{"id":404,"date":"2007-11-06T17:38:24","date_gmt":"2007-11-06T21:38:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/archives\/404"},"modified":"2007-11-06T17:38:24","modified_gmt":"2007-11-06T21:38:24","slug":"matinee-1993-joe-dante","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/archives\/404","title":{"rendered":"Matinee (1993, Joe Dante)"},"content":{"rendered":"

In my 23 years of watching Joe Dante movies (and 3 years of actually knowing who Joe Dante is, heh) I don’t think I’ve seen a better one. Maybe it’s just a dreamy first impression thing, and I’d be saying the same if I’d just watched “The ‘burbs” for the first time. We’ll see. Anyway, great movie.<\/p>\n

Set in 1962 during the Cuban missile crisis at the height of cold war fever, John Goodman is a monster-movie peddler (based on William Castle of “The Tingler” fame) who’s literally coming up with new ways to shock people. I thought he’d be the movie’s lead, but not really, it’s this kid who just moved into a Florida town with a father (who we never see except in photos) who’s part of the Naval blockade of Cuba and a mom and a little brother and, if he can manage it, a girlfriend at school (a budding leftist). Kid’s new friend is trying to date a girl with a dangerous ex-boyfriend who ends up getting a job running the special effects during the MANT screening and seeing the two of them together. Oh, and the nervous theater manager has a bomb shelter in the basement. Hilarity ensues.<\/p>\n

Movie is exciting and funny and intelligent while remaining entirely wholesome (rated PG). It’s all about the love of horror films without ever trying to be a horror film… and about growing up with the movies, the way they can reflect and affect people’s moods.<\/p>\n

The great Kevin McCarthy as a general fighting the MANT:<\/em>
\n\"image\"<\/p>\n

Left: our kid. Right: Dick Miller, whose cohort was played by John Sayles.<\/em>
\n\"image\"<\/p>\n

Reportedly William Castle and Alfred Hitchcock shared mutual respect… no, really.<\/em>
\n\"image\"<\/p>\n

MANT escapes from the screen, takes a hostage:<\/em>
\n\"image\"<\/p>\n

Apocalyptic ending:<\/em>
\n\"image\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my 23 years of watching Joe Dante movies (and 3 years of actually knowing who Joe Dante is, heh) I don’t think I’ve seen a better one. Maybe it’s just a dreamy first impression thing, and I’d be saying the same if I’d just watched “The ‘burbs” for the first time. We’ll see. Anyway, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[351,33,91,8],"class_list":["post-404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie","tag-cold-war","tag-comedy","tag-filmmaking","tag-joe-dante"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}