It seems that with every re-make, every fanboy across the world has their very own unique reaction.  There are the fundamentalist fanboys who go nuts; they scream and flood message boards with nothing but negative posts and rants.  Then, there are the more open fanboys; the ones whom greet the new vision with open arms, wondering what new things there are to discover within an old, beloved idea.

Of course, most of the time these re-hashes fall completely flat.  For every "The Fly" (1986) or "Dawn of the Dead" (2004), there is a "Psycho" ('98) or "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" ('04), (or, worse, a re-edit, such as the dreaded "Night of the Living Dead 30th Anniversary Edition").  Luckily, Johnathan Demme's update to "The Manchurian Candidate" falls in the former category.

Liutenant Ben Marco (Denzel Washington) is a very paranoid guy.  Things are only made worse when a Gulf War buddy shows up with some alarming sketches.  This sets off a fuse in Marco's head, making his mind spiral into the very depths of a horrible conspiricy involving a young, up-and-coming Vice President candidate (and fellow milatary comrade) Raymond Shaw (Liev Schreiber) and his ultra-bitch mother, Eleanor (Meryl Streep).  What ensues is a an ever-changing plot of political intrigue (major cliche, I know).

Where "Candidate" succeeds is its attitude towards never slowing down the pace.  Things are constantly changing, and, God forbid, you blink, you may just miss an important detail.  Director Demme also never shys away from showing some distubing images.  This works especially well considering how much it gets you to hate the bad guys and really root for the ever-crazy Ben Marco.

Where this re-make fails is its never-ending eye for detail.  Like I said, you really need to keep your eyes open or something might just fly right by your face.  This works as a pro and a con simply because certain people like a thought-provoking thriller while some loathe it.  Another problem is Demme's camera work.  While POV close-up shots may be his style, in this is just gets annoying with Denzel's face constantly plastered on a forty foot screen.  Like "Silence of the Lambs," this may end up working better on a 27 inch television screen.  On the big screen, some close-ups are almost laughibly awkward.

In the end, "The Manchurian Candidate" is a really good thriller that should hold any conspiracy theorist together for a couple of months.  Just a final warning: those looking for realism, look the other way- this thing is practically Science Fiction.

*** out of ****

Now, I've also seen "The Village" as well, but I am not writing a review for it (the DVD version perhaps) simply because I am still not sure if it was a "Thumbs Up" or "Thumbs Down" film (it was smack dab in the middle).  Though, I will say this: M. Night has got to let go of the damn surprises. In this, it's not the ending, but rather the middle...

...and it is absolutely horrendous.  I welcome anyone else who is not as torn as I to construct a review.    

If you mean for The Village I will after tuesday because that's when I'm going to see it

Brilliant review, SyCo.  

If I had not become so consumed within the development for my new screenplay I swear I'm going to submit for Nicholls next year, I was thinking I wanted to come on here and debate the original vs. the remake.  Now that I'm taking a brief break... I saw the original in my editing class earlier this past week and we were told to go see the new one as our homework assignment.

The opening credits had me a little annoyed.  Couldn't figure out why they kept fading back inside the Humvee with the unit playing cards even if the song did keep changing.  I get the time elapse and it was okay the first two times, then I was like, "Is there any point to this?"  I was thankful when they finally switched outside the vehicle.

Honestly, I was both captivated and repelled.  There were some pretty cool scenes even if I don't think I really liked the ending, I'm iffy about it.  And as a motion graphics person, this is probably just me - maybe no one else noticed - but those dynamic 3D news graphics were mesmerizing.  Everytime they showed a television set, I was truly fixated.  Anyway, I got the reference to the original with the first shot of Eleanor watching her son speak on camera as he speaks live in the background.  Nice homage to Frankenheimer.  

Also, maybe this is just me, but did anyone else find that Eleanor/Raymond scene (where he's got the whammy on him and she's all close to him) a little incestuously overtoned?  Maybe I'm shocking a few by saying it, but I found it to be so.  Then they made the cut.  From a female perspective though (hey don't mind me) Raymond Shaw is INDEED the kindest, warmest, bravest, handsomest... okay, LOL, I'll stop.

Did we ever figure out the Cup O Noodles angle?

Ditto on the incest overtone.  I was just waiting for Eleanor to start making out with her son at that part where he's completely lost it and she dressing him.  Though, that may have brought the whole film down a few notches... actually, it would have ruined it, so I'm glad they didn't go any further.

I started to think maybe if they had shown this in test groups (I've been in a couple of test groups for various movies throughout the years), people might have reacted against it because I saw a definite abrupt cut like the scene must have gone on longer.

Or maybe they just weren't ready to venture into that angle.