Happily, this extremely timely entertainment matches, even perhaps surpasses its predecessor.
Comment
06/24/06
The Manchurian Candidate (2004)
82
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:195
Fresh:159
Rotten:36
Average Rating:7.2/10
Consensus: While not the classic its predecessor is, this update is well-acted and conjures a chilling resonance.
Theatrical Release:19-11-2004
Synopsis: Jonathan Demme updates the original 1962 John Frankenheimer classic with plenty of new paranoid twists: This time a sinister Halliburton-style corporation is behind the brainwashing of a Gulf War... [More]
Starring: Liev Schreiber, Meryl Streep, Denzel Washington, Jon Voight
Director: Jonathan Demme
Reviews for The Manchurian Candidate
Top CriticThis solid thriller only works if you're unfamiliar with the 1962 original, one of the best films ever made.
09/19/04
An intelligent, provocative blockbuster that succeeds on its own merits.
12/07/04
Impressively accomplished and highly entertaining, with sufficiently smart new twists to keep you guessing all the way to the nerve-wracking climax.
04/01/06
Top CriticA polished remake of a 60s classic.
11/16/04
Top CriticA rare case of the remake being as good as the original.
10/23/04
Demme’s film is far from perfect and decidedly out-of-date, but it’s a fantastic cast that make this version so successful.
11/14/04
A haunting, serviceable thriller.
07/16/04
Get over this being a remake of a true classic and you'll find it's a movie more suited to today's sensibilities.
07/31/04
Jonathan Demme's inventive update of The Manchurian Candidate proves that you can remake classic movies -- provided you've got a strong captain at the helm.
03/05/05
screenwriters Daniel Pyne and Dean Georgaris take this opportunity to make up for a few small problems inherent in the original.
07/30/04
Like its fabled predecessor, and novelist Richard Condon's 1959 potboiler before that, Jonathan Demme's remake of The Manchurian Candidate refashions an old gag into something cautionary, frightening and far less than far-fetched.
07/29/04
This humorless and nonsensical so-called thriller--a total misread of Frankenheimer's classic original--never quite engages...
08/27/06
the ending is mother of all disappointments
08/12/05
Before it self-destructs in its convoluted final act, the film is an astute, genuinely gripping thriller that speaks shrewdly to our current corporate-phobia and post-9/11 paranoia.
07/29/04
When it’s good, it’s very good, keeping its twists close to the vest and unfolding its mysteries in marvelous movie time.
07/27/04
Film delivers brainy performances through a script that is tense and unsettling.
08/03/04
Demme's variation on Condon's work emerges as little more than a craftsmanlike film with occasional flashes of intelligence and brilliance.
07/30/04
Marks a real revitalization of the political thriller, and with its plot climax occurring in conjunction with an American presidential election, the film could not be any more 'of the moment' and cautionary.
08/01/04
Viewers may feel as if they're watching a dramatization of 'Fahrenheit 9/11' ...
08/05/04
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