Last night I finally got around to watching The Manchurian Candidate, a mere 41 years after it hit theaters. Try to cut me a little slack. 16 of those 41 years I wasn’t even alive, so watching the film would have been a little difficult. I will say that I’m sorry I waited so long. It’s a great film. I won’t review it, but here are a few thoughts/comments:

• Martial arts in film have come a long way. Don’t get me wrong, the one martial arts scene wasn’t bad, but let’s just say that Frank Sinatra ain’t no Neo.
• Frank Sinatra was hot.
• Some things never change. The hot chick always gets top billing over the one with any character depth. Janet Leigh got top female billing and certainly was beautiful, but her acting is nothing to get excited about and her role just plain sucked. I think I could actually hear the glass ceiling being lowered. Angela Lansbury, on the other hand, blew me away. Maybe it’s because I’ve only seen her in Bedknobs and Broomsticks and Murder, She Wrote so I wasn’t expecting much, but in my opinion it was a great, meaty role and she rocked it. In addition, she had 3 times the screen time of Janet Leigh. I guess it just goes to show how far a few bats of the eyelashes will go.
• I cannot believe how unhot Sinatra got with age. At the end of the video was an interview with the director, producer/writer, and Sinatra filmed in, I’d say, the early/mid 80s. Boy did he start packin’ ‘em on in his old age. We’re not talking Marlon Brando huge, but huge nonetheless. What a shame. He should have taken a few lessons from Sean Connery.
• Again with the female thing. Now I’m no feminist, but watching older movies helps me appreciate how far we’ve come. I find it rather amusing that the only female character in the film with any character development, or backbone for that matter, was a villain.

There you have it. Now watch the movie and tell me what you think.