The Manchurian Candidate
Paramount Pictures | Release Date: July 30, 2004 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
76
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 41 Critic Reviews
Positive:
36
Mixed:
5
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
NewsweekDavid Ansen
A hugely entertaining thriller shot through with dark shards of agony and paranoia. It takes nothing away from the original while delivering pleasures all its own. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
The strength of sensational material joined to excellent acting, superior filmmaking and uncanny political relevance has made The Manchurian Candidate into exceptionally intelligent entertainment and a high point of director Jonathan Demme's career. Read full review
100
Portland OregonianMarc Mohan
Neither the social commentary nor the story ever overpower the other, a feat that allows this remake to stand proudly alongside the original, its equal in every way. Read full review
100
PremiereGlenn Kenny
Demme here shows off both the mastery of suspense that made "The Silence of the Lambs" a classic, and the humane understanding and appreciation of character that not just deepens but energizes this film. Read full review
90
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Structurally and thematically similar to John Frankenheimer's original but entirely different in style, feel and nuance, this political thriller about a brainwashed soldier being positioned for the White House provides a delectable network of dramatic tripwires that teases the mind and quickens the pulse. This is brainy popcorn fare. Read full review
90
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
Shockingly, he's (Jonathan Demme) pulled it off, replicating the original's tricky feat of investing a paranoid plot with timeliness, psychological complexity, sociopolitical acumen, and almost frightening conviction. Read full review
90
The New York TimesDana Stevens
A political thriller that manages to be at once silly and clever, buoyantly satirical and sneakily disturbing, but he (Demme) has recovered some of the lightness and sureness of touch that had faded from his movies after "The Silence of the Lambs." Read full review
90
Washington PostDesson Thomson
A stylish hoot: entertainingly edgy and ludicrous all at once. Read full review
90
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Shrewdly reconceived, powerfully acted and hugely entertaining.
89
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
We've come to expect each new Demme film to percolate to an urgently musical beat. (The Manchurian Candidate also features a few cameos by musicians as diverse as Robyn Hitchcock and Fab Five Freddy.) Read full review
88
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
The performance of the movie is Liev Schreiber as Shaw, a man howlingly uncomfortable in his own skin. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterMichael Rechtshaffen
The updated classic is a chiller of a political thriller in its own right. Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyJohn Powers
If Demme's version lacks the wallop of its predecessor, it is more likely to be popular with contemporary audiences, who will enjoy not only its labyrinthine twists but its stars' burnished professionalism. Read full review
80
Film ThreatPete Vonder Haar
What is surprising is how fresh Demme’s version is and how close it approaches the original in terms of quality. Read full review
80
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Demme, who works a clever permutation on the original ending, is more than capable of doing the thriller thing--even with material that will strike a good percentage of his audience as familiar. As an intelligent genre flick, the movie plays to his strengths. His direction of actors has never been better. Read full review
80
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
His performance here made me suspect that Schreiber is, in a sense, another Kenneth Branagh--an extraordinary actor who is simply not a film star. Read full review
80
EmpireAngie Errigo
A cracking conspiracy thriller that's well-cast, slyly satirical and -- as a solid, glossy, contemporised remix of a classic -- rings enough creepy changes to surprise. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
Demme's movie is just as sophisticated and knowing as Frankenheimer's, but it isn't as hip or daring. It doesn't haunt your mind or stir your sense of dread the way the '62 movie did--and it lacks almost totally the earlier film's piercing, oddball satire and humor. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
If you ride the paranoiac tide, letting Jonathan Demme's assured direction carry you along, the sardonic humor and anxiety-inducing message work on you. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Filled with conspiracies, intrigue and the suggestion that modern-day society is purposely designed to drive us a little nuts, The Manchurian Candidate is a paranoid fantasy for our time. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Sure, there are holes in The Manchurian Candidate, and tenuous coincidences and too-convenient plot devices. But Washington, Schreiber, Streep and company - and Demme - have managed to make all the malevolent machinations seem relevant again. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
This riveting film is marred by compromises -- such as a switch of assassins to create an unpersuasive upbeat ending -- that keep it in the shadow of its predecessor. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Denzel Washington is stellar, and so is Tak Fujimoto's cinematography, which is as edgy and antsy as the story it tells. Read full review
75
Baltimore SunChris Kaltenbach
Washington is wisely cast as Marco; few actors command more instant respect, and the movie uses that to make his character both believable and sympathetic. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy Burr
The first "Candidate" was inspired pop art, a two-dimensional coloring book about 1962 America's subterranean political fears. Demme's film is more nuanced, less crazy-brilliant and, yes, probably less necessary, but it's still a confirmation of all the anxieties out there on the table and festering in our heads. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Streep wisely goes for oblique humor rather than straight-ahead villainy, making the character different and yet just as loathsome. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Staff (Not Credited)
Part patrician WASP, part Lady Macbeth and revealing more than a little of Hilary Clinton steel, Streep crackles with neurotic energy and barely checked sexuality, sublimated into an addiction to power and an unhealthy devotion to her son. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
[Streep] isa pleasure to watch -- and to marvel at -- every second she's onscreen. Read full review
70
Dallas ObserverRobert Wilonsky
Just as you feel the numbing, clammy clench of paranoia on your neck, you realize, nope, the grip is just the director's attempt at tickling you to death. Demme's movie had no right to work. It does, and then some. Read full review
70
SlateDavid Edelstein
Beautifully made and unsurpassingly creepy, it's the rare remake with something contemporary to add. Read full review
70
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
In a story driven by questions of loyalty and allegiance, no candidate is identified by party. It's a bipartisan nightmare from which no one escapes unscathed. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
What this Manchurian Candidate for a new generation makes up for in timing, it lacks in discipline and edge. Read full review
67
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
Very surprisingly, Meryl Streep is not wonderful as Schreiber's scheming, incestuously possessive mother. She gobbles up all the scenery but, for whatever reason, she's just not half as chilling a portrait of demented mother love as the original's Angela Lansbury. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
The result, regardless of how it was arrived at, is gutless. Read full review
63
USA TodayMike Clark
A case of smart and talented people trying to jam a Cold War square into a Gulf War circle. You can feel the chafing, to say nothing of the burden this capably crafted shrug has taken on. Read full review
63
New York PostMegan Lehmann
Uniformly excellent performances keep this destabilizing tale ticking, yet one can't help wishing Hollywood had combined this cast and these timely themes with a little bit of imagination to come up with something fresh. Read full review
60
The New YorkerDavid Denby
The movie is overwrought and unfocussed. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
Demme’s Manchurian Candidate is far from a disgrace, but it's not freewheeling enough, not strange enough to make sense of our gathering dread. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
If you don't care about the first version, or what director Jonathan Demme's name once meant, the cast does an OK job with Daniel Pyne and Dean Georgaris's routine thriller script. Read full review
50
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Toothless, gutless, one-note political movies like Jonathan Demme's The Manchurian Candidate, a picture that purports to have a galvanizing, liberal-minded theme (big business is taking over our country and our lives) but is really just ploddingly pedestrian. Read full review
50
Washington PostStephen Hunter
It all adds up to something less powerful and interesting than the original. Read full review
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