The Manchurian Candidate (2004)
Directed by Jonathan Demme
Years after his squad was ambushed during the Gulf War, Major Ben Marco finds himself having terrible nightmares. He begins to doubt that his fellow squad-mate Sergeant Raymond Shaw, now a vice-presidential candidate, is the hero he remembers him being. As Marco's doubts deepen, Shaw's political power grows, and, when Marco finds a mysterious implant embedded in his back, the memory of what really happened begins to return.
17 connections found
View:
17 connections, in both directions
What critics compared The Manchurian Candidate to
From “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” to “The Manchurian Candidate” to the Jason Bourne franchise and now Nima Nourizadeh’s deliriously derivative and irresistible “American Ultra,” these unwary secret agents are drawn from their sleeper cells and discover a talent for killing with impunity.
It dates back (at least) as far as The Manchurian Candidate (1962), and you may also remember it from popular action flicks like The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996) and The Bourne Identity (2002).
Because let's be honest: We're not covering any new ground here; sleeper agents have appeared in movies since The Manchurian Candidate, and stoners have a rich cinematic tradition dating back to Reefer Madness (fine, Easy Rider).
The film is written by Max Landis, son of horror-comedy alchemist John Landis, and it playfully stuffs in references to The Terminator, Blade Runner, The Manchurian Candidate, the Bourne movies and other favorites.
Since the blockbuster success of The Bourne Identity and its sequels (plus The Manchurian Candidate a generation earlier), the concept of a brainwashed agent/assassin has become the hoariest of action tropes.
Redford adds a sense of cold war craftiness, especially in an homage scene to “The Manchurian Candidate.”
When Hunt finds himself dealing with not one, not two, but three potential assassins while backstage during a production of Puccini’s Turandot, the ensuing action plays like a combination of The Manchurian Candidate and The Muppets.
The deadened tone recalls the bland gibberish spouted by brainwashed soldiers in The Manchurian Candidate .
Advertisement
Ripley employs a nice bit of writing to bring Stevens back to reality that pays homage to "The Manchurian Candidate" and Jones uses a nice funhouse mirror visual touchstone throughout Stevens's transitions that is worked neatly into the finale.
Say what you will about Jonathan Demme’s The Manchurian Candidate, it had an urgency that came from anger and despair over the Iraq War.
Imaginary fans of the imaginary Geostorm I will be disappointed to hear that the new picture has little to do with inland tsunamis and much to do with a clunky conspiracy plot knocked together from unused bits of The Manchurian Candidate and Team America: World Police.
As it turns out, people who were leery of going to see it for that reason can rest easy because, despite the ad campaign to the contrary, the film is actually an utterly idiotic and oftentimes boring amalgamation of “ The Day After Tomorrow ,” “ San Andreas ,” “ Gravity ,” “The Manchurian Candidate” and the lesser Irwin Allen productions.
Bucky, formerly the Captain's sidekick and one of the so-called "Winter soldiers" who've been hanging out in a cryogenics chamber, has been programmed a la The Manchurian Candidate.
In the almost-too-smooth fashion that has come to define even Marvel’s non-Joss Whedon-directed entries, a steady undercurrent of droll, wisecracking humor punctures the tension at key intervals, to continually amusing if somewhat ingratiating effect; it’s a bit deflating when Iron Man at one point actually invokes “The Manchurian Candidate,” rather than simply allowing the obvious reference to speak for itself.
Advertisement
I thought a lot about the likes of The Manchurian Candidate, original and remake, and Network while watching Sorry to Bother You, and how those films (throw in Dr. Strangelove while we're at it) seemed like hysterical paranoia until they became documentaries.
Along the way other characters pop into the action—Dewey’s more modern but very ambitious aide Heather Lee (Alicia Vikander); Malcolm Smith (Bill Camp), the English doctor who served as young Bourne’s supervisor; and Aaron Kalloor (Riz Ahmed), a Silicon Valley mogul who’s played ball with Dewey’s surveillance efforts in the past but is now balking at the director’s more expansive plans—and who becomes the focus of a scene that might make you remember the finale of “The Manchurian Candidate.”