Customer Reviews

Matinee [VHS]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I absolutely love this movie so much. It has been a favorite of mine for many years. It's fun because it makes you feel like you are actually in the movie and are living in the early 1960's when the Cuban Missle Crisis was happening. It's also a very creative movie, and it'll make you feel happy when you watch it. Enjoy!

John Goodman plays a low-budget 1960's era filmmaker who goes out for pure schlock and decides that the Cuban missile crisis is the perfect time to release his latest sci-fi schlockbuster. Actually, the flick is less about him than the pre-teens inhabiting the Florida town in which Goodman has chosen to debut his latest flick - a grade-Z epic called "ManT". That's a shame because Goddman's brand of dead-pan delivery is probably the only thing this flick has going for it. Goodman's character is probably inspired by the late-great William Castle, though he makes the role his own. While Castle was an impressario (Castle was famous for stunts like putting low-power electrodes in seats of tehaters showing his "The Tingler"; if you've ever seen "Mr. Sardonicus", Castle appears near the end asking viewers to decide the title character's fate, even though only one ending was actually filmed.) Goodman's character has fun looking dead-serious on film as he waves at us the respected technical journals that supposedly corroborate his "chillingly plausible" cautionary tale of a man being turned into a gigantic ant. Unfortunately, the flick defeats this by showing us that Goodman really is an impressario, he doesn't believe his flicks, and he has to use his own stock actors to pose as protesters at his premieres (It's a move to supposedly bring in anti-censorship intellectuals who would otherwise never give "ManT" the time of day). Also, the producers of "Matinee" look a bit behind the times themselves - grade-Z schlock like "ManT" sounds closer to 1957 than 1962, and you'd think that the beatniks who show up at "ManT" would have been smart enough to see through Goodman's show. In the end, "Matinee" is good for a matinee

Although not the funniest movie I have ever seen, it was a good one. I was surprised at the level of cursing in the movie since it was rated pg. I used this movie in a seventh grade reading class to compare literary elements to media elements and my students (for the most part) enjoyed it. It does a wonderful job showing the monster movie stereotype of the '50's and '60's. It also shows what happens when people make assumptions about people or situations where little is known. John Goodman as movie producer Woolsey is great and very believable. Some of the younger actors overdo it just a little but not to the point where it takes away from the movie.

Make sure that you see the laser disk version of "Matinee," which includes the complete version of "Mant!" This is the "film" within the film that plays at the matinee. "Mant!" (half man, half ant) is the best part of the film. It is one of the funniest spoofs I've ever seen, with classic sci-fi dialog ("Electricity and nuclear power--the worst possible combination!").