Hey folks, Harry here.... I'll be going with my review of THE MAJESTIC before too long here... still mulling over a few things with my review, but it seems that quite a few 'critic' types have been having issues with the film, that regular folks haven't had? Will this be a trend? We'll see....
Hello Harry, long time reader, first time writer. I have two things, my review of The Majestic, and a tidbit about The Royal Tenenbaums that I'm guessing you already know about.
I had the pleasure of catching the sneak preview of The Majestic tonight. I had mixed feelings about it. It wasn't what I had expected, but overall I loved it. You see, I have a love for Frank Darabont and I feel I have a special bond with him. The Green Mile is the only movie where a tear actually escaped my eye in the theatre. Now I've been known to cry at movies that I'm watching at home by myself, but The Green Mile did me in (I cried when I read the book too). After reading preliminary reviews of The Majestic I went in expecting to cry my eyes out. I knew that it was made for film geeks, and I am definitely a film geek.
The acting was great. Jim Carrey was wonderful. I don't think it's going to net him an Oscar but I believe if he sticks to serious roles he will land one eventually. He is a hell of an actor. I got a lump in my throat seeing him cry on screen. I think it was the first time I've seen him do it. Jim Carrey is a great actor. Martin Landau as always was perfect. I'm convinced he could be good in anything, even if they had put him in Scooby Doo he would be good. The other actors did their part too. I didn't feel like there was a weak link.
Although the plot has many cliches (amnesia, will the boy get the girl?, rousing speech at the end), I did love it. This movie isn't just about the love of film, like I had hoped it would be, although those elements are very much there. This is a sentimental and sometimes cheesy film, but I like that every once in a while (I'm a sensitive guy). I loved the rebuilding of the old theatre. There's a crappy theatre here in Canyon, Texas where I live, that needs the same thing done to it. I was thinking throughout the movie what I could do with the Varsity theatre if I wasn't substitute teaching and working at a daycare for minimum wage with my college degree.
Overall, a great movie. If you're not a film geek (which I assume most people reading this site are) take a date. If you are a film geek, go. That's all I can say.
The thing about The Royal Tenenbaums is that the Austin Film Society is having a screening for it tomorrow (Sunday, this is why I presume you know about it). Wes Anderson himself was orginally supposed to show but couldn't make it because they had lost the rights to a couple of the songs. Don't know if it will affect the release date any. Thought you should know.
Call me Jaredog.
Now for that chatter boy, Icey...
Hey Harry,
AICN Chatter Icey here with a review of Frank Darabont's The Majestic. I'm a first time scooper and film reviewer, so we'll see how it goes.
First, I came into the film with Shawshank Redemption as my favorite Frank Darabont film. In my opinion, the film is just damn near perfect. I liked The Green Mile, but it could've used a lot of editing and at least an intermission to allow the audience to use the restroom.
I talked to fellow chatter Nordling before going to see the flick because he had seen it at BNAT 3. He told me that The Majestic was #1 on his list with Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile right behind it. I sincerely thought he was nuts. I just didn't seem how that was physically possible, but The Majestic won me over, in the end.
I admit that I also went into The Majestic expecting it to automatically be #2 on my Darabont Top 3 list. This is obviously a bad mindset to have when going into a film because I had already formed an opinion about a film I hadn't even experienced. I'm an admittedly hardheaded person, so changing my opinion on a film or on anything for that matter is a very hard thing to do, but The Majestic swayed my vote.
On to the task at hand. Time for the obligatory film premise synopsis. Jim Carrey plays Peter Appleton, a young, Hollywood screenwriter with one film under his belt and another film in the making. His career is thriving until he's blacklisted and fired for being an accused communist. He gets into a terrible car crash and bumps his head causing him to lose his memory. He wanders into a small town where he's mistaken for Luke Trimble, a town favorite missing in action.
That's all I'm going to say because I don't want to spoil the film in any way for those reading this review.
The Cast
The cast was just great in this film. Jim Carrey was good in his duel roles. He won't be up for an Oscar or anything, but he did a good job. I think he was much better in The Truman Show.
Martin Landau was great in this film. He simply was his character. I've heard some people forecast an Oscar Nomination in his near future for Best Supporting Actor and I'd have to agree with that. He was on his game.
Laurie Holden was very good in this film as well. I can't say that I've seen her in anything, but she seems to be a very good actress. She's a gorgeous woman with lots of potential.
Overall, the cast was solid. It was a well acted film, imho.
The Cinematography
David Tattersall did a very good job in this film. There were some jaw droppingly beautiful scenes in this film. His cinematography complimented the film very well. He certainly earned his paycheck on this film.
The Direction
Frank Darabont did a great job in this film. He got great performances overall out of the cast and the film flowed well. Only Darabont could make the ultra-sappy parts really work. He's the closest person to Frank Capra and thank God for that.
Overall
I absolutely loved this film. It brought me back to the time when I was a kid losing myself in the films of my childhood. I simply lost myself in this film and I haven't done that in God knows how long.
It's certainly worth the price of admission and I know I'll be there again on opening weekend. I'm confident that Frank Darabont will get a third Best Picture Nomination in a row. There will certainly be people that disagree with me, but that goes with the territory. I give it 2 thumbs up, 4 stars, 10 out of 10, however the hell you, the reader, rate films. It's always wonderful to find a great film in this the year of crap.
Btw Harry, thank you for the wonderful website and for giving me, a simpleton, the opportunity to play a hand at reviewer for once in my life. Congratulations on going on a crusade to lose weight. Good for you. Fellow AICN chatter, SilentBobX, wants to thank you for inspiring him to stay on his diet and for keeping him going.
Have a good one everybody.
Icey
Now for the Big T
Hi their Harry. I havent had an opportunity to contribute for a while but i was lucky enough to get into the sneak preview Warner Bros had for it's new film The Majestic.
By far this is one of the best films i have seen this year (LOTR still to come) Some people might call it corny and formulaic but it has tons of heart throughout the whole picture. Just in case you dont know the plot it basically revolves around 1950"S Hollywood writer Peter Applegate who is writing B pictures and is on his way to grade A pics when Congress calls him a comunist. Peter's life is shambles and one night he gets a bit too drunk, drives off a bridge and starts a new life. The less you know going into the movie the better you will be.
To tell you more would spoil you too much and dont worry about the trailer it doesn't give away the whole plot. To begin with, this film is beautifully shot with a wonderful 1950's feel. As for the performances Jim Carrey does a wonderful job at playing it straight and is very much a normal guy as he completely sheds off all his comedy baggage and is very impressive without forcing the drama for the majority of the film. Unless we start seeing some seriuosly good performances in the next couple weeks Jim is guaranteed an Oscar nomination.
Even more impressive in this film is Martin Landau as Jim's father. Martin has not been this wonderful to watch since his genious turn as Bela Lugosi in Ed Wood. If he doesn't win this year's Oscar i will not be happy. The rest of the performers do a good job although none of them really stand out in the picture they just blend in. Their were a couple problems in the film but only truly heartless bastards who scream dumbass when a character is showing us their soul would care about it. As much as everyone is obsessed with spiderman,star wars, lord of the rings, terminator 3 and so on its nice to see a great uplifting movie with heart.
This film is going to get many different kinds of reviews due to it's many upbeat tones but sometimes its just nice to see a movie with some soul, it's only corny if the movie really has no soul
If you use this Harry just call me
The Big T
And now on to Almost Sexy...
I’ve read a (very) little about The Majestic on AICN, and saw the trailer maybe twice. I’ve heard it described as a “love letter” to film, but if this is the case, then it is only in the most peripheral sense of the term (in the same way that some people say that Field of Dreams is about baseball, as opposed to being the story of a man that takes a Kierkegaardian leap of faith which initially alienates him from both his family and community, but ultimately allows him to redress an action that has haunted him for years). But anyway, onto the dreaded plot summary.
It’s the early 1950’s, and America is in the frenzied grip of Cold War paranoia. Trying to stem the flow of rampant communism, the Senate Oversight Committee for Un-American Activities combs Hollywood’s film-making community to weed out any leftist-bastards that could potentially make like Sergei Eisenstein and corrupt future generations of young and impressionable film-goers, thus keeping them from eventually taking their rightful place amongst the ranks of the running-dog-lackeys of the capitalist oppressor.
Enter Hollywood screenwriter Peter Appleton (Jim Carrey),who has just had his first screenplay successfully turned into a film, and is about to begin filming his follow-up when his name is given to the aforementioned and rather ruthless Oversight Committee. The fact that Appleton isn’t a communist and doesn’t know any only complicates matters: the Senate Committee makes it clear that he will be black-listed unless he testifies and gives them the names of more “communists,” so that the Committee can ruin their lives instead. Presumably conflicted about the dilemma of bearing false testimony against others or sacrificing his own career (or for some unrelated reason, it’s hard to tell the way the film burns through the first act in about ten minutes), Appleton goes for a drunken drive wherein he runs afoul of a plot contrivance which allows him to wake up the next day in the sleepy town of Lawson, California with total amnesia, and no clues to his past (he lost his wallet).
Lawson is a small town with the unfortunate distinction of having lost an entire generation of young men to World War II, and seems to have lost any hope for the future along with them. The town exists more out of habit than any real desire to, as is evidenced by the fact that the town’s movie theater, The Majestic, never re-opened after the war. The theater’s owner Harry Trimble, (played very convincingly by Martin Landau), mistakes Peter Appleton for his son Luke, who went missing in action during the war. The townsfolk wonder what happened to Luke in the years since he disappeared, but having amnesia, Peter/Luke is not able to supply them with any answers. “Luke’s” “return” to the town, and seemingly, from the dead, serves as a rebirth for the entire town as well. Peter represents not only Luke, but all the citizens of Lawson who died during the war. It’s as if the townspeople have been given permission to get on with their lives. At first reluctantly, Peter/Luke becomes a sort of surrogate-son for the town and recognizes the obligation that’s been thrust upon him: he has become the town's source of happiness. Example: Peter/Luke goes for a walk and casually turns around at one point to discover that the whole town is following him. He finds it very difficult to disappoint them. So, Peter picks up where Luke left off before the war, helping his “father” to re-open the movie theater, and even beginning a romance with Luke’s old girlfriend Adele Stanton (Laurie Holden).
The thing that bothered me the most about this film was how little Carrey has to work with. His character is a non-entity. The opening scene of the film (although a great scene in of itself) is very telling: Close-up on Carrey waiting passively, uncomfortably, while voices off-screen discuss the fate of his next screenplay. Whether this is because Appleton doesn’t know how to think for himself, or because the people making The Majestic didn’t quite know what to do with his character is never adequately explained. Things only go downhill for his character from there. Peter Appleton is not so much a man who makes things happen as a man to whom things happen. Five minutes later Appleton has amnesia, and the audience knows Peter no better than he knows himself. He spends the entire second act of the film letting others make decisions for him, and obeys out of a sense of obligation to the town. Meanwhile, the forces of anti-communism trail him doggedly, fronted by a vivaciously detestable Bob Balaban (Thora Birch’s ineffectual father in Ghost World) playing against type most effectively.
Consequently, the first half of the film works more as an homage to the fallen Americans of World War II than anything else, and there are some very touching moments here, but few of them belong to Carrey. Martin Landau is rock-solid as the ecstatic father who regains a “son” he had given up for dead, and Jeffrey DeMunn is quite touching in his portrayal of the town’s mayor. It’s also nice to see David Ogden Stiers (John Cusack’s ineffectual father in Better Off Dead/ MajorCharles Emerson Winchester on MASH) acting again.
MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD, MATEYS!!
If the second act belongs to Landau (and boy does it ever), then, thankfully, the third act is all Carrey. It’s only at the very end of the second act that Appleton regains his memory, and this is where the film gets interesting. Soon afterwards, his past (i.e., the FBI and the Oversight committee) catches up to him, and he has some difficult decisions to make. Appleton has a confrontation with Adele (Laurie Holden) with whom he has become romantically involved, and we finally get some insight into who Appleton is, what he wants, and most importantly for the film, what he does and doesn’t believe in. It’s a very compelling scene; well acted on Carrey’s part. I think the film might have benefited from seeing more of this side of Appleton in the first act, which was under-developed. It is only in the last forty minutes or so that Carrey’s character really comes to the fore, and we get to see that he can really act. I’m guessing that it’s this same half hour (when Appleton must leave Lawson to address the charges that have been brought against him, that has critics leveling charges of cheesiness at the film. I bought the ending though, based mostly on the conviction Carrey brings to his final scenes, although good dialogue helps it along. His character finally comes alive, because he’s placed in a situation where he has to make some decisions about his life, and deal with the consequences that result from those decisions. As for the naysayers, my only reply is that some films depict what people do, and some depict what the filmmakers think people should do, and I don't think there's anything wrong with the latter.
Merry Christmas!!
Almost Sexy
P.S. Bruce Campbell is only in about 3 minutes of the movie, for the fanatics reading this.
