Nearly a month ago NewMexiKen watched the 1962 film The Manchurian Candidate. Today I watched the 2004 version starring Denzel Washington and Meryl Streep.
While the modern film is more visual and the acting fine, the 1962 version is crisper and less cluttered. The Laurence Harvey portrayal of Raymond Shaw is a much spookier character than the one played by Liev Schreiber, and Frank Sinatra a less melodramatic Ben Marco than Denzel Washington. Streep seems as unlikable but less evil than Angela Lansbury as the mother (Lansbury got an Oscar nomination).
If it had been me, I would have remade the first screenplay and left the film set in the 1950s.
See both films and enjoy the comparison.