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Reviews
The Manchurian Candidate (2004)
Shaw Role Is Shortchanged
Because Frank Sinatra carried the star power in the original 'Manchurian Candidate' people make the mistake of thinking the story centered around his role. Actually there are two key roles Ben Marco (Sinatra) and Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey). Harvey's role is the tough one. He starts as an obnoxious elitist, one of the most dislikable human beings possible. Slowly he becomes an object of sympathy. That's what makes the film's climax so tragic. His overbearing mother stole his soul a long time before the Reds got hold of him. The remake is tilted so much toward Denzel Washington as Marco that Liev Schreiber in the Shaw role is left with almost nothing to work with. The aborted romance that defined so much of the Shaw character in the original has been reduced to little more than an afterthought in the remake. There are other problems. The 'twist' ending makes no sense even in a movie where logic is not a strong suite to begin with. And Meryl Streep has never been so unaffecting on screen. All told, the remake is an ill-advised disaster.
Lathe of Heaven (2002)
A Very Poor Effort
Let me add my voice to the chorus of naysayers. The A&E remake of "Lathe of Heaven" is a very poor effort. The original PBS production in which novelist Ursula Le Guin participated created awe and scope with a tiny budget. It used clever filmmaking techniques to tell a complex story efficiently. The A&E remake is slow, unremarkable and tediously confined to just a few well appointed sets. Much of the story is reduced to dull exposition. Worst of all, James Caan fails to produce the menace needed to create any suspense. Let's hope the remake of "Solaris" due in late 2002 fares better.