Product Details

• Actors: Jim Carrey, Laurie Holden
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• VHS Release Date: June 18, 2002
• Run Time: 152 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (186 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00005JKNB
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #10,470 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The Majestic is an old-fashioned throwback replete with a 1950s B-script and halcyon values like patriotism, true love, and clean fun. Peter Appleton (Jim Carrey) is a Hollywood scriptwriter with a sexy gal, a screenplay under his belt, and his big break on the horizon. But when his name is mistakenly given to the House Un-American Activities Committee, Appleton's dreams of success in the biz quickly unravel. An ensuing car accident leaves him without a memory but a great opportunity--as a small town's Luke Trimble, war hero and all-around swell guy, with whom he happens to bear an uncanny physical resemblance. Of course, there's a beautiful woman (Sandra Sinclair) who waited for his return from the war, an endearing old dad (Martin Landau), and the magical Majestic movie house to renovate and reopen. As Appleton's memory eventually catches up to him, however, The Majestic veers off toward Mr. Smith Goes to Washington territory, complete with a monologue on the First Amendment. Unfortunately, despite the film's earnest striving to be Capra-esque and Carrey's undeniable star quality, the charm is more reminiscent of Ronald Reagan than Jimmy Stewart. --Fionn Meade

From The New Yorker

A fiasco from the director Frank Darabont. Jim Carrey plays a hack screenwriter who, in the early fifties, runs into trouble with the House Un-American Activities Committee. Out for a drive, he gets bonked on the head, suffers from amnesia, and winds up in a small town on the California coast where he's taken for a missing war hero. Since we know he's not a war hero, we feel only chagrin and impatience as he's lionized by the town. The movie appears to be a square version of what Preston Sturges pulled off as hilarious satire in "Hail the Conquering Hero," in 1944. Darabont paces the inert material more slowly than the funeral of Edward VII, and Carrey, unable to use his lank, big body, gives a dull performance. -David Denby
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Delightful Film !, June 23, 2002

By	BeachReader (Delaware) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: The Majestic (DVD)

Jim Carrey did a wonderful job in this movie, playing Luke, an amnesiac who is not really who people think he is. Like his character in "The Truman Show", this was not a comedic role and shows his versatility as an actor. In the beginning of the movie, he is Peter, a rather sketchy Hollywood screenwriter. As Luke, he assumes an very different persona.

The slow pace and the length of this film permit full character development. Viewers really get to know the characters and to care about them and their lives. Especially wonderful in her role was Laurie Holden, an actress who was new to me but who did a magnificent job in the role of Carrey's girlfriend. Her down-to-earth performance was right on target.

The Majestic, a run-down movie theater, becomes the rallying point for the townspeople - a symbol of the re-birth of a young man who has returned from the dead and the regeneration of a town which lost over 60 young men in the war. The entire town embraces Luke and rallies behind he and his father as they attempt to resuscitate the defunct theater.

This ode to America and its freedoms came as a welcome change. It was a delightful, easy-to-watch, nostalgic movie with a feel-good message, showing patriotic, small-town values. What could be wrong with that?

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jim Carey at his best, March 7, 2008

By	classicflicks (St Lawrence Seaway, MI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Majestic (DVD)

We've always loved the Majestic, but it's especially poignant watching it now, as America is at war. The small town that rescues Jim Carey's character is what we all want; the sincere sharing of joys and sorrows with others that have been where we've been.

I don't know why The Majestic ended up being a relative sleeper. (For that matter, I don't know why Saving Grace, Pure Luck, and other brilliant movies with brilliant acting ended up that way, either.) Except for in the Majestic, the lead was played by a man who everyone expects to see playing someone wacky or stupid, no exceptions. It's a shame. Carey was brilliant in this thought-provoking, heart-warming film.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars McCarthy Age Love Story, January 23, 2008

By	Kathy W (Baltimore) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: The Majestic (DVD)

I LOVE this movie. Some of my friends don't and I don't have a clue why. It's a serious role for Jim Carey, something you don't often see. There are also some other faces you will recognize, like Martin Landau (Space 1999) and the town doctor (one of the Major Franks from Mash).

Jim Carey is a Hollywood Writer who is named as having possible Communist ties in the McCarthy witchhunt for communists period in our history. (If you were named as a possible Communist, you were blackballed until your name was cleared--guilty before proven innocent. By the way, you cleared yourself by being investigated and naming someone else.)

Jim gets disgusted when, after being accused, the plug on his film project is pulled and he takes off for a drive. He has an accident, loses his memory, and wakes up on the beach in a small town where he is recognized as Martin Landau's son Luke, who went off to war and has been gone for many years.

It's a great flick about a town who gave up more than it's share of young men to fight in the war and many never returned. The whole town celebrates Luke's return as he rekindles his former love relationship with his girl and fond remeberances with the town's people, in the backlight are the McCarthy trials and how they infringe on the rights of the people.

Like I said, great story line. You fall in love with the whole town as it enfolds.