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zingy
College Boy Z
Joined: Mon Oct 11, 2004 8:40 pm Posts: 36662
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The Manchurian Candidate (2004)
The Manchurian CandidateQuote: The Manchurian Candidate is a 2004 American thriller film based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Richard Condon, and a reimagining of the previous 1962 film.
The film stars Denzel Washington as Bennett Marco, a tenacious, virtuous soldier, Liev Schreiber as Raymond Shaw, a U.S. Representative from New York, manipulated into becoming a vice-presidential candidate, Jon Voight as Tom Jordan, a U.S. Senator and challenger for vice president and Meryl Streep as Eleanor Shaw, also a senator and the manipulative, ruthless mother of Raymond Shaw. Very good, with great performances from Washington and others. However, the movie was far too predictable. B
Last edited by zingy on Sun Aug 28, 2005 1:00 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Sun Oct 24, 2004 4:34 pm |
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tombraider17
Mr. and Mrs. Smith
Joined: Thu Oct 21, 2004 7:21 pm Posts: 457
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Great movie, but could have been excellent. There were some confusing moments, at least for me. But the acting was brilliant (Meryl Streep, once again, is a knockout), there is alot of suspense, and it is a fine political thriller overall.
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Mon Oct 25, 2004 4:25 pm |
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Atoddr
Veteran
Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2004 3:07 am Posts: 3014 Location: Kansai
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I never saw the first one, but I found this to be a very effective first-rate political thriller. Denzel Washington is fine as usual, but it's not one of his best roles or performances. The film's best performances come from the creepy interaction between Meryl Streep and Liev Shrieber. The latter deserves an Oscar nomination even more than the always good Streep who does more than her share of scenery-chewing.
I rate this a B+. It's also a movie I would like to watch again soon to catch everything. It had good suspense and a timely story-line.
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Sun Dec 26, 2004 7:16 pm |
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Jeff
Christian's #1 Fan
Joined: Sat Oct 23, 2004 8:25 pm Posts: 28110 Location: Awaiting my fate
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Good film, but had a confusing plot and several plot holes that needed further explanation. Good, but could have been better. B
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Sun Dec 26, 2004 11:14 pm |
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dolcevita
Extraordinary
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 11:24 pm Posts: 16061 Location: The Damage Control Table
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Demme's a genius. One of the most underrated movies of last year, everything from the smart insight into culture of paranoia to the acting are strong. Definately takes a mediocre original and improves upon it.
A-/B+ range.
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Thu Apr 28, 2005 12:06 am |
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xiayun
Extraordinary
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 3:41 pm Posts: 25109 Location: San Mateo, CA
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B-. Not nearly as good as the original. The actings are very good, but the threat is less credible, and the execution is weaker. I could tell the ending far ahead with the remake, not because I had seen the original, but because the plot had pretty much led me to that conclusion. With the original, I really felt the suspense.
_________________Recent watched movies: American Hustle - B+ Inside Llewyn Davis - B Before Midnight - A 12 Years a Slave - A- The Hunger Games: Catching Fire - A- My thoughts on box office
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Thu Apr 28, 2005 12:50 am |
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MovieDude
Where will you be?
Joined: Tue Dec 21, 2004 4:50 am Posts: 11675
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tombraider17 wrote: Great movie, but could have been excellent. There were some confusing moments, at least for me. But the acting was brilliant (Meryl Streep, once again, is a knockout), there is alot of suspense, and it is a fine political thriller overall.
Wait, what's the different between "great" and "excellent"? :???:
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Thu Apr 28, 2005 1:53 am |
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tombraider17
Mr. and Mrs. Smith
Joined: Thu Oct 21, 2004 7:21 pm Posts: 457
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MovieDude wrote: tombraider17 wrote: Great movie, but could have been excellent. There were some confusing moments, at least for me. But the acting was brilliant (Meryl Streep, once again, is a knockout), there is alot of suspense, and it is a fine political thriller overall. Wait, what's the different between "great" and "excellent"? :???:
Well, they are synonymous, but personally, great for me is like an B+ or an A-, whereas excellent would be like an A or an A+. Maybe I should have said "good" instead of "great", but whatever.
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Thu Apr 28, 2005 3:37 pm |
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Libs
Sbil
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 3:38 pm Posts: 48626 Location: Arlington, VA
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Very good. B+
The original is still tops, though.
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Thu Apr 28, 2005 4:31 pm |
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El Maskado
Arrrrrrrrrrgggghhhhhhhhhh!
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 8:17 pm Posts: 21572
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A
Strong solid performances from Denzel, Meryl Streep and especially Liev Schruber as the whipped son of Meryl. I think I liked the movie so much because it takes a political jab at Haliburton and greedy industries. As the movie unfolds, it gets more and more intreging. The only let down was the ending since its one of those happy predictable endings
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Thu Apr 28, 2005 6:15 pm |
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movies35
Forum General
Joined: Thu Nov 11, 2004 1:53 pm Posts: 8626 Location: Syracuse, NY
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I've owned this flick ever since it came out on dvd in December and I still haven't watched it. Same with KING ARTHUR. I'll definetely watch it this weekend.
_________________ Top 10 Films of 2016
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Fri Apr 29, 2005 11:20 am |
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jb007
Veteran
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 1:47 pm Posts: 3917 Location: Las Vegas
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Demme dropped the ball on this one. Meryl Streep's character was cartoonish at best. Even the always reliable Denzel is off. Denzel's worst outing since Fallen. This movie has as much intrigue as Letterman's Will it Sink or Swim segment.
C-
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Fri Apr 29, 2005 6:47 pm |
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thompsoncory
Rachel McAdams Fan
Joined: Sat Oct 23, 2004 11:13 am Posts: 14544 Location: LA / NYC
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A taut and suspenseful psychological thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Fantastic performances all around.
8/10 (B+)
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Mon May 02, 2005 11:00 pm |
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Maximus
Hot Fuss
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 10:46 am Posts: 8427 Location: floridaaa
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Holy crap. Talk about the hidden gem of 2004! The Manchurian Candidate was superb. Very enjoyable, fabulous performances.... Jonathan Demme has to be one of the best directors.... Great, great picture.
A-/B+
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Sat Aug 27, 2005 11:37 pm |
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Johnny Dollar
The Lubitsch Touch
Joined: Thu Jul 21, 2005 5:48 pm Posts: 11019
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A-
Obscenely solid remake. I expected nothing special, but it was quite a good update.
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Sun Aug 28, 2005 4:12 pm |
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tina_als_girl
Cream of the Crop
Joined: Sun May 15, 2005 3:43 pm Posts: 2252 Location: Wellsville, MO
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I thought this was a really great movie. I don't really like Denzel Washington, and I actually enjoyed him in this! But, the real star of the movie, I thought, was Liev (I won't even *try* to spell his last name). He's an awesome actor.
And of course, it *never* hurts to have Dean Stockwell in a movie. He always lights up the screen, even in a small cameo like in this film. His last scene was *great*, and he wasn't even in the center of the action....
Meryl Streep was great in this, too.
All in all, just a really great film.
Solid A.
Joy
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Sun Aug 28, 2005 11:44 pm |
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neo_wolf
Extraordinary
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 10:19 pm Posts: 10906
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A mediocre film,not as good or as provacative as the classic Original.
D
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Mon Aug 29, 2005 11:33 pm |
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STROKER ACE
Speed Racer
Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 7:07 pm Posts: 199
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I enjoyed the movie--it was very fun and suspenseful--but I think they could've done a better job explaining what the motivation of the bad guys here was. The movie never explained why I was supposed to be worried about Manchurian Global controlling the presidency.
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Thu Sep 01, 2005 10:01 am |
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Dr. Lecter
You must have big rats
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 4:28 pm Posts: 92093 Location: Bonn, Germany
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B+
Very efective political/psychological thriller with great performances all-around. Washingon and Streep are great as always, but also Liev Schreiber impresses in his role. One thing, though...The film's ending was supposed to be shocking? Because if so, I don't know why as I didn't find myself either surprised or shocked. One of the movie's main flaws was the lack of exploration of the Manchurian Global corporation and therefore it failed to convince me of the threat that this organization posed. The movie is very tense at times, especially at the end and I liked how the mystery was slowly unveiled. The ending rounds up the movie well. I haven't seen the original (which is supposedly even better), but this one impressed me a lot and came out as one of last year's best thrillers as well as one of the best movies in Washington's career as well as one of Demme's best flicks.
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Mon Sep 05, 2005 9:12 am |
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insomniacdude
I just lost the game
Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 7:00 pm Posts: 5868
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I liked it. I didn't love it, but I liked it. I probably would have loved it if the plot originally didn't appear so Sci-Fi-ish (it took me a bit to comprehend that this highly acclaimed-thriller was actually about mind probes, but that soon passed). Also, for a political thriller, there isn't that much politics. Two of the main characters were politicians. One is running for VP. That's about the extent. That's more just a personally thing, as I love political thrillers and was expecting more. But aside from all that, it was solid. The acting was fantastic. The first few minutes with Meryl Streep were simply fantastic. Jonathon Demme is a solid director. There were time, I think, when the scenes could have used a bit more camera work, in terms of moving shots, but it worked out enough. He uses a lot of close-ups on the actors, which I think he used in excess. Technically, it was great; nothign more to say about that. As for the story/pacing...the pacing was good, it helped keep a nice tone throughout the entire movie, but, as I said before, I had a difficult time grasping the reality of the story at first, especially considering it showed so little of the motives of those at Manchuria Corp.
B+
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Thu Jul 06, 2006 4:31 pm |
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zennier
htm
Joined: Sun Oct 23, 2005 2:38 pm Posts: 10316 Location: berkeley
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A little rough around the edges. It flounders for a while in the second act, failing to maintain the suspense and punch that (imo) make the first and third acts much more remarkable. The atmosphere can be quite chilling and effective, the acting is incredibly solid, and the suspense is authentic. It isn't quite the masterpiece it could be, but it packs a punch and is commendably executed. It's solid with a chilling, stylish edge.
B+
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Sat Mar 31, 2007 11:30 pm |
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xiayun
Extraordinary
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 3:41 pm Posts: 25109 Location: San Mateo, CA
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B-. The original is quite a bit superior.
_________________Recent watched movies: American Hustle - B+ Inside Llewyn Davis - B Before Midnight - A 12 Years a Slave - A- The Hunger Games: Catching Fire - A- My thoughts on box office
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Sun Apr 01, 2007 1:43 am |
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trixster
loyalfromlondon
Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 6:31 pm Posts: 19697 Location: ville-marie
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Re: The Manchurian Candidate (2004)
Kinda interesting, actually. Updating the story to modern times makes for some searing political commentary.
_________________Magic Mike wrote: zwackerm wrote: If John Wick 2 even makes 30 million I will eat 1,000 shoes. Same. Algren wrote: I don't think. I predict.
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Sun Jul 03, 2011 5:22 pm |
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