Online Shop
|
Manchurian Candidate, The [2004]Snagging.org In association with Amazon.co.ukOnline Shop | Property Guides | Kitchen & Home | Garden Tools | Power Tools | Consumer Electronics Get the Snagging Checklist Here! Manchurian Candidate, The [2004] starring: Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep, Liev Schreiber, Kimberly Elise directed by: Jonathan Demme ![: Manchurian Candidate, The [2004]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ZXJGXHBKL._SL160_.jpg) 
List Price: £15.99 Amazon.co.uk's Price: £3.97 You Save: £12.02 (75%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually dispatched within 7 to 11 days
This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping.
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1Audience Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over Binding: DVD EAN: 5014437858733 Format: Anamorphic, Dubbed, PAL Label: Paramount Home Entertainment Languages: Manufacturer: Paramount Home Entertainment Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: Paramount Home Entertainment Region Code: 2 Release Date: April 04, 2005 Running Time: 129 minutes Studio: Paramount Home Entertainment Theatrical Release Date: 2004 Related Items: Editorial Review: Amazon.co.uk Review: The Manchurian Candidate, a classic of paranoid cinema from the 1960s, gets a cunning update, rife with hot-topic references to corporate war profiteering and electronic voting machines. Major Ben Marco (Denzel Washington, Training Day) has been haunted by nightmares ever since a firefight during the first Gulf War--a battle in which he believes he was saved by the heroism of Sgt. Raymond Shaw (Liev Schreiber, Kate & Leopold). But Marco's nightmares suggest otherwise and drive him to investigate what happened, which may threaten Shaw's candidacy for vice-president. Meryl Streep plays Shaw's mother, a senior senator who manipulates everyone around her with an iron will and a sharp tongue. The Manchurian Candidate loses steam towards the end, but up until then director Jonathan Demme keeps the movie rolling fluidly, crafting some creepy paranoia of his own while Streep tears into everything in her path. --Bret Fetzer Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Not a bad way to pass the timeI saw this in the cinema first not realising it was an old film which was a good thing as I was seeing it not knowing what was going to happen but I found it really enjoyable with plenty of twists and turns in the plot. Denzel is hard to beat in the leading role in any film and this was no different. Rating: - Difficult to see the plot to start, but a good completionI watched this with my wife and 15 yr daughter and they struggled to understand what it was all about until it was 3/4 through. My daughter found it boring, but she likes shallow girlie films. It did take quite a while for the plot to unfold, but that made it an interesting film for me. Whilst I usually enjoy SciFi and violent films, I did find this film good to watch. I think Meryl Streep's performance was poor. The film had a good plot/twist that slowly unfolded and the film came to a good conclusion. Rating:  - A candidate for de-selectionWhy was this film made? All the wit, satire and, yes, excitement of the original have been deftly removed. What's left is plodding and over-long. The performances are merely serviceable, and although Streep does her best, she simply can't bring this film alive. Despite all the updating to take in contemporary American politics and recent warzones, this 2004 version has none of the relevance of the 1962 thriller, while the cast of that undisputed classic - Sinatra, Harvey and especially Angela Lansbury - knocks spots off Denzel Washington and pals. They really don't make them like they used to anymore. Rating: - Ultimately unsatisfyingA conspiracy theory / political intrigue film set in 2004 about a decorated US army lieutenant Ben Marco (played by Denzel Washington) who served in the Gulf War in Iraq in 1991 and begins to have strange dreams of him and the men that were in his unit in Iraq being experimented on by scientists and also of events in Iraq that didn't happen, dreams that conflict with his memories of events. Marco passes it off as the effects of Gulf War syndrome (which he has been diagnosed as suffering from) but when another soldier from his unit contacts him because he has been having strange dreams about experiences in Iraq, dreams that are remarkably similar to his own he begins to question his memories from Iraq. Marco eventually discovers that someone experimented on him and his men back in Iraq in 1991 and then removed the memories of that experimentation, giving them false memories in their place. Marco begins a journey to find out what was done to him and his men in Iraq and why; a journey that will lead him to another man who served under him in Iraq - and who was also experimented on - who went on to become a US senator and may soon become US vice-president; a journey that will eventually uncover the mother of all conspiracies, a conspiracy which Marco has been picked to play a key role in, whether he likes it or not. Comments: Despite an intriguing conspiracy (which I won't reveal to ruin the film for anyone who is yet to watch the film) I felt that this film ultimately failed because it didn't deliver a significant enough pay-off by the end of the film which was especially annoying because the film was over two hours long (although it has to be said that the film didn't drag on). This is a real shame, as I have a lot of respect for Denzel Washington. If the ending had delivered, what a film this might have been. For a more satisfying conspiracy theory film, watch `Enemy of the State' starring Will Smith. Rating: - Sunday afternoon movieLike Hitchcock's Psycho, John Frankenheimer's 1962 film The Manchurian Candidate was a one-of-a-kind film that didn't really need to be remade. Both movies relied heavily on suspense and surprise. Even when we re-watch them, we can at least remember the surprise we felt when we first saw them. When Gus Van Sant remade Psycho, there was at least a bit of a new surprise: the fact that there was no new surprise. Jonathan Demme's remake of The Manchurian Candidate has its own new surprise too, by putting an extra twist in the ending. But, as with Van Sant's remake, it's not enough to justify a whole new movie. One possible justification might have been to make a fresh comment on our current times, as Frankenheimer's film did about that era. But, somehow, I don't think that telling the story of a robotic political candidate running for high office on his record as a war hero (and who is a great television debater) conveys exactly the political message that Demme intended. Now, Demme has made some very good movies in his career--notably Melvin and Howard, The Silence of the Lambs and Philadelphia--but here is he is pretty much painting by the numbers. In the end, this is a pretty standard paranoid thriller, the like of which we have seen plenty of times before. And it's not even one of the better ones. When, for example, will characters in movies learn that it is not good to go off somewhere secluded by themselves just after they've threatened to reveal a ruinous secret.....  Try searching the Internet for "Manchurian Candidate, The [2004]" or Ebay for "Manchurian Candidate, The [2004]". You might also be interested in the following great products:
|