I'll be in the theatre Friday for the new version of The Manchurian Candidate -- but I can tell you, if ever a remake has a helluva lot to live up to, it's this one. I watched the DVD of the brilliant John Frankenheimer-George Axelrod original yesterday, and it hasn't aged a bit.

Here's a line I never thought I'd write: Angela Lansbury leaves enormous shoes for Meryl Streep to fill. That sounds like I'm damning Lansbury with faint praise, I know; the truth is Lansbury has always been a great actress. But I seriously doubt that the final scene between Lansbury and Lawrence Harvey -- when she holds his face in her hands and says she will grind her enemies into the dirt for what they did to her son -- will be equalled by Meryl Streep and Liev Schreiber. I think that's one of the most compelling and riveting scenes I know. It's pure dynamite.