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Manchurian Candidate, The
Paramount Pictures


5.8

based on 41 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 68 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for violence and some language

Starring Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep, Liev Schreiber, Kimberly Elise, Vera Farmiga, Jon Voight, David Keeley, and Jeffrey Wright

As the entire nation watches the presidential campaign hurtle towards Election Day, one soldier races to uncover the conspiracy behind it -- a conspiracy that seeks to destroy democracy itself. (Paramount Pictures)

GENRE(S):	Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Daniel Pyne Dean Georgaris George Axelrod (1962 screenplay) Richard Condon (novel)
DIRECTED BY:	Jonathan Demme
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: December 21, 2004 Video: December 21, 2004 Theatrical: July 30, 2004
RUNNING TIME:	120 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Newsweek David Ansen

A hugely entertaining thriller shot through with dark shards of agony and paranoia. It takes nothing away from the original while delivering pleasures all its own.

100

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

The strength of sensational material joined to excellent acting, superior filmmaking and uncanny political relevance has made The Manchurian Candidate into exceptionally intelligent entertainment and a high point of director Jonathan Demme's career.

100

Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan

Neither the social commentary nor the story ever overpower the other, a feat that allows this remake to stand proudly alongside the original, its equal in every way.

100

Premiere Glenn Kenny

Demme here shows off both the mastery of suspense that made "The Silence of the Lambs" a classic, and the humane understanding and appreciation of character that not just deepens but energizes this film.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

A political thriller that manages to be at once silly and clever, buoyantly satirical and sneakily disturbing, but he (Demme) has recovered some of the lightness and sureness of touch that had faded from his movies after "The Silence of the Lambs."

Washington Post Desson Thomson

A stylish hoot: entertainingly edgy and ludicrous all at once.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Shrewdly reconceived, powerfully acted and hugely entertaining.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Shockingly, he's (Jonathan Demme) pulled it off, replicating the original's tricky feat of investing a paranoid plot with timeliness, psychological complexity, sociopolitical acumen, and almost frightening conviction.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Structurally and thematically similar to John Frankenheimer's original but entirely different in style, feel and nuance, this political thriller about a brainwashed soldier being positioned for the White House provides a delectable network of dramatic tripwires that teases the mind and quickens the pulse. This is brainy popcorn fare.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

We've come to expect each new Demme film to percolate to an urgently musical beat. (The Manchurian Candidate also features a few cameos by musicians as diverse as Robyn Hitchcock and Fab Five Freddy.)

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

The performance of the movie is Liev Schreiber as Shaw, a man howlingly uncomfortable in his own skin.

The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen

The updated classic is a chiller of a political thriller in its own right.

LA Weekly John Powers

If Demme's version lacks the wallop of its predecessor, it is more likely to be popular with contemporary audiences, who will enjoy not only its labyrinthine twists but its stars' burnished professionalism.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

What is surprising is how fresh Demme’s version is and how close it approaches the original in terms of quality.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Demme, who works a clever permutation on the original ending, is more than capable of doing the thriller thing--even with material that will strike a good percentage of his audience as familiar. As an intelligent genre flick, the movie plays to his strengths. His direction of actors has never been better.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

His performance here made me suspect that Schreiber is, in a sense, another Kenneth Branagh--an extraordinary actor who is simply not a film star.

Empire Angie Errigo

A cracking conspiracy thriller that's well-cast, slyly satirical and -- as a solid, glossy, contemporised remix of a classic -- rings enough creepy changes to surprise.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Demme's movie is just as sophisticated and knowing as Frankenheimer's, but it isn't as hip or daring. It doesn't haunt your mind or stir your sense of dread the way the '62 movie did--and it lacks almost totally the earlier film's piercing, oddball satire and humor.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

If you ride the paranoiac tide, letting Jonathan Demme's assured direction carry you along, the sardonic humor and anxiety-inducing message work on you.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Filled with conspiracies, intrigue and the suggestion that modern-day society is purposely designed to drive us a little nuts, The Manchurian Candidate is a paranoid fantasy for our time.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Sure, there are holes in The Manchurian Candidate, and tenuous coincidences and too-convenient plot devices. But Washington, Schreiber, Streep and company - and Demme - have managed to make all the malevolent machinations seem relevant again.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

This riveting film is marred by compromises -- such as a switch of assassins to create an unpersuasive upbeat ending -- that keep it in the shadow of its predecessor.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Denzel Washington is stellar, and so is Tak Fujimoto's cinematography, which is as edgy and antsy as the story it tells.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

Washington is wisely cast as Marco; few actors command more instant respect, and the movie uses that to make his character both believable and sympathetic.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

The first "Candidate" was inspired pop art, a two-dimensional coloring book about 1962 America's subterranean political fears. Demme's film is more nuanced, less crazy-brilliant and, yes, probably less necessary, but it's still a confirmation of all the anxieties out there on the table and festering in our heads.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Streep wisely goes for oblique humor rather than straight-ahead villainy, making the character different and yet just as loathsome.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Staff (Not Credited)

Part patrician WASP, part Lady Macbeth and revealing more than a little of Hilary Clinton steel, Streep crackles with neurotic energy and barely checked sexuality, sublimated into an addiction to power and an unhealthy devotion to her son.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

[Streep] isa pleasure to watch -- and to marvel at -- every second she's onscreen.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

In a story driven by questions of loyalty and allegiance, no candidate is identified by party. It's a bipartisan nightmare from which no one escapes unscathed.

Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky

Just as you feel the numbing, clammy clench of paranoia on your neck, you realize, nope, the grip is just the director's attempt at tickling you to death. Demme's movie had no right to work. It does, and then some.

Slate David Edelstein

Beautifully made and unsurpassingly creepy, it's the rare remake with something contemporary to add.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Very surprisingly, Meryl Streep is not wonderful as Schreiber's scheming, incestuously possessive mother. She gobbles up all the scenery but, for whatever reason, she's just not half as chilling a portrait of demented mother love as the original's Angela Lansbury.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

What this Manchurian Candidate for a new generation makes up for in timing, it lacks in discipline and edge.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

The result, regardless of how it was arrived at, is gutless.

USA Today Mike Clark

A case of smart and talented people trying to jam a Cold War square into a Gulf War circle. You can feel the chafing, to say nothing of the burden this capably crafted shrug has taken on.

New York Post Megan Lehmann

Uniformly excellent performances keep this destabilizing tale ticking, yet one can't help wishing Hollywood had combined this cast and these timely themes with a little bit of imagination to come up with something fresh.

The New Yorker David Denby

The movie is overwrought and unfocussed.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

Demme’s Manchurian Candidate is far from a disgrace, but it's not freewheeling enough, not strange enough to make sense of our gathering dread.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Toothless, gutless, one-note political movies like Jonathan Demme's The Manchurian Candidate, a picture that purports to have a galvanizing, liberal-minded theme (big business is taking over our country and our lives) but is really just ploddingly pedestrian.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

It all adds up to something less powerful and interesting than the original.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

If you don't care about the first version, or what director Jonathan Demme's name once meant, the cast does an OK job with Daniel Pyne and Dean Georgaris's routine thriller script.

The average user rating for this movie is 5.8 (out of 10) based on 68 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Ilir C. gave it an8:
great movie with a great ending...highly recommended.

Pat C. gave it a6:
Tries to replicate the tension of the original, which expressed the paranoia of communist ideology run amuck. Imputing such ideological drive to a corporation is a push. The quest for money by people who lack the motivation created from missing a lot of meals is neither compelling nor accurate. Some good acting, though.

Jim M gave it an8:
The reviewers who call this the "worst movie of 2004" must work for the devious Manchurian Global Corp. as portrayed in the film. Overall, Manchurian Candidate is an interesting political thriller and is competently filmed, but lacks the emotional connectedness required to call it "memorable." Draws many parallels to actual events and subterfuge in current geopolitics and the enormous power wielded by many corporations (Halliburton, Enron?). Streeps performance is the highlight -- positively chilling!

Blowhouse gave it an8:
Well-made political thriller. A good adaptation that adds a lot to the franchise.

[Anonymous] gave it an8:
Good political connotations, and Denzel's issues are well portrayed, and it makes you feel somewhat paranoid about your life: are you being controlled? Some clunkier scenes are around, but they don't hurt the movie badly. The mom/son relaitonship was a little disturbing. The bad mom was sinister (doing that to her kid was quite disturbing), but she delivered such a good line at the beginning: "We can pretend to deceive the people, or we can arm them and help them face the truth". Now that's good scriptwriting!

Peter R gave it a0:
Worst movie of 2004! Denzel is a good actor but even he couldnt save this!

Kim gave it a0:
Worst movie of 2004!! The movie looking good for the first 15mins, and then it goes down hill from there.

Manchurian Candidate, The Paramount Pictures

Manchurian Candidate, The
Paramount Pictures