The Majestic insults the likes of Dalton Trumbo
The Majestic (2001)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:135
Fresh:56
Rotten:79
Average Rating:4.9/10
Consensus: Ponderous and overlong, The Majestic drowns in forced sentimentality and resembles a mish-mash of other, better films.
Runtime: 2 hrs 30 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: In THE MAJESTIC, Jim Carrey stretches his talents and proves that he can be a credible serious actor with his portrayal of Peter Appleton, a Hollywood B-movie screenwriter who is black listed... In THE MAJESTIC, Jim Carrey stretches his talents and proves that he can be a credible serious actor with his portrayal of Peter Appleton, a Hollywood B-movie screenwriter who is black listed during the McCarthy era. A car accident costs him his memory, and in the small coastal town where he ends up, he is mistaken for a local hero, presumed dead almost ten years ago in the war. Unable to recall anything of his "past" in the town, Appleton not only embraces his new identity, but becomes a pillar of the community, restoring hope that the residents lost along with many of their young men in World War II. In the process, he discovers new inspiration, new purpose, and a new life. Director Frank Darabont, true to form, tells a leisurely tale of a man's renewed faith in himself and in others. The film is an homage to old-fashioned values and proud-to-be-an-American patriotism, studded with rock-solid performances not just by Carrey, but by film veterans Martin Landau, Hal Holbrook, and Ron Rifkin, among others. Listen as well for cameo voice overs by Garry Marshall, Matt Damon, and Carl and Rob Reiner. [More]
Starring: Jim Carrey, Laurie Holden, Martin Landau, Jeffrey DeMunn
Starring: Jim Carrey, Laurie Holden, Martin Landau, Jeffrey DeMunn, Bruce Campbell, Bob Balaban, Brent Briscoe, Karl Bury, Amanda Detmer, Allen Garfield, David Ogden Stiers, James Whitmore, Hal Holbrook, Ron Rifkin
Director: Frank Darabont
Director: Frank Darabont
Screenwriter: Michael Sloane
Producer: Jim Behnke, Frank Darabont
Composer: Mark Isham
Studio: Warner Bros.
Reviews for The Majestic
In another time, this would have been a very good movie; in our time, it is a great one.
An escapist yarn anti-escapist in subtext, it posits a subversive movie fantasy: dissidence as heroic, even patriotic in search of an ideal, less small minded country.
It espouses simplistic solutions, phony platitudes, and dripping schmaltz in the place of genuine humanity, making a lie out of all the emotions it wants so badly to champion.
A beautifully produced, intelligently written and pleasingly well-acted bit of faux Capra-corn.
trips the hardest is in its consistent oversimplification of real problems
If the tone...tends to lean toward mawkishness in the last half-hour, what is appealing...is its almost stubborn yearning to be like the motion pictures of yesteryear.
Darabont and screenwriter Michael Sloane's misty-eyed tribute may be pleasant in places, but it's too manufactured and deliberate to be persuasive.
It can't fake sincerity. It tries ever so hard, but it doesn't have a single believable second.
Mr. Carrey may go to both Washington and a version of Bedford Falls in The Majestic, but he is neither the Jefferson Smith nor George Bailey of Stewart's best-loved films.
A decent picture that you really want to like, but that unfortunately doesn't come close to matching the director's previous efforts.
At 2 1/2 hours, this movie is about an hour too long, and this makes an obvious story obnoxious in the extreme.
I think Americans are in the mood today for a sentimental movie about their values, and, frankly, it's wonderful to see people get teary-eyed over the First Amendment.
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August 20, 2001:
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