Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Manchurian Candidate

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Posted by Jason Black (Member # 684) on 07-29-2004, 11:00 PM:

Y-A-W-N...... [sleep]

Very predictable from a particular scene a few minutes in.. as well as the damn trailer.

This film was a tad long and in my mind, it FELT it. I thought the ending needed work. It left you hanging, wondering why what happens actually happened, save a comment made by Shaw to Marco.

The Village was better.. but I think THUNDERBIRDS should have been the film I screened this week!!!! [Eek!]

2/5

Posted by Ryan Luby (Member # 2520) on 08-01-2004, 03:27 AM:

I had higher hopes for the final product and was left disappointed. But, I was pretty tired by that point, if that means anything. I was pretty bored, though, and I usually like thriller/dramas and I like Denzel in most of his roles.

I agree on the Village being my prefered movie this week.

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 08-01-2004, 05:16 PM:

First show today at Regal Cinema World 8 in Eugene. Very good presentation, no complaints. Only about 10 people there. [Eek!]

POSSIBLE SPOILERS

I have a mixed opinion of this. In terms of the general theme of a large mega-corporation trying to put a sleeper in the White House and all that, I liked it. It's timely and thought-provoking.

But some of the specific plot twists and turns left me wondering "Huh? What the hell just happened? Why did they do that?" I couldn't tell if there was an element of "chaos theory" at work, meaning everything that happened was not carefully orchestrated; or if it really was all supposed to go down exactly as it did. But then I'm as dumb as the proverbial half-full bag of hammers. Maybe someone else can help me out on that. [Razz]

This movie is probably not going to do well - I bet it dies fairly quickly. My feeling is it has the underpinnings of a very good film, especially in this election year, but the execution is flawed.

Posted by Pravin Ratnam (Member # 1417) on 08-01-2004, 10:54 PM:

Whoever reviews this and have seen the original, comparisons will be appreciated. Meryl Streep doesnt look as good as Angela Lansbury did in the original when I see some scenes on tv.

Posted by Josh Jones (Member # 447) on 08-19-2004, 06:27 PM:

Well, for what its worth, we screened the original about two weeks ago as part of our political film series. I cant speak for the remake, but the original, awesome. Good thriller and it holds up really well, being from '62 and all.

Josh