The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

Cast: Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh, Angela Lansbury
Directed by: John Frankenheimer

At first I didn't think I would be able to enjoy this film because politics were involved and I'm in my 20's and not really ready to be brainwashed by that yet. It's on a list of movies that I have to complete (imdb's top 250) and I thought well, this is going to be a one-time thing. I played it and after watching it it felt as if Alfred Hitchcock had his hand in it somewhere because it definitely felt like a Sir Alfred film and I guess it's because of Janet Leigh. I knew it wasn't directed by Hitchcock beforehand but a not-so-famous name of John Frankenheimer. I looked up who he is and what other films he had done and there's a few I've heard of. The same year he reeled The Manchurian Candidate, he also did The Birdman of Alcatraz (Burt Lancaster) and All Fall Down (also stars Angela Lansbury).

The Machurian Candidate is a pretty shocking film for 1960's and The Kennedy Assassination happened in 1963, that's pretty eerie. This film revolves around a Korean War veteran and sargeant Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey) and he had just returned home to be decorated personally by the President a medal of honor for rescuing his platoon and led them through enemy lines. Captain Ben Marco (Frank Sinatra) was also in Shaw's platoon and he had nightmares about what happened in Manchuria where Shaw and his platoon were. He recalled in his dream seeing his platoon brainwashed (or hypotnized) and Shaw killing two of his men. Marco went to New York to meet up with Shaw to question him and ask him if he has the same dream.

Shaw, however, is still hypotnized but it has to be triggered in order for him to do whatever his handlers want him to do. Shaw's mother is played by Angela Lansbury and I only know her as Jessica Fletcher from Murder She Wrote but her role in The Machurian Candidate is another one I won't soon forget. Mrs. Iselin (Lansbury) is a wife of a senator but she's got the money and the brain. Janet Leigh has a small role but a vital one as Frank Sinatra's love interest. The Manchurian Candidate was a thrill to sit through and I would probably watch it again.

Score: 8/10

The Hurt Locker

The sole reason why I bought The Hurt Locker on Blu-ray was for it's recent award in winning Best Picture at the 82nd Annual Oscar Award among other awards (Best Directing, Best Writing). It looked like a cool movie and not something I'd die sitting through. I'm not one to go after the best of the best as I have quite some obscure films in my collection and I also needed to grow my blu-ray collection. Okay, that's three reasons.

After watching the movie on my 52'' plasma in hi-def, I thought it was intense. The Hurt Locker wasn't that complicated of a movie to understand. To put it short, an EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) squad disarm bombs, go into battle for a little bit and then disarm more bombs, that's it. Since I'm a guy and I like action and battle movies, I enjoyed The Hurt Locker despite it was filmed with a shaky camera. What's with the camera and shaking it anyway? I know it's supposed to give the realistic feel to it like Cloverfield for example but it kind of worked for The Hurt Locker because it's really what is happening over in the Middle East right now and what the army and the people had to live through.

Congratulations to Kathryn Bigelow on her Best Director award and the first female to do so. I was curious to see what other films she's done and to my shock she cranked out Point Break (1991, Keanu Reeves, Patrick Swayze) and K-19: The Widowmaker (2002, Harrison Ford) which I've yet to see plus various other works that I have never heard of except for maybe Blue Steel (1989, Jamie Lee Curtis). It sucked that Jeremy Renner did not win Best Actor but then again his role in the movie wasn't hard to perform, become a reckless redneck and that's that. The rest of the characters in the movie were likeable to me. So.. I'd watch it again but I don't like it enough to need to memorize every line.

Score: 8.5/10