The Manchurian Candidate
The Manchurian Candidate Image
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Metascore
76 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 41 Critics What's this?

User Score
6.0 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 88 Ratings

Your Score
0 out of 10
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  • Starring: Denzel Washington, Liev Schreiber
  • Summary: 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)

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 36 out of 41
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 41
  3. Negative: 0 out of 41
  1. Premiere
    Reviewed by: Glenn Kenny
    100
    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.
  2. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Pete Vonder Haar
    80
    What is surprising is how fresh Demme’s version is and how close it approaches the original in terms of quality.
  3. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Michael Rechtshaffen
    80
    The updated classic is a chiller of a political thriller in its own right.
  4. New York Magazine (Vulture)
    Reviewed by: Peter Rainer
    60
    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.

See all 41 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 32 out of 57
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 57
  3. Negative: 19 out of 57
  1. Compi24
    8
    Jonathan Demme's reimagining of the classic political thriller proves to be a harrowing, powerfully acted, and solidly written piece of cinema.
  2. IlirC.
    8
    great movie with a great ending...highly recommended.
  3. RegOz
    7
    Of course it is a good movie! I liked all the performances (Denzel Washington's was my less favourite but still fine), especially Meryl Streep's , but she never disappoints us! This film has flaws, but 98% of the movies do...so enjoy this one...! Entertaining for sure! This is one of the very few times when I agree with most of the critic, for a t this point, I don't care about the critics'views anymore, well.... I never did for they are often too full of themselves, and I find most of them have a cheap taste! So I rather trust in normal users, who rank movies because what they feel, not what they pretend they are ('The harsh critic') to build themselves a good reputation...but this time, I have to say the critics have greatly surprised me! Good on them!… Expand
  4. TomV
    3
    This movie wasn't very good!

See all 57 User Reviews

Trailers

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