DVD Review: Candidate for what...?

The Manchurian Candidate (2004)

Starring:
Denzel Washington as Ben Marco (1989 Best Supporting Actor in Glory / 2001 Best Actor in Training Day)
Meryl Streep as Eleanor Shaw (1980 Best Supporting Actress in Kramer vs. Kramer / 1983 Best Actress in Sophie's Choice)
Liev Schreiber as Raymond Shaw

Directed by:
Jonathan Demme (1991 Best Director in Silence of the Lambs)

This remake of the 1962 Sinatra-starred film was... ok.

Elements of Jonathan Demme's direction was apparently present as shown in the suspense and thriller similar to the time he scared the world with his award winning piece back in 1991. But I feel a lack of strength from the story and execution.

The Manchurian Candidate is a conspiracy-driven story about a powerful and rich privately owned company slowly taking control of the American Government by putting a sleeper in the White House through advanced mind-controlling technology. The protagonist is played by the bold Washington, the antagonist by the conniving Streep and the victim by the naive Schreiber, all of which create a genuinely amazing fusion of roles as they batter upon each other throughout the movie. As you're probably thinking, we have a winner story here! Uh... not so much, actually.

This suspense-thriller will knock you out of your seat, or in my case, my queen-sized bed. Ok, I'm being too nice. It will make you occasionally scratch your back as you get tired of scratching your head from wondering what the hell's going on.

Like most excellent movies which require active thinking opposed to just passive viewing, The Manchurian Candidate requires a lot of analysis and figuring out as you move on. But, in my experience, instead of an "Oh, so that's what happened!", you get more like a: "Meh."

This type of film did not actually tickle the critical mind, but instead gave it an itch from all the scratching when it wasn't itchy in the first place.

Many elements and instances in the movie which you patiently wait for an explanation provide a dull one after the figuring out making your jaw drop with your eyelids.

The secrets behind the conspiracy, although disturbing, was shallow and would have been shown better through post-traumatic instances as shown only in the first scenes with one of the victims of the mind-control experiments. The rest, as said earlier, was meh.

In the end, the movie and its suspense build-up was just ok with its not-so-powerful ending.

So to sum up: Acting (Godly), Story (Weak), Execution (Weak), Over-all (Meh.)

RATING: 4 out of 10

"I am the Lord, your God. You shall not say My name in vain." - GOD, The Ten Commandments