Jonathan Demme certainly fares better with his update of "The Manchurian Candidate" than he did with "The Truth About Charlie", his muddled 2002 remake of another '60s classic, "Charade".

His cast, led by Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep and Liev Schreiber, is first-rate, ably filling the roles originated by Frank Sinatra, Angela Lansbury and Laurence Harvey in John Frankenheimer's 1962 original, adapted from Richard Condon's potboiler.

Still, Demme's retooling of the thriller about brainwashed soldiers as puppets in an assassination conspiracy disappoints, despite the filmmakers' efforts to bring new relevance to the Cold War saga by setting it amid our own war on terrorism.

The obvious plot choice would have been casting a shady cabal of Muslim terrorists as masterminds of the intrigue. A small group of fanatics able to orchestrate a US presidential coup could ring as terrifyingly today as the Communist heavies did in Frankenheimer's film.

But that would have been too bold for timid Hollywood, which aims for big returns by not displeasing anyone, including the sizeable domestic and overseas audience that might take offence over Muslim villains carrying out such a scheme.

So Demme and screenwriters Daniel Pyne and Dean Georgaris turn to the easy target, making big business the bad guy as an anonymous outfit called Manchurian Global connives to put its dupe in the White House.

"The Manchurian Candidate" updates the initial action from the Korean War to the early 1990s as Capt. Ben Marco (Washington, in the old Sinatra role) leads his men on a reconnaissance mission in Kuwait just before the Gulf War.

The US troops are ambushed, and Marco is knocked unconscious. Sgt. Raymond Shaw (Schreiber) takes command, single-handedly fighting off the assault and leading the survivors of his lost patrol to safety after three days in the desert.

Awarded the Medal of Honor, Shaw is elected to Congress. Through the machinations of his mother, US Sen. Eleanor Shaw (Streep), he becomes the vice presidential candidate in a post-September 11 campaign where the current administration is assailed for its handling of the war on terrorism.

Whenever asked, Marco and the other soldiers lapse into mechanical adulation of the sergeant as the finest, bravest man on the planet. Yet they're all troubled by dreams of bloody surgical procedures and images of Shaw suffocating one of their fallen comrades.

Marco, now a paranoid major diagnosed with Gulf War Syndrome, suspects he, Shaw and the others are victims of high-tech brainwashing, with mechanical implants creating false memories and controlling their actions.

The remake plays out predictably, with little suspense. The movie's main departure from the original plot - Harvey's Shaw was programmed to assassinate the presidential candidate so his stepfather could step in - leaves little surprise as to who the trigger man will be.

The plot changes also stretch credibility when Shaw begins running around carrying out misdeeds robotically. Apparently, in this post-September 11 world, security is lax and a vice presidential candidate does not attract attention when he's out on his own.

The huge supporting cast is led by Jon Voight as a senator denied the vice presidential slot; Vera Farmiga as his daughter and Shaw's former girlfriend; Kimberly Elise as an FBI agent involved with Marco (a variation on the romantic role Janet Leigh had in the original); and Jeffrey Wright as an unbalanced member of Marco's patrol.

Washington and Schreiber muster nice kinship as comrades now at odds. Streep steals most of her scenes as the mother-knows-best puppetmaster; if there were an Academy Award for chewing ice ominously, Streep would be a shoo-in.

"The Manchurian Candidate," a Paramount release, is rated R for violence and some language. Running time: 130 minutes. Two stars out of four.