THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE

Director: Jonathan Demme (Silence of the Lambs, Philidelphia, Swimming to Cambodia)
Starring: Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep, Liev Schrieber

For a story that supposedly exists as one giant mind trip, this film is remarkably obvious and straightforward. In a remake of the classic film, Denzel Washington plays the one time leader of a company of soldiers who have all had false memories implanted in their brains. Without getting into too much detail, the end result is that a massive corporation (with the help of an ambitious and obsessive mother) put their mind control on a potential president. Yeah, obvious metaphor there, no? This film was worse than the original. Every twist was well advertised. Every mind bending revelation fell flat. Despite this, Denzel Washington is almost always a compelling actor. I find Liev Schreiber consistently good as well (he's the zombie future president). Jonathan Demme is a talented director who could have turned this into a wonderful film, something almost worthy of remaking a classic. Unfortunately, in the end, they failed. A professional effort as a film, but with a number of flaws.

Standouts: Denzel is a compelling movie star, you can't get around that.
Blowouts: The script, dumbed down and obvious.

Grade: B-