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 Chris' Review: When we were trying to plan for Tuesday Movie Night, we noticed that the new "Exorcist" was at the theatre last week. We assumed it would be a great movie for the week of Halloween. Unfortunately we were gypped. "Exorcist" was only there for a week. So it was down to "Yu-Gi-Oh the Movie" or "The Manchurian Candidate." I was looking forward to "The Manchurian Candidate" but I didn't realize what an appropriate movie it would end up being for Halloween week. It had it all: invasive gory surgery, suspense, crazy people, intrigue, mind-control, boiler-room scenes, mad scientists, heroes killing their friends, creepy dream sequences, plastic-fake controlling mothers.... All we needed was a guy in a hockey mask or a voice-over by Vincent Price (RIP) and it would have been perfect! I have to once again apologize that I have not had the opportunity to see the original 1962 version. So there will be no parallels. I won't be comparing this movie at all to the original, rather I'll be reviewing it as a singular work... but dammit people... when is Hollywood going to let the new scripts through instead of reworking old ideas? That said, this was an excellent movie. The plot was thick, dense, and engaging. The writing was intelligent and mysterious. The camera work was just bouncy enough to ellicit a feeling of uneasiness, but not enough that you felt it was overdone or kitschy. Creative angles, creative writing, creative direction. Something that was just barely apparent, and obviously within the reign of the director, were the parallels that are drawn to the current presidency and current world events. This movie scares the bejeezus out of me because it seems all too possible that these things are actually happening right here... right NOW! With SuperTuesday only a week off, I felt myself wondering, "In the end, what does it matter? They're all controlled by someone else anyway." Having that thought rattled around in your noggin for a couple of gruesome hours is probably the most horrific theme that I could have picked for Halloween/Election week. Is it ironic to anyone else that election day is only two days after Halloween? Then there was the cast. Denzel Washington playing a man who was on the edge, someone thinking that they were about to lose their mind or might have already lost it. His characterization wasn't in the least bit fluid, jumping in intensities, little follow through, calm and in control one minute and screaming hysterically in the street like a boozed out bum the next. Normally this sort of inconsistency in a character would really upset me, but in this instance, it works so well for the character that you want to stand up and applaud. As well as Denzel pulled off his part; though, Meyrl Streep buried him. Every moment that she was on the screen, she stole the show. Every nuance, every subtle gesture, every bat of an eye... a work of art. Whether it was an impromptu power struggle during a meeting or kneeling in front of her naked son, Streep lit up the stage with energy and confidence. She was perfectly cast for the part. The only bad thing I could possibly say about her in this movie is that her acting abilities were so far above that of everyone else in the cast that she occasionally distracted. Like having a shiny polished diamond in a pile of gold. The gold looks pathetic in comparison. The rest of the cast was adequate, but in comparison to strengths like Denzel and Streep... it's hard for anyone to appear more than adequate. Overall, I'm giving this movie 8 thumbs up. I'm holding back a little bit because I have a feeling that my opinion is swayed by the time of year and current events. Also a point down for being a rehashed work... please... give the original scripts a chance, Hollywood! I highly recommend this movie to those of you who couldn't make it.   Jim's Review: The state of American politics these days is a dour one in the minds of many. As I write this review on the eve of another presidential election, the country is once again sharply divided along party lines. An important issue to many is the role of big-money corporations, and their influence on government. The current administration has allowed companies like Halliburton, Enron, and the oil interest Carlyle Group to wield significant influence over their policy, and it sticks in the craw of some...As well it should. But I'm here to be critical of a film...Not the government. Ahem. "The Manchurian Candidate" is a redux of the 1962 original, which starred Frank Sinatra and Laurence Harvey, and is widely considered by many to be one of the greatest films ever made. And, while this is the part of the review where I typically rail about remakes and the lack of originality in Hollywood, the timing of this film seems unusually prescient. Whereas the original film dealt heavily with what was widely seen as a burgeoning communist menace, the update has a slightly more sinister tone. Instead of pointing the finger at a nebulous enemy...We're now looking inward. Liev Schreiber portrays senator Raymond Prentiss Shaw, son of Senator Eleanor Shaw (a skin-crawlingly creepy and manipulative Meryl Streep), who took over her seat in the senate from her late husband, Raymond's father John. He is also the heir to a powerful political/industrial dynasty began by his maternal grandfather. Nevertheless, the film tells us he risked everything to fight in the first Gulf War, which is where the film opens. Shaw's commander is the hard-nosed Capt. Bennett Marco (Denzel Washington) who is commanding the unit when it is ambushed deep in Iraq-controlled territory. The resultant firefight is confusing, and there are injuries and casualties to Marco's unit. However, when the smoke clears, it is Shaw who stands tall, having risked his life to jump into the unit's armored vehicle gunner nest and engage the enemy, seemingly single-handedly. He is recommended for, and wins, the Congressional Medal of Honor. It seems even in war, Shaw is leading a charmed life. Back stateside a decade later, Shaw is a congressman running as the Vice-Presidential candidate on a party's ticket not important to the plot...But he and the presidential hopeful are the challengers, and they're in the lead. On the other hand, Capt. Marco is a soldier without a war to fight, tiredly pulling his dress blues from the closet only to attend official functions, and give presentations on the Medal of Honor to DC-area Boy Scout troops. It is at one of these presentations that he is confronted by Cpl. Melvin (Jeffrey Wright), another ex-soldier from the unit in which he and Shaw served together. Cpl. Melvin corners Capt. Marco and begins rambling incoherently about his dreams, offering Marco a notebook filled with doodles and half-rendered streams-of-consciousness. He asks Marco to consider the possibility that the series of events that all of the men recall may not be what actually happened after all. The seed of doubt Cpl. Melvin plants in Marco's subconscious soon flourishes into a full-sized overgrowth, as Marco begins looking a bit deeper at his own experience and the experiences of the others in his unit. His progress from weary ex-soldier to paranoid conspiracy theorist is at once repellant and gripping, and Washington once again earn his A-list salary bringing it to stark life. Marco's hold on reality seems to slide just a bit with each piece of the puzzle he manages to slide into place. And the picture the puzzle seems to describe is simultaneously indicative of a seemingly inevitable conclusion, and one that's too sinister to contemplate. For his part, Shaw is the ideal candidate: Young, fresh-faced, optimistic, and wise beyond his years. However, the unseen forces that pull his strings are the antithesis of all of these qualities, making their desire to wear him as a mask all the more evil. As the film progresses, and more of the virtual forces we all fear and resent in our real government become tangible, even visible, one can't help but see dark skies ahead for the offscreen world. As with most good Sci/Fi, it asks, but does not answer the question..."Could this really happen, and should I be scared?" In addition to excellent performances by Streep, Washington, and Schreiber, keep an eye out for superb supporting turns from Jon Voight as a jilted Senator, Kimberly Elise as Marco's mysterious love interest, and an underused-but-welcome Dean Stockwell as a corporate fat cat. "The Manchurian Candidate" gets seven thumbs up from me. Is it as gripping as the original? Apples and oranges. It may not have the teeth of the 1962 film, but what it does have is compelling performances, frightening possibilities made flesh, and a new brand-new batch of necessarily biting social commentary.
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