story that they fouled it up beyond belief.
I'm a huge fan of the original film, and read the book for the first time about a week ago (floored me! They don't write political thrillers like that anymore). I knew the new one wouldn't be as good; I didn't expect it to be as bad as it was, though.
And, my goodness! Ray.
I don't know if it was that Ray Charles died so recently, or that my father loved Georgia on my Mind, or that I can't help but dance when I hear What'd I Say or Hit the Road, Jack. But as soon as I realized I was watching a trailer for a Ray Charles biopic, I started crying. Bawling. Tears of joy, of course, but it was embarrassing. That single trailer was worth more than ten Manchurian Candidates. That movie's gonna make Jamie Foxx a star.
1 comment:
I just don't understand why the new Candidate got such good reviews. I was tricked! The whole idea of a new version sounded awful, but, with so many glowing reviews, I had to give it a chance. Too bad I didn't read Salon's review until after I got back from the theatre. http://archive.salon.com/ent/movies/review/2004/07/30/manchurian/
(I particularly liked the first paragraph on the second page.)
I'm a great admirer of the original film, too, Zach. I've seen it multiple times over 10-15 years (can't really remember how old I was the first time I watched it!) and read the book about five years ago. The changes in the new movie just don't make sense. The whole idea of making unlovable Raymond into the candidate is ludicrous. The new convention scene is not suspenseful/exciting at all and isn't even lucid. The guys' dreams/flashbacks of their reprogramming don't coincide (the loony guy sees Raymond smothering someone with a piece of plastic; Marco sees him choking the guy), and the whole chip thing is just dumb. Way less scary and intriguing than brainwashing. The original was so crisp and cool; the new version is a big fuzzy doesn't-make-sense mush. Oh, and the conversation on the train!!! *sigh*
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