Python Hyena The Majestic (2001): Dir: Frank Darabont / Cast: Jim Carrey, Martin Landau, Laurie Holden, Bob Balaban, James Whitmore: Memories of Hollywood glory days even within the midst of corruption. Jim Carrey plays a struggling filmmaker forced to testify in the House of the Un-American Activities due to suspected Communist communication. After being fired he rampages on alcohol before driving off a bridge. When found he is believed to be a war veteran figured for dead. Martin Landau plays his father who wishes to re-open a theatre called the Majestic. Quite predictable hinting on too many formula elements. Director Frank Darabont previously made The Shawshank Redemption, and here he delivers a credible 1950's setting. This is not the great film that the previously mentioned film is but it does hit the right notes with its historical points. Carrey is wonderfully sympathetic within a life that he accepts because others do. Landau is excellent as his father who aims to reconnect with his son and unify themselves through the theatre with others. Laurie Holden plays the love interest in a familiar role that never seems to elevate. Other roles are standard including Bob Balaban portraying an annoying finger pointer with the charge against Carrey and Communist activity. It is a reflection on a time when cinematic magic was truly something majestic. Score: 8 ½ / 10

classicalsteve "The Majestic" is a throw-back to fantasy films of a by-gone era, such as those directed by Frank Capra and Henry Koster. Not only is the storyline itself similar to Hollywood fantasies of the late 1940's and 1950's, several scenes ring of old movies. Townspeople often gather in front of the main character and his girl. In some sense, the film is like a film within a film, in which the people of the small town are like the audience and the characters like those on stage. "The Majestic" is an inadvertent realization of "the world is a stage", but unfortunately, as things play out, the central theme is applied like a bull-dozer. Only in a few scenes do we see the character exhibiting blood, sweat and tears, at the beginning and near the end. For much of the middle, he's almost too happy, things working out too well. There's an old adage of storytelling which says only trouble is interesting. Unfortunately, the trouble takes a back seat to the elation.The premise could have been concocted straight out of a Frank Capra screen concept. A b-movie screenwriter in 1950's Hollywood, Peter Appleton (Jim Carrey), is accused of secretly harboring communist sensibilities and therefore could be spying for the USSR. His career in film is essentially at an end, and he's being summoned to Washington to testify in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee. He then takes a trip with his only friend, a little stuffed monkey, up the California coast where he gets into a horrible accident on a bridge. He's washed up on the beach like a crew member of a ship lost at sea. An old man discovers him and helps him to the nearest town, an unassuming small town on the California coast called Lawson which rings similarly to Bedford Falls of "It's a Wonderful Life". Appleton suffers from amnesia and doesn't who he is. He sees pictures in the town windows of local young men who fell overseas fighting in the Second World War.He happens into a local coffee shop where another elderly gentleman, Harry Trimble (Martin Landau), recognizes him. He's convinced it's his son, Luke Trimble, who went missing-in-action during the war. The local towns folk then reacquaint themselves with who they believe is their long lost soldier, one of the few who has returned. They decide to hold a large celebration in his honor. He even meets Adele Stanton (Laurie Holden) who had been Luke's fiancé. She is absolutely drop-dead gorgeous and yet for nearly a decade she's not hooked up with any other men, which is one of the many problems with the storyline.Since the town believes he's a hero, he goes along, even though some aspects don't seem right. Although he can't remember, there is a sense that Appleton knows that things aren't they way they should be, which is the best aspect of Carrey's performance. Trimble takes him home and shortly thereafter proposes they re-open the local movie theater which has laid dormant since the war. Of course the name of the theater is "The Majestic", and it gives Appleton, now Luke Trimble, a new sense of purpose and direction. At the same time, the FBI has decided that Appleton must be a communist spy since his disappearance from Los Angeles.The central problem with this film is that it lacks balance. The joy and elation of the townspeople enjoying the return of their long-lost hero goes on for about as long as an endless dance sequence from a musical. Almost no one in the town questions that Luke Trimble is a war casualty and has returned in the flesh. I was expecting to see more doubt among some of the townspeople. I also wanted to see the darker sides of both characters, Appleton and Trimble, but both seem too perfect. Maybe a curse word from Appleton which would never have been on the lips of Trimble, or visa-versa. Only one towns-person is not happy to see Luke Trimble but not because he doubts it's really him but because he was a rival before the start of the war. It was also difficult to buy the idea that Adele Stanton was not with another man, and that when she started spending time with him, she thought something was wrong. It would have made more sense if she was with someone else and then flabbergasted concerning Luke's return.The script really needed several more rewrites with added confrontations between Carrey and doubters. Only one character reveals late in the film that he knew Trimble wasn't Trimble. Aside from him, the joy of most of the town upon celebrating the return of Luke was just a bit too saccharine and forced. When they begin to renovate the movie theater, the entire town pitches in to help. I half-expected them to start singing Kumabya. It reminded me of those old Bing Crosby movies where the cast is trying to "solve a problem" and everyone decides the solution is "Hey fellas! Let's put on a show!" Again I expecting a bit more blood regarding his return similar to the story of Martin Guerre, a returned war hero who turns out to be an impostor. Only when the FBI catch up with him is there some meat to the story again, but this occurrence is about 80% through the film. The film was 75% in the bliss department and only 25% in the trouble department with too many additives and preservatives. If trouble is what makes a story interesting, "The Majestic" needed to reverse the numbers. By film's end, Appleton/Trimble had not gone through hell and back to make me feel like he's really been through something which significantly causes him to change. In "It's a Wonderful Life", George Bailey goes through hell to get back to heaven. With Appleton/Trimble, it was more like a short-cut.

Bryan Kluger Frank Darabont is one of the better filmmakers to ever grace the big screen, however his resume is fairly small. I'd like to think the reason is the whole "quality, not quantity' angle, but as we saw with his stint on AMC's 'The Walking Dead', that's not always the case, meaning the studio execs have tried to intrude on almost every single one of his projects. That being said, Frank Darabont has given us some of the best films ever made, one in particular usually makes the #1 spot on many "Best of All Time' lists.I'm of course talking about 'The Shawshank Redemption', which was based on a Stephen King short story. King and Darabont would go onto collaborate on a few other films in the future, including 'The Green Mile' and 'The Mist'. Time and time again, Darabont has shown us what true filmmaking is and can be. Darabont got his start writing 'A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors' and the 1988 version of 'The Blob'. Darabont then forged a good relationship with Steven Spielberg as he went on to write a bunch of the episodes of 'The Young Indiana Jones Chonicles'. He also re-worked the screenplays for 'Saving Private Ryan' and 'Minority Report' for Spielberg. Then, of course, 'Shawshank' and 'The Green Mile' hit big on all levels, winning awards and praise from virtually everyone.While the horror film 'The Mist' is not included in this set, which is a shame, Darabont's less popular film 'The Majestic' is. I firmly believe that 'The Majestic' is one of the most underrated films ever made. It's a beautiful piece of filmmaking with a genuine story, great characters, and an amazing performance from Jim Carrey, who doesn't do his usual comedy schtick, but delivers a very endearing and emotional performance of someone who is lost on multiple levels with his life. There are already perfect reviews of both 'The Shawshank Redemption' and 'The Green Mile' here, which you can click on their respective titles to view those reviews, but if you'd like to know my opinion on those, I believe they are both some of the best films ever made and continue to grow with each viewing.However, let's get back to 'The Majestic', which stars Jim Carrey, Martin Landau, Laurie Holden, and Bruce Campbell. Carrey plays a man named Lule Tremble, who is a writer for feature films in Hollywood in the 1950s, where every script is changed by old studio execs trying to make a quick buck. He heads out for a long drive after his script is changed to a virtually unrecognizable piece of fluff to clear his head, but ends up crashing his car along the coast. He wakes up with sever amnesia, where he can't remember a thing about who he is or his past life. It turns out that the town he crashed near had a guy who looked exactly the same as him and was feared dead in the war.Now everyone in town is trying to make this complete stranger remember his life in the town, when in fact he's never actually been. Soon enough, everyone in town try to put the pieces back together for Luke, including setting him up with his old flame and rebuilding an old movie theatre. The side story here, which I feel that bogged the film down a bit was that of the government trying to find Carrey's real character, who was a protester during a communist rally, which back in the 50s, was a serious crime. Jim Carrey delivers on of his first dramatic performances here as he struggles to try and fit in and make all the super sweet people of this small town happy, even though he is not the answer to their feared conclusions. It's not his fault, because he sincerely doesn't remember.This movie along with possible 'The Truman Show' were possibly the sole films where we realized that Carrey was more than just 'Ace Ventura', but rather an actor capable of much more. Darabont really nailed the time period of the 50s as well, giving us a very warm and almost fairy tale like ambiance with white picket fences and bold colorful period clothing. I think this film didn't do as well or hold the same value as the others is that most people didn't expect such a dramatic performance from Carrey nor such a dramatic film as a whole. I think people were expecting a straight out comedy, rather than an endearing film set in the 50s. Whatever the case might be, 'The Majestic' is a brilliant homage to the films of the 1950s with enough heart and soul for two films.

JoshSharpe Jim Carrey has always amused me with his quirky characters and how he can transform himself into silly but hilarious roles. But it wasn't until I saw this that I ever saw him as a serious actor. If this is the first Jim Carrey film that you see, you would never know that he is a comedian. Movies about the movie industry draw me in right away and this is no exception. A young Hollywood writer is off to a great start in his career. He has just written his first film, he has a movie star of a girlfriend, and life is good. However, that changes in a second when he is falsely accused of being a communist and as a result is fired from his job. After drinking too much, he goes for a drive and ends up falling from a bridge into a river. When he wakes, he is taken in by a nearby town who are mistaking him for a war veteran named Luke. His "father" is certain this is him and as a result they reopen a worn down movie theater that Luke was very fond of at one time. As I was watching, I couldn't help think of "Luke, I am your father". Please excuse my inappropriate Star Wars reference. This has exactly what a movie should have: strong characters, romance (without sex), suspense, and an excellent message. Sadly, this is one of the least known films in the careers of both director Frank Darabont. But I encourage you to see it and although quite long, I think you will get something out of it.