Saw it yesterday. Haven’t seen the original myself (Starring Sinatra, I blv), but those who have seen it say the present one is a waste of time.
Anyway, historical baggage aside, its a well-made movie, starring Denzel Washington. They have thrown in some recent events (recent compared to the original movie, ofcourse), like 1991 Kuwait war. Plus, they show the political convention and how decisions about Vice President candidates are made and the inner wheeling and dealing. The science of the whole concept to implant something and contrll the mind, is pretty dodgy, plus they don’t even bother attempting to explain that in any detail, anyway, so I won’t go into that.
Denzel’s role is quite complex and he did well to pull it off. The rest of the cast, including Meryl Streep were ok.
I won’t be recommending this movie to anyone. If you are a die-hard Denzel fan, you’d probably go see it in a theatre. If you are not, you can wait for the DVD. Even if you miss it altogether, no big deal.
I thought it was great - except for the ending - which was a bit too cut and dry.
Meryl Streep is a great actress but she really creeped me out in one scene - know what I mean? All the people in the theater started laughing and yelling "ewwwwww".
^ Yeah, I know what you mean.. and it was definitely creepy. Interestingly, in Yahoo! Movies, they have posted this description of the movie:
"Now, ten years later, Raymond Shaw is climbing the political ladder, as his mother's (Streep) new husband is a powerful senator helping a presidential candidate. "
There is no husband in sight. Its only a dead husband (died 20 years ago). So, that they saying "Raymond Shaw is climbing the political ladder, as his mother's (Streep) new husband" seems almost like a freudian slip. ;-)