Bloodless Coup went to the movies yesterday to see Jonathan Demme's The Manchurian Candidate. While I can't speak for my colleagues, I found it to be a ponderous bore. Demme has completely lost his ability to create a suspenseful situation, and the script was filled with tired cliches. Liev Schreiber and Meryl Streep did fine jobs with what they had to work with (as did Jeffrey Wright in a small role), but the script really was dreadful. I was not impressed with Denzel Washington (to put it mildly). The less said about the Kimberly Elise character, the better. That is not so much a reflection on Ms. Elise as it is the fault of screenwriters who were apparently determined to smother any aspect of the character (played by Janet Leigh in the original) that was remotely subtle, clever, or the least bit unexpected.
If you're interested in this story, go rent the original. It's exponentially better.
Posted by armand at August 9, 2004 10:31 AM | TrackBack | Posted to Movies