The Manchurian Candidate (2004)
As a kidnapped and brainwashed soldier becomes the likely next Vice-President of the United States, another soldier races to uncover the conspiracy behind it, a conspiracy that seeks to destroy democracy itself.
5 April 1926, Detroit, Michigan, USA
14 February 1962, Manhattan, New York, USA
28 December 1954, Mount Vernon, New York, USA
25 November 1947, Jersey City, New Jersey, USA
29 May 1957, Bellaire, Ohio, USA
30 January 1956, Holyoke, Massachusetts, USA
7 February 1955, Santa Monica, California, USA
15 August 1957, Ljubljana, Slovenia
13 July 1921, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA
26 April 1978, Ymir, British Columbia, Canada
4 March 1941, Englewood, New Jersey, USA
5 March 1936, North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA
12 June 1960, Providence, Rhode Island, USA
25 August 1957, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK
17 April 1967, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
3 March 1953, Paddington, London, England, UK
2 September 1940, Amarillo, Texas, USA
21 May 1951, New York City, New York, USA
August 19, 2010
This humorless and nonsensical update of The Manchurian Candidate - a total misread of Frankenheimer's classic original - never quite engages, devolving the original's camp and satire into self-serious melodrama.
August 28, 2004
Demme serves the picture completely.
August 03, 2004
Following a dozen years of docs, light comedy, and p.c. weepies, Candidate represents Demme's best dramatic filmmaking since The Silence of the Lambs.
April 29, 2009
A rather decent imitation in the end with political subtext and very good performances.
May 27, 2011
If it isn't the original's equal, The Manchurian Candidate conjures up an air of menace sufficient to make most modern thrillers look like romantic comedies.
June 24, 2006
Happily, this extremely timely entertainment matches, even perhaps surpasses its predecessor.
August 13, 2004
Strikes me as a very artful cover -- about the cleverest imaginable transliteration of the story from its historical moment to ours.
December 28, 2010
Sleek remake is more violent than original.
October 18, 2008
Demme's direction is as punctilious as it was in Silence of the Lambs, careful with details and craftsmanlike with storytelling -- although we do have to work a bit to stay on top of things.
August 07, 2004
Beautifully made and unsurpassingly creepy, it's the rare remake with something contemporary to add.
November 20, 2008
It is as shocking now as it was forty years ago, but nothing in the 2004 version approaches that level of intensity, intelligence, or audacity.
August 08, 2004
Far from a disgrace, but it's not freewheeling enough, not strange enough to make sense of our gathering dread.
