THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE Not a bad week – I actually had to choose between this movie and “The Village” as the one to see. It’s rare when Friday comes and there are two movies I want to spend time with. Well, since it’s a Presidential election year, I opted for this remake of the 1962 classic. But please don’t let that influence you – I’ve already noticed a few overly involved critics who are comparing this to the original and getting bent out of shape over the “updating”. Whatever – I say ignore them. The story is a bit complicated but mostly revolves around what happened to a group of Army guys in 1991 during three mysterious days of the Persian Gulf War. Two of those guys are Major Ben Marco (Denzel Washington) and Sergeant Raymond Shaw (Liev Schreiber)- you’ll soon learn to refer to him as “Sergeant Raymond Prentiss Shaw”. The other major characters are Sgt. Shaw’s Mom, U.S. Senator Eleanor Shaw (Meryl Streep) and U.S. Senator Thomas Jordan (Jon Voight). This is a movie that flashes back to 1991, but mostly takes place in present day, where Shaw is now a U.S. Congressman and possible Vice Presidential candidate. How did he get that far? Well, he won a medal in the war, and most of the rest was with Mom’s help. There was a definite effort made to fit the movie into today’s world as it’s clear we’re being hit by terrorists inside America and there is talk of changing our leadership. But I’ll warn you – some of you might object to the use of Al Franken as a cable news reporter. But back to the main stars -talk about an overbearing mother – I can’t fault Meryl Streep, but this movie only gets silly when she is on screen. Loud, fast-talking and domineering, we get the picture early on and from there it is all just overkill. Yes, she has big plans for her son, but could they spare us the scene in which she slowly mouth kisses him? But to be fair, the movie mostly belongs to Denzel, that is, Major Marco, and he is still in the military and is troubled by what happened during those fateful three days of war. Denzel is once again remarkable as he leads us through the conspiratorial maze. It helps if you did not see the original – I did about fifteen years ago, but I forgot some of the twists and turns. That is a good thing, because my logic alarm was starting to beep and at just the right moment, things on the screen began to fall into place. Yes, the bad guys are clear early on, but the methods and cover-ups are not, and it was well worth the ride to get to the answers. There are obvious plot details I cannot divulge, but let me just say that mind control and “robot like” behavior from politicians play a big part. And, if by the end, you are asking yourself if that’s possible, just remember former Governor Gray Davis. “The Manchurian Candidate” never sags and never takes itself away from solving the mystery and for that I give it and “8.0”.