The Majestic on DVD

Frank Darabont quickly made a name for himself with back-to-back great films, The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile.

Now, after the five year wait between his first two, Darabont seems to be staying in Hollywood and delivering some more great ones. After a mere two year interval, we're treated to The Majestic, a beautifully made drama starring Jim Carrey.

Carrey plays Peter Appleton, a Hollywood screenwriter on the rise. He's named as a Communist and, sine the film is set in the nineteen fifties, that's worse than being called a serial killer. Peter's career tumbles and he falls into a pit of depression and drinking. He drives down the coast (just for the hell of it), and gets in an accident that leaves him with amnesia.

He's taken to Lawson, a small California town with a heart of gold. As he's being checked by the doctor, Harry Trimble (Martin Landau) recognizes him as his son, Luke, who was reported missing in action over nine years earlier. Not having any recollection of who he is, Peter is forced to believe, even if he doesn't quite. And when he meets Adele (Laurie Holden), Luke's old girlfriend, he wants even more to be Luke so he can have Adele.

But as we can expect, eventually Peter's memory begins to come back to him, and he has to confess the truth. We're then treated to a lengthy courtroom scene in which Peter tries to prove he's not a Communist.

What a great movie! At 152 minutes, it's long and quite slow, but that seems to be how Darabont likes it. But if you can sit through it, you'll realize that it's time well spent.

It's filled with dialogue so cheesy it's great, and features some excellent metaphors for love and life.

Even if you're one of those who believes Jim Carrey was robbed of Oscar nominations for The Truman Show and Man on the Moon (like me), you'll see that they were nothing compared to his work on The Majestic. He's great at portraying emotion and making us love the character, and does so without even trying. I was a huge fan of his comedic work, but now I'm an even bigger fan of his dramatic work. He deserves to be remembered as one of the most talented and versatile actors of his generation.

The Majestic is a great film that will leave you thinking about it for weeks afterwards. Fans of dramas, Frank Darabont or Jim Carrey will have to check this one out.

As is often the case, Warner Bros. neglected to give the movie a great DVD. The picture is pretty good, but the sound and supplements leave much to be desired.

The anamorphic widescreen picture is a little soft, but overall quite good. The less-than-perfect quality actually works well for the film, since it's set in the 1950s. I personally feel it gives it a more realistic tone and, though I doubt this was done intentionally, it's still a nice touch.

The audio is par. It's a 5.1 Dolby Digital track that is about as daring as many of the ones coming out these days (in that it isn't). The film is mostly dialogue anyway, so the confinement to the front channels is not overly disappointing, but the score would have worked beautifully coming from the rear.

Of the two extras, the first is less than 10 minutes of deleted scenes. The movie is already over two and a half hours, so the deletion of these scenes was a good call. They're good scenes, but don't add anything to the film. The other extra is the complete climax of Peter Appleton's first film, "Sand Pirates of the Sahara." It runs just under five minutes and is so cheesy it's funny. It also features cameos by Bruce Campbell and Cliff Curtis.

The Majestic, from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
152 minutes, anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1) 16X9 enhanced, 5.1 Dolby Digital
Starring Jim Carrey, Bob Balaban, Hal Holbrook, Laurie Holden, Martin Landau
Written by Michael Sloane
Produced and directed by Frank Darabont

Tell us at TechnoFile what YOU think