I love Frankenheimer's original, with its own brand of nail-biting suspense that's not really attempted here, as much as the next guy, but Demme's remake is easily the superior film - in fact, it's one of the best science fiction films in recent memory and among the top offerings by Hollywood in the last decade. Demme's mastery of tone is staggering; he is capable of shifting from frantic paranoia to somber isolation and back in a single scene. Most impressive is his use of the film's off-kilter, schizophrenic point of view to enhance the emotional alienation of his characters: a conversation between Major Bennett Marco (Washington) and a prospective love interest (Kimberley Elise) - who's just invited him to her absent cousin's apartment after only a brief, tense conversation on the train - is shot with a surreal, centric framing that makes the scene dreamlike, as if the notion of a woman taking such forward interest in a quiet, shell-shocked Gulf War vet is fundamentally absurd - at least from Marco's point of view (later, a frenzied bedroom scene of accusations and revelations grants Demme's direction added significance). Amidst the skillful dystopian satire and disquieting fades to black remains Demme's usual humanity and heart, as Liev Schrieber's Raymond Shaw takes time during a crucial third-act scene to tearfully entreat Marco "We are friends, aren't we? I want to believe we are." The world of this film feels lived-in, casual. Demme never takes time to point out that the United States is in a default state of martial law - it's the sort of realization that creeps up on you as the story progresses. Sound bites and interviews swirl around Marco as he marches with furrowed brow through the mania that envelops him. Liev Schrieber has the look of an actor from Hollywood's bygone days. Meryl Streep is magnificent. This is a great film.
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