K Dogg’s Quick Movie Review

Here’s a short review of a recent movie I've seen.

Movie: The Manchurian Candidate (2004)

Denzel Washington plays Captain Bennett Marco, a veteran of Operation Desert Storm. One of his men in his platoon, Sgt. Raymond Shaw (Liev Schrieber), was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for a saving his platoon during an encounter. Fast forward a decade, Shaw is in politics and has the potential of being a Vice Presidential candidate. His biggest supporter is his mother (Maryl Streep). Captain Marco has been having dreams that he and his platoon were captured during the war and were brainwashed by the enemy. Marco is trying to piece everything together as he believes that he or one of his men would be potentially used as a weapon. This movie is a remake of the 1962 starring Frank Sinatra and Angela Lansbury. The newest version is somewhat different than the original. In the first one, Shaw's stepfather is the Vice Presidential candidate and Shaw doesn't like his mother at all. Also, the mechanism that sends the people into the mind control is completely different and, in my opinion, not as cool as the first movie. Furthermore, I liked the originals version of the brainwashing scenes. I thought with the simplicity of them that they were a lot more scary. There are some other big differences, but I don't want to go into them since that may spoil the movie for those who haven't seen it yet. Though I like the 1962 version better, I still think this movie is very good. Either version is a little freaky and kind of creeps you out. I would recommend watching both versions of this movie and to start with the original.