Matinee (1993)
Grade: 65
"Matinee" is a comedy with dramatic elements. It takes place in Key West, Florida, in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis. John Goodman is perfectly cast as Lawrence Woosley, a producer of schlocky horror films, who comes to Key West to promote his latest film, "Mant." His special other is the jaded Ruth Corday (Cathy Moriarty) who also is the leading lady in his films. She makes frequent vague threats to leave him, but Goodman's character is so good-natured that he always just laughs.
Meanwhile, Gene Loomis (Simon Fenton) is a teenage boy living on the Key West Naval base with his parents, his father having been sent to help blockade the Cubans. He is a big fan of Goodman's films and, discovering that Goodman is in town, follows him around to learn the secrets of the trade.
Gene's love interest is Sandra, a student whose passionate and unpopular political opinions are encouraged by her liberal parents. Gene becomes friends with Stan, who has a thing for Shelly (Kellie Martin). Shelly has strong sexual desires that Stan doesn't quite understand. Unfortunately for Stan, she has has a former boyfriend, a street punk named Harvey Starkweather.
Harvey's character is the weak link of the film. The writers try to do too much with him. He writes beatnik poetry, dresses in leather, is unstable and acts like a punk. He also is in love with Shelly, and has jealous rages over her that threaten Stan's health.
Threatended by Harvey, Stan breaks a date with Shelly, instead going to see "Mant". Gene is there also, with his kid brother and new girlfriend Sandra. Harvey has been hired by Goodman to run the film's sound controls, and to dress up in a Mant suit and run around the theatre at key moments of the film. Spector, a big movie distributor, is also at the movie and is being wooed by Goodman. Gene talks to Shelly and patches things up between Shelly and Stan, who neck in aisle seats.
"Mant" is a hilarous parody of a fifies/early sixties horror film. A man has been exposed to radiation and is turning into an ant, head and arms first. There is a silly love triangle between Mant, his wife, and his dentist. At other moments during the film there are several parodies of sixties movies and their previews that are equally funny, especially a scene from "The Shook Up Shopping Cart" that is a riot.
Harvey, in the Mant suit, catches Stan and Shelly and goes beserk, later dragging her off at knifepoint. In the commotion Goodman and company leave the theatre. The theatre owner has a bomb shelter with a bolted time-controlled lock. Mistaking the movie for a bombing raid, the owner prepares his bomb shelter, but accidentally locks Gene and Sandra inside, who believe that the world is coming to an end.
Once Harvey has been taken away by the police and Shelly is safe, Goodman returns to the theatre. The unsupervised kids have been rioting in the balcony, threatening the lives of the patrons. Goodman switches films, making the audience believe that nuclear holocaust has come. The theatre empties except for Gene's kid brother, who must be rescued from the collapsing balcony.
http://members.tripod.com/~Brian_Koller/movies.html
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