why does everyone hate this movie??
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invision — 19 years ago(May 27, 2006 01:49 PM)
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 -
symonfrost — 20 years ago(January 02, 2006 11:19 AM)
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. -
lazy_k81 — 20 years ago(January 11, 2006 05:28 PM)
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. -
SethAxen — 20 years ago(February 28, 2006 12:36 AM)
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 -
Coozmissile — 20 years ago(March 20, 2006 10:52 AM)
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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breitbap — 19 years ago(April 06, 2007 11:42 AM)
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 -
TwoThousandOneMark — 12 years ago(September 16, 2013 04:37 PM)
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. -
The_Figure_Head — 19 years ago(April 26, 2006 11:46 PM)
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' -
Critter-20 — 19 years ago(June 10, 2006 11:25 PM)
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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KAnnD86 — 19 years ago(August 26, 2006 07:57 AM)
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! -
ecjones1951 — 19 years ago(August 29, 2006 06:49 PM)
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. -
Rain_Falls_Gently — 19 years ago(September 01, 2006 08:35 PM)
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. -
dgates64 — 19 years ago(February 18, 2007 07:27 AM)
With a 6.6 average rating, it's hardly 'hated' by all. I gave it an 8, only because 7.5 wasn't an option.
The ending doesn't sit well. The whole town meeting him at the train station just felt really hokey. I think if he was accepted back in town more gradually, it would've come across better. Like he meets Adele, she accepts him back, and then the townspeople gradually show up at the theater to greet him and watch the movie.
On another subject, it probably had the worst movie poster I've seen in a while.