The Majestic

Rating:
Summary: decent, but not very memorable
Review: The Majestic is a sweet little movie. It was released and seemed to have disappeared just as quickly. Directed by Frank Darabont ( The Shawshank Redemption ) and starring Jim Carrey, the movie had very high expectations and it did not quite meet those expectations. The movie was dismissed as not much more than sentimental pap with just about as much depth.

Those claims have merit, but they are a bit cynical. Not all movies should be expected to be stoic and serious and have great intellectual depth. The Majestic is not supposed to be that. It is the story of a screenwriter who is in a car accident and awakens on a strange beach without any memory of who he was. The townsfolk who discover him believe Carrey to be Luke, a man who was presumed dead in World War II (the film is set in the early 1950's, around the time of the House Un-American Activities Committee). Peter (Carrey) begins to believe that he is, in fact, Luke and tries to rebuild his life in the town, along with rebuilding Luke's father's movie theater, the Majestic. There is not much conflict since the audience knows that Peter is not really Luke and we know that it is only a matter of time until Peter, and the town, find this out.

This is a nice movie that shows the development of Peter's character as he learns who he really is and who he wants to be, and is a nice change of pace from the sex and vulgarity that is so much a part of Hollywood movies today. The Majestic may not be an important movie, but it is a pretty good one.

Rating:
Summary: Great STORY + Great ACTING = GREAT MOVIE ! ! !
Review: "THE MAJESTIC"
Everyone is fantastic in this movie. Very tight acting and very believable characters. It's easy to care for them and want what they want. Jim Carrey is fantastic, too. He can really bring a tear to the eye when he wants to. He does a SUPERB JOB and I am impressed. I didn't know Ace Ventura had it in him.
If you like movies that are meaningful and thought pervoking then I highly recommend 'The Majestic'. Taking a serious movie in, now and then, helps to keep life into perspective. GREAT MOVIE!!!

Rating:
Summary: Great potential, but turns into parody
Review: The middle two thirds of this film are great. Jim Carrey does a fine job as a funny man in an odd situation. The rest of the cast makes the film's premise - a stranger is believed to be a small town resident returned from WW2, where he was thought to have died - very believable. Great stuff, could have been a classic, but...

If you think John Ashcroft is the reanimated spirit of Joe McCarthy, then the other third of the film will appeal to you. For the rest of us, its preachy and over the top. Imagine if the patriotic speech in Animal House was meant to be taken seriously, or the monologue of General Jack Ripper in Dr. Stragelove, that's what you get here.

So, enjoy the film. If you think "Amerika" is undergoing a second occupation by fascists, you're gonna love the film. If not, then try not to let the huge potential The Majestic had prevent you from enjoying what's good about this picture.

[If you've seen it - I wonder if the Director knew how much the "I've got a 'what if'" discussions tells us how The Majestic itself was made?]

Rating:
Summary: VERY FRANK CAPRA
Review: The ghost of Frank Capra haunts every frame of "THE MAJESTIC," Frank Darabont's paean to American innocence and movies with a capitol M.

Jim Carrey is Peter Appleton, a naive, B-movie screenwriter who can't find work because of threats from the infamous blacklist. When he takes a drive up the coast, has an accident and loses his memory he is embraced by a small town as its long lost war hero. He inherits a beautiful fiance and a loving father.

Complications ensue when his memory and true identity return about the time he is found, fingered and branded by the House Un-American Activities Committee as a commie on the lam. Carrey is terrific as the archetypal, 1950s movie-loving American who is drifting along with undeserved good fortune but is forced to either discover his true, moral self or take the easy way out. Martin Landau is touching as the man who thinks Carrey is his son. And Sandra Sinclair is just right as the wanting to believe but not quite convinced girlfriend.

This beautiful, involving and surprisingly intimate movie is much better on the home screen than in the theater. Unfortunately, this supremely well-crafted production so strongly evokes "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Sullivan's Travels" that there is a palpable patina of deja vu that greatly detracts from what should be total absorption in this otherwise heartwarming tale. And yes, Jim Carry is amazing playing a real human being for a change. Limited extras on the disc include the full sequence of "Sand Pirates of the Sahara," the movie within the movie as written by Carrey's Appleton. All in all, definitely worth seeing.

Rating:
Summary: The message is very timely!
Review: This movie always makes me weep when Carrey gives his speech to the McCarthy-era committee. It speaks so much to what we're going through now with the Patriot Act, etc. At a time when I was feeling very upset with my government, it reminded me of just how patriotic I am and how much I love democracy and don't want to see it squandered. I think Carrey is wonderful in this film - his acting during the speech is filled with the proper subtleties of a man who is finding himself in the very moment he speaks his true mind for the first time. I love this film a lot! I would rather see a movie with flaws (although I don't think it has many) that has a message that moves me rather than a slick film with nothing human in it.

Rating:
Summary: not nearly as good as it could've been
Review: ...Jim Carrey does a fine job of dramatic acting, the plot is fairly intriguing, there is a cogent anti-McCarthyism subtext, and yet---and yet this film falls short of its potential, mainly during the final 15 minutes or so when it collapses into cornball sentimentalism and preachiness.

Looks like a good case of life imitating art: in the beginning of the film, we see Carrey as a Hollywood screenwriter at a meeting with some studio bigwigs with famously horrible schmatzy taste who mangle his written film's ending while trying to please the masses and drive up box office profits. "The Majestic" seems to have suffered the exact same fate, though probably at the hands of braindead focus groups as much as cheesy studio bosses.

Enjoy the first 3/4 of the film, then fast forward through the last bit.

Rating:
Summary: Jim Carrey's Finest Hour or Two!
Review: I could not possibly disagree more heartily with the editorial review of this film. It is an excellent movie, and one well worth the price of admission to the Majestic.
As I watched this film, I was struck with nostalgia. Those years following World War II were a more innocent time. They were a time when certain values, lost to us now, were in full flower. Romantic and touching, the film centers on Peter Appleton who has turned up on the beach of a small town after an accident has left him with amnesia. He is mistaken for Luke Trimble, a local hero and the son of a local man named Harry, beautifully played by Martin Landau. He meets a beautiful gal, and they embark upon an effort to rebuild the Majestic theatre. However, the McCarthy era is in full swing, and all the power of the federal government is arrayed against him.
No, you will not find much violence, foul language, or scandals boiling beneath the surface. This is just a simple, pure, unsullied entertainment. I believe this is the finest effort by Jim Carrey to date. He plays it straight, and though it has humor, it is the humor of a typical human being caught in the middle of a time when blacklisting was in vogue, defending himself from unfounded charges amid one of history's most virulent witch hunts.
My opinion is that this is a wonderful movie. There are plenty of jaded flicks being made today, and the purity of spirit in this film is totally refreshing to behold.

Rating:
Summary: This movie is sappier than Aunt Jemima syrup
Review: The worst thing about the Majestic is that it truly brings out the weakness in Martin Landau and Jim Carrey. To see LANDAU in his true and rare form, see this master play Bela Lugosi in Tim Burtons Ed Wood, then watch The Majestic.

Rating:
Summary: Great STORY + Great ACTING = GREAT MOVIE ! ! !
Review: "THE MAJESTIC"
Everyone is fantastic in this movie. Very tight acting and very believable characters. It's easy to care for them and want what they want. Jim Carrey is fantastic, too. He can really bring a tear to the eye when he wants to. He does a SUPERB JOB and I am impressed. I didn't know Ace Ventura had it in him.
If you like movies that are meaningful and thought pervoking then I highly recommend 'The Majestic'. Taking a serious movie in, now and then, helps to keep life into perspective. GREAT MOVIE!!!

Rating:
Summary: absouletly amazing
Review: I only saw this movie recently. pretty late huh? well i had not heard much about it so it thought it probably isn't that good. Boy was i wrong. This movie is amazing, heart-warming story and a one you will watch again because it is so good. I will never understand anyone who did not enjoy this film. And i heard someone say it is predictable, it is not! well, anyway i urge you to see this movie if you have already not.