The Manchurian Candidate (2004/HD-DVD)
Picture:
B Sound: B- Extras: C- Film: D
When
Jonathan Demme decided to do yet another remake, this time of John
Frankenheimer’s classic The Manchurian
Candidate, Angela Lansbury echoed the feelings of many when she said that
they at least should not use the original title. The resulting film was a commercial and
critical bomb, wasting a cast that included Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep,
Liev Schreiber, Ted Levine, Jeffrey Wright, Jon Voight, Kimberly Elise and
Bruno Ganz in a film that was a shocking mess that lacked everything the
original had.
Outside
of not being the original, the Daniel Pyle/Dean Georgaris screenplay thought
simply pulling a shell game with the original plot and overtechnologizing the
means of how the deadly conspiracy happened was sufficient. Since the always forgotten Korean War was
further buried by the remake, the title now refers haphazardly to a corporation
that (for no good or logical reason whatsoever) is up to no good. Watching this film was painful enough the
first time, but rewatching it made me realize how much worse it was, with any
“new technology” dating very quickly.
Dumb, dumb, dumb was this project and along with The Truth About Charlie (Demme’s horrid remake of Stanley Donen’s Charade) remains the nadir of a
once-great career. At least his Neil Young – Heart Of Gold concert film
shows he has not totally lost it. Until
the Blu-ray is issued, stick with Frankenheimer’s original film, the special
edition standard DVD of which you can read more about at:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/1351/Manchurian+Candidate+(1962,+remastered)
Then
there is the performance of this HD-DVD.
HD trailers of the film have surfaced on both the initial demo discs for
Blu-ray and HD-DVD, and in both cases, it was the worse HD trailer in the
bunch. The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High
Definition image is not as bad as those trailers, but cinematographer Tak
Fujimoto, A.S.C., gets carried away with the close-up shots further dragging on
an already problematic film. Color is
somewhat muted throughout and fancy blowings-out of the image are further annoying
when the film has nowhere to go. The
Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 and DTS 5.1 mixes are quieter and more underused than
you would think, with the quiet approach making things drag even further. This is not a demo disc in the format and if
you need Denzel in HD, you are much better off with Training Day, reviewed in HD-DVD elsewhere on this site.
Extras
include Demme and Pyle on an audio commentary that makes you realize how much
worse things really were here, 6 deleted scenes with more commentary if you
need it as an option, outtakes with the same option, the trailer in HD,
Schreiber screen test and three featurettes.
They too are painful to watch.
- Nicholas Sheffo
