Matinee
Directed by Joe Dante
Written by Charles S. Haas
1993/US
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime Rental
Dr. Flankon: Young lady, human/insect mutation is far from an exact science…
I enjoyed Joe Dante’s love letter to 50’s and 60’s creature features and the era that spawned them.
John Goodman plays Lawrence Woolsey, a producer/promoter of creature features. The character is clearly based on William Castle, producer/director of such classics as The Tingler (1959), and notorious lover of frightening in-theater gimmicks. Woolsey becomes friendly with teenager Gene Lewis and shows him some of the inner workings of his business. Woolsey has hired a group to protest his picture, only adding to the anticipation of all the young people in town to see its opening matinee. Woolsey has some spectacular gimmicks planned that Castle could only have dreamed of.
The movie involves a man who is fused with an ant during an X-ray. It is called Mant, which might be the funniest and most appropriate title for one of these things ever.
Store Clerk: There’s no more Shredded Wheat in back. There’s no more Shredded Wheat in the entire Keys, and one of you will have to go to the Atomic Destruction with no damn Shredded Wheat!
In the meantime, the town and the world is watching as Kennedy and Kruschev engage in that exercise in brinksmanship known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. Gene’s father is on one of the naval ships blockading Cuba.
Gene forms a relationship with the class liberal, whom he meets during an atomic bomb drill. Gene’s friend hooks up with a very cute girl, who just happens to be the ex of the crazed teen hired by Woolsey to appear in a “Mant” costume and terrify the audience. With Cathy Moriarty as Woolsey’s starlet girlfriend. Naomi Watts made her screen debut in a tiny part.
Joe Dante has a deep love of these films and it shows in every minute of this movie. It is a light, fun entertainment. Perfect for fans of the great old sci-fi and horror flicks and those that are nostalgic for the period.
