Ah, what would the world be without the X-Files, Conspiracy theories and countless postings of the 'truth' on the internet? Why it would be like the world shown on TV in 'The Manchurian Candidate'!!!
This 1962 remake is updated to incorporate recent world events. The movie starts off with the 1991 Gulf War (why it is called a war is a mystery, it should be more like arranged appeasement) right up to the present day of colour coded terror alerts and constant warnings of rogue states with dangerous weapons. Jonathan Demme does a good job of incorporating Orwell's 1984, present day political stupidity and the role of presidential assassins (think Kennedy) into this multiplex movie. Denzel Washington, who always have a good screen presence, plays his role of Ben Marco in a restrained manner. His acting is never over the top and works well for this movie. Meryl Streep steals the show with her role as the caring mother and ruthless senator. Liev Schreiber is effective in his role as the conflicted, controlled Ray Shaw. The movie is interesting enough but contains few problems -- a few scenes are poorly edited while certain others are shot with terrible camera angles (some of the close-ups do not achieve the intended effects). And then some aspects of the script are contrived and simplified, most likely to keep the movie flowing. At the end of the day, it is still a commerical movie. So the script flaws are understandable.
Is the movie worth a watch? Sure, why not. It is better than recent Hollywood flicks.
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