Not completely awful till the end. The "fractured" narrative was kind of trying but could work with better action and a more robust plot. The way it is presented it triples the movie length by replaying almost each scene 3 or more times. Each time a scene is replayed it is longer with more dialog. Slowly filling in the gaps and making the movie make more sense. The plot had some serious holes and failed to explain things that kept nagging at me. But what pulled this movie from a 4 to a 2 is the lower than B movie quality action scenes. I have seen better shootouts in porn movies. The one at the end left me speechless. Why would you do it like that???
Reviews
2 Reviews
The Manchurian Candidate
(2004)
Weak Remake w/ Extra Strength Propaganda
24 December 2004
Like so many remakes this "hack" director can't seem to keep true to the original story. If your going to almost totally rewrite the story don't remake the film, make your own or at the very minimum don't steal the title of a classic.
As for the merits of the movie as an original offering, in a word weak. There was a no real suspense... Plot holes, incompetent characters and ineffective attempts to steer the viewer away from figuring out the ending. But on the plus side I thought the acting was very good.
I am not sure what the message of movie was... It changed drastically and was incoherent. To even explore this would take thousands of words, so I will not..
There is one particularly creepy scene with Meryl Streep that seemed to have been edited short. It would have made me much happier if they would have shaved a few more seconds off.
You will be hard pressed to find more than a few minutes of propaganda free film. I can understand if it helps the story but it does not. I am not sure if the director even believes the movie going public will notice it. It was blatant, but I felt like the arrogant director thought he could pull a fast one on me. It was like seeing the product placements for Pepsi on an episode of Friends. Am I supposed to be too stupid to notice or should I just allow myself to be subliminally influenced?
This movie was not Catwoman so I had to give it at least a 2!!!
As for the merits of the movie as an original offering, in a word weak. There was a no real suspense... Plot holes, incompetent characters and ineffective attempts to steer the viewer away from figuring out the ending. But on the plus side I thought the acting was very good.
I am not sure what the message of movie was... It changed drastically and was incoherent. To even explore this would take thousands of words, so I will not..
There is one particularly creepy scene with Meryl Streep that seemed to have been edited short. It would have made me much happier if they would have shaved a few more seconds off.
You will be hard pressed to find more than a few minutes of propaganda free film. I can understand if it helps the story but it does not. I am not sure if the director even believes the movie going public will notice it. It was blatant, but I felt like the arrogant director thought he could pull a fast one on me. It was like seeing the product placements for Pepsi on an episode of Friends. Am I supposed to be too stupid to notice or should I just allow myself to be subliminally influenced?
This movie was not Catwoman so I had to give it at least a 2!!!
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