Another Unnecessary Trip-

Not satisfied with his attempt to ruin Charade for a new generation of filmgoers,(The Truth About Charlie,2002), Jonathan Demme is wrapping up production of his version of The Manchurian Candidate. The descriptive tagline certainly isn't encouraging: "In the midst of the Gulf War, soldiers are kidnapped and brainwashed for sinister purposes." It suggests some kind of lame-brained anti-middle eastern pap of the sort hollywood has been happy to manufacture for some time. In the past, Demme has distinguished himself as a more thoughtful filmmaker, but it's hard to be hopeful that this will turn out to anything but garbage. Come to think of it, with the change of locale shouldn't it be called something like the Levantine Candidate? Unless the filmmakers plan on some screwy axis-of-evil angle by which they work in North Korea. All I can say is, if they're going to carry Bush's water like that and aid and abet in the propagation of his lies about a prior Iraqi link to al-qaeda and any other sources of fear Dubya wants the public to be foggy about, Denzel Washington better find those damn WMDs!