Demme takes his time, letting the masterful actors do their thing and letting the eerie momentum slowly build.
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07/30/04
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The Manchurian Candidate (2004)
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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:Jul 30, 2004 Wide
Box Office: $65,898,487
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
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Reviews for The Manchurian Candidate
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11/08/04
Jonathan Demme, updating John Frankenheimer's classic exercise in cold war liberal paranoia, has made a witty, anxious thriller for a new age of political uncertainty.
07/29/04
Top CriticSome will see it as a thriller. Others will view it as social satire. Almost all will be entertained.
07/29/04
Demme creates a compelling claustrophobic, paranoia-inducing world that makes this slick flick a gripping two hours
07/28/04
Film delivers brainy performances through a script that is tense and unsettling.
08/03/04
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
While not superior to the original, this paranoid conspiracy psycho-thriller is still a superior remake.
11/19/04
Nothing gets in the way of a great story, well told, one which manages to slip in a few political digs without losing sight of its mission as popular suspense entertainment.
07/29/04
Surprisingly effective as a thriller -- if ultimately rather timid (especially for an election year) as a political satire.
07/30/04
This newfangled 'Manchurian Candidate' delivers old-fashioned mesmerizing entertainment.
07/30/04
This is a good old-fashioned thriller, nothing less, and nothing more.
06/21/05
Demme never captures the clammy paranoia of the original, instead settling for a competent but largely hollow reinvention.
07/29/04
Top CriticLike Demme's previous Washington starrer, Philadelphia, it's got something to say -- and says it well.
07/30/04
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 reworking of the tale's cold war leanings into homeland security ones are a nice match to the source material.
08/16/04
Presents a world awfully close to the one we live in, which makes everything that happens all the more disturbing, helping turn this Manchurian Candidate into a winner.
07/30/04
So how does Demme's version stand up just on its own? Reasonably well.
07/30/04
... just because you're a remake of a cinematic classic doesn't mean you can't be a smart, high-wire thriller in your own right.
07/30/04
A startlingly effective return to form for director Jonathan Demme, making his first good movie since The Silence of the Lambs.
07/29/04
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