MovieChat Forums > The Majestic (2001) Discussion > why does everyone hate this movie??

why does everyone hate this movie??


i really thought this movie was beautiful ... it not only had oscar material all over it, but was just a down right great movie... one of the few "feel good" movies that came out in 01...

but why does everyone hate this movie... and why did it bomb in the theatres... ????


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I want that answered too!

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I'm not sure, I thought it was a great movie, on of Carrey's better ones to tell you the truth.

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I shared your thoughts too =)

It was a wonderful movie with a great plot, and the characters are really good too, by far, Jim Carrey's best performance ever!

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I guess people had extremely high expectations about the movie coming from Darabont (The Shawshank Redemtion, The Green Mile). That's what makes people get dissaponted while watching any movie.

That's why I never do that. I just go to the theaters with my mind in (blank---"""-) without expecting an enormous masterpiece, and it works (just imagine how I felt when I saw Schindler's List [!]).

After all, The Majestic stilla has Darabont's magic. Even my little bro enjoyed it.

"I KICK ARSE FOR THE LORD!"
Braindead

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[deleted]

Great point.

I think a major part of people enjoying a movie / music / theatre is the expectations , hypes or thoughts that preceed it.

I was fortunate enough to see The Green Mile, Shawshank, Majestic all last year, in that order. I saw the first two after a suggestion from a friend, lord knows how I missed them before. They are now easily my favourite films of all time, and I really enjoyed The Majestic.

The era and 'feel' of Darabonts films so far is very difficult to pin-down, but I always get a great boost from them. In particular the point in Shawshank as Red leaves the prison. Or in the Green Mile where John Coffey helps the lady....or maybe it's just the music :)

http://www.robdougan.org

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I think possibly that being a Jim Carrey movie people really expected it to be a zany comedy like his other movies. Even Truman Show had its moments of comedy in it.

Possibly people just couldn't handle Jim Carrey in a dramatic film.

I, personally, really enjoyed it.

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I saw this movie for the 1st time today and have to say I was truley dissapointed. True, the acting is really good and you cant fault the direction but I felt that something was missing for it to be a Darabont classic like Shawshank and Green Mile, (maybe 'cos it wasnt set in a prison and written by Stephen King, lol).

Also I thought for a feel-good movie it was too political, maybe I'm seeing it from a post 9/11 and Iraq War view that may make it more relevant now, but from a UK viewers perspective that end court scene had no relevance whatsoever.

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The relevance for Americans lies in the origins of our country and in the document of the Constitution. The beauty of that document and the amazing circumstances of the founding of America strikingly contrasts with the America in the courtroom, the America obsessed with political games and with turning an eye from the Constitution, the governing document of the nation.

I am suprised so many hated this movie as well. It is one of the most magical movies I have ever seen and all the actors are truly amazing.

Seth

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I think that this may be one of those movies that people say that hate just because its a feel-good movie. I think people just talk out of their a$$. No one can possible tell me that this movie wasn't any good. OK, it may not be the Shawshank Redemption, but it wasn't to far behind. The acting was great . . . plot really good, and I got the chills after watching the ending. I would definitely watch this movie many more times.

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I like the movie too......
sometimes people set the bar too high....its a great way to spend a rainy weekend afternoon

My parents were teenagers in the early 50's and it is fun to see a recently made movie that paints pictures of their world....the clothes, the cars, the recent memories of a horrible war but still with the patriotism and innocence of a culture not saturated by the cynicism of cable TV and the internet

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My initial viewing back in the day near its new release on dvd, I felt like the movie wandered around too much & didn't have an intent.

Probably a decade later now, I seem to 'get it' a bit clearer now, even if the movie still doesn't quite know what it wants to achieve.

Set up as Capracorn with Carrey as Stewart, lovey dovey girl in small town... & then the rails come off, plowing into the final act.

The war weary emotion was a legit angle, & I checked to see if this was in fact product before 9/11... I have zero qualms about that, but learning that Adele is some law prodigy is as much a blow to the head as her accepting that Peter is not Luke lol.

6/10 because of the actual Majestic mini-arc, but loses points for aimlessness.

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[deleted]

i just watched this movie and thought it was just OK maybe if i was a patriotic American i might have liked it better. As for Jim Carey i think his best dramatic performance is in 'Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind' This movie doesnt come close to the 'Shawshank redemption' or even "the Green mile'

'This whole world is wild at heart and weird on top'

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Was this film really Patriotic? I don't remember it being really... but... in my opinion... this is a great movie. Great in its own creative way. NOT great as in Crash, Green Mile, etc.(Both on my favs list) But, people hated this cuz they were pissed at JKim Carrey for not doing a hilarious comedy. *beep* THEM! LET HIM DO SOME *beep* VARIETY FOR ONCE!

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When this film came out, everybody told me it sucked. I finally saw it yesterday and it definitely didn't suck by any stretch of the imagination. Just because Jim Carrey wasn't doing physical humor or cracking jokes, doesn't make this a bad film. It was a departure from his previous films and I thought it was very good. It was a very sweet story and gave us a sense of history as well. Nothing about this movie sucked.

Tomorrow's just your future yesterday!

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I saw this movie for the first time in August, 2006. I recalled reading about it in a Winter Movie Preview in Entertainment Weekly in the summer of 2001, and at the time it was getting good buzz. It was Warner Brothers' big release for the upcoming Christmas season.

I have no strong feeling toward Jim Carrey one way or another, but I do like Frank Capra movies and most movies set in earlier time periods. This one had a good cast, and I love old movie theaters. I knew that restoring one, The Majestic, was the centerpiece of the movie.

What really angered me about this movie is that it steals relentlessly from other movies and other sources and relies on the audience's ignorance to get its points across. There is not a single legitimate, sincere emotion in the entire film. It's completely disengenuous. This is an insult to the audience. Please, please don't tell me "it's only a movie," or "it's a feel-good movie." All filmmakers, including those with the clout of Frank Darabont, should have more respect for their audience. Even a "feel-good" movie needs to play fair.

We weren't all born yesterday. Many people in the audience would surely have known as I did that the letter from Luke, read by Matt Damon in voiceover, is almost a word-for-word steal from a very real and very famous letter written by a Union soldier in the Civil War. (That is noted on the trivia page for The Majestic.)

Yes, The Majestic is beautiful to look at. Some fine actors (Martin Landau, Jeffrey DeMunn, etc.) are given very little to do with their talent. Carrey is fine, but could have been even better had his role(s) not been so underwritten. This could have been a classic if it had decided what it wanted to be -- winsome romantic fantasy or political drama. Frank Capra could often combine the two, and like his best films, this one tries to do both. Sadly, it succeeds at neither.

Ultimately, I think the fact that the movie was released three months after 9/11 hurt it rather than helped it. People had seen enough real heroes to be impressed by a fictional one, even if he was echoing popular sentiments about the meaning of patriotism and what it means to be an American.

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I loved the movie. The only thing that could've been better were the special effects or green screen. Whatever they used for the background scenes, obviously digital, and a bit unrealistic, but were beautiful in my opinion.

Jim did a great performance when he went "on trial" or whatever. Really admired him for that one.

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[deleted]

Some people love this movie. I am not among them. Simple as that. It is a misguided attempt to do a Capra-type flick.

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