Product Details

• Actors: John Goodman, Cathy Moriarty, Simon Fenton, Omri Katz, Lisa Jakub
• Directors: Joe Dante
• Writers: Charles S. Haas, Jerico
• Producers: Michael Finnell, Pat Kehoe
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: Image Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: July 22, 1998
• Run Time: 99 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6305080453
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #56,806 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Matinee" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Matinee offers one of the best matches of director and screenplay that you're ever likely to find. Raised on a steady diet of 1950s monster movies, Joe Dante later contributed to the genre with such films as Gremlins and Explorers, but it was Charlie Haas's script for Matinee that gave Dante a perfect platform for comedy, dramatic context, and nostalgic homage. Set in Florida during the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, the movie focuses on a schlock-movie promoter named Woolsey (inspired by real-life producer William Castle and played to perfection by John Goodman) who arrives in Key West with his latest Grade-Z extravaganza, Mant, about the raving half-man/half-ant product of "science run amuck." (This movie-within-a-movie is a perfect tribute by Dante, who cast B-movie stalwarts in the kind of roles they'd built careers on.)

Balancing youthful exuberance with the ominous threat of nuclear attack, Dante finds his alter ego in Simon Fenton, who plays a 15-year-old captivated by Woolsey's cheesy showmanship. This affectionate devotion is matched by Dante, who captures the anxiety of the missile crisis even as Matinee delivers an abundance of humor. Director John Sayles and Dante-movie veteran Dick Miller have cameos as Woolsey's show-biz accomplices, and Cathy Moriarty is brilliant as Woolsey's wisecracking mistress and Z-movie queen. All of this makes Matinee a polished gem that's sweetly entertaining while staying true to the serious context of its story. It's the movie Joe Dante was born to direct. --Jeff Shannon

Product Description

John Goodman is at his uproarious best as the gregarious creator of sci-fi thrillers, circa 1962, who brings his unique brand of showmanship to the unsuspecting residents of Key West, Florida for the premiere of his latest offering on the eve of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a WUNDERFUL movie, May 29, 1999

By A Customer

i really, really, really love this movie! it's sweet and fun and really cool. it's one of my favorites ever because it deals with really cool, corny cheaply made horror films which are really hilarious. john goodman makes a charming, whimsical, and endearing performance as a visionary film maker and the younger stars of the film are really amazing too. what can i say, this is the best and if you don't buy this, rent it!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Is This MY Life?, September 20, 2004

By	Douglas Keith McEwan (Reseda, California United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I was 12 years old during the Cuban Missle Crisis, in love with cheap, schlocky horror movies (ANYTHING with Vincent Price!), and had a subscription to "Famous Monsters of Filmland" Magazine, so, except for living in Florida (I lived in Hollywood - well - Los Angeles, the only place for a film fanatic to grow up) this could be my biography. When the boy is shown with monster magazines spread all over his bed, they're real magazines from the period, and I had every last blessed one of them! I also had the monster models in his bedroom. When he turns into a fount of movie minutia at lunch, he IS me at school lunch, the kid who knew the difference between William Castle and Roger Corman, who couldn't have mistaken Dick Miller, who knew every trivial fact about every trivial horror movie ever made, and who would share them all with anyone in earshot. This hilarious yet heartfelt movie pushed all my nostalgia buttons. Even now, I can say what's that poster for "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" doing in a 1962 movie theater when the film hadn't even been shot yet? I remember the panic in our local grocery store during the missle crisis, and it was exactly as Dante shows it in the film. It's my favorite John Goodman performance. He was born to play William Castle, aka "Lawrence Woolsey". This is Joe Dante at his best. Apparently he and I had the exact same childhood.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You must sign a liability release "In case you die of fright", December 3, 2007

By	Skyhawk (USA) - See all my reviews

This has to be the most under-rated, under-valued and criminally under-seen film of all time. Funny, touching, nostalgic in a good way, a wonderful tribute to the very joy of film itself and, the clincher, a cast of kids that never get on your nerves.

John Goodman has never bettered his performance from this movie. If you love the movies, you'll love this film. See it; then see it again and again. It really is the undiscovered artistic masterpiece of the 20th Century. I look forward to this movie on HD-DVD.

Until 'Man Conquers Space' comes out, we have Matinee!