I felt that the advertising for this movie was somewhat misleading. I expected to see a film about John Goodman portraying a loose characterization of showman William Castle. Instead, the main focus of the film is a young boy, Gene Loomis, whose father is a soldier who is dispatched to active duty during the Cuban missile crisis, which is the time period in which this film is set. You have your typical coming-of-age themes revolving around Gene and his friends as they discover their own emerging adolescence, and this consists largely of tired material that has been done to death.

Somewhat in the background we have John Goodman as old-fashioned showman Lawrence Woolsey, a vaudevillian stuck in the age of cinema who wants to put the show back in picture shows. He is tied into the film because Gene enjoys Woolsey's showmanship as a way to forget about the world around him which seems to be on the brink of self-destruction. Woolsey pulls such stunts as having his girlfriend (Cathy Moriarty) dress a a nurse and ask patrons to sign a waiver releasing Goodman's character from liability in case they die of fright during the movie. This is based on a similar stunt by William Castle and his movie "Macabre". Woolsey also wires the seats to produce a mild electric shock during a key moment in a film, which he labels "Atomo-Vision." That antic is based on what William Castle did during the showing of "The Tingler". Then he rigs still another device to shake things up as buildings on the screen are tumbling and calls it "Rumble-Rama." Again, these are all very similar to the showman-like stunts of William Castle during the 50's and 60's.

The best part of the movie is when Woolsey comes up with an atomic-age monster movie entitled "Mant" that is a composite of cheesy 50's horror films such as "The Fly," and "Them!". "Mant" is about a mutant that is half-man and half-ant and is a total riot. Woolsey's schlock merchant displays just the right mix of con-man materialism and childlike glee at his own bogus movie magic. It's too bad that Goodman's character and his showmanship weren't the main focus of the movie - Goodman was truly born to play the part of Lawrence Woolsey.

Watching this movie really made me happy that some of William Castle's films have finally been coming out on DVD in the last couple of years, through both traditional DVD releases and through the Warner Archive manufacture on demand program. At any rate, enjoy.

Yes, the atomic bomb is terrible. But unintentionally funny were some of the movies about the alleged effects of atomic mutation. Hi, I want to tell you about something that could have happened. Something that does happen in a certain movie. Picture Key West, Florida: your average American town. But, if a movie about the alleged effects of atomic mutation was brought there during the Cuban Missile Crisis...the result would be hysterical indeed. For the result...would be..."Matinée".

This movie is a real treat for any fan of the sci-fi/horror flicks of the late '50s and early '60s. John Goodman plays B-movie producer Lawrence Woolsey, bringing "Mant" (Half Man...Half Ant...All Terror!) to Key West, Florida, during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Naturally, the possibility of a nuclear attack heightens the mood in every way.

"Matinee" just may be the perfect movie about the adult world as seen from a youngster's point of view. And I don't just mean the great soundtrack. I think that it's safe to say that this movie has something for EVERYONE. Joe Dante has created another cool movie here. And of course it wouldn't be a Joe Dante movie without Dick Miller. He and John Sayles play representatives of Citizens for Decent Entertainment protesting "Mant" (or are they?). Kudos also to Cathy Moriarty as Ruth Corday, the actress who in the movie-within-a-movie plays the wife of the human-to-formic star; bravo also to Kevin McCarthy, playing the general in the movie-within-a-movie trying to stop the Mant. All in all, this movie shows why the word "cool" was invented.

Gene Loomis is a teenager living on a naval base in Key West in 1962, just as the Cuban Missile Crisis occurs and worldwide tension mounts. At the same time, Lawrence Woolsey, a schlock moviemaker, is premiering his new monster movie, Mant!, at the local theatre. Gene meets Woolsey, who teaches him some tricks of the trade, and Gene and his friend Stan go to the premiere which involves, amongst other things, a mad beatnik in a giant ant costume, Gene getting locked in a nuclear fallout shelter, and Woolsey destroying the entire theatre.

This is a lovely nostalgic movie brimming with funny dialogue and movie in-jokes, brilliantly written by Charlie Haas and featuring wonderfully offbeat characters. It was clearly a great labour of love for the filmmakers and it celebrates not only a bygone age of innocence before the great social upheavals of the sixties but also an unqualified love for the imaginatively nutty fantasy movies of the time. Goodman is simply terrific as Woolsey (loosely based on producer William Castle) - a big kid whose greatest joy is to entertain people but who also has an astute business sense. At one point when he receives a letter threatening legal action over an unpaid bill he says, "Boy this business has changed. These things used to be settled with violence.". Everybody in this movie is tremendous though; all the kids are great, particularly Fenton and Jakub, who make a lovely chalk'n'cheese pair of misfits. Moriarty is a scream as a long-suffering starlet and the great John Sayles (who wrote two of Dante's early movies) has a wonderful little role as a blacklisted writer turned phony morality campaigner. All of Dante's regular stock company have funny bits (Picardo, Miller, Balaski, Hahn),as does writer Haas as a school teacher. Schallert, McCarthy and Cornthwaite are all hilarious and feature unbilled in Mant! (Half-Man, Half-Ant, All-Terror !!),the movie-within-a-movie, which is a lovable and gentle pastiche of the giant ant movie Them. The film also features a wonderful score by Jerry Goldsmith and beautiful Florida location photography by John Hora. There are lots of reasons to like this movie very much, and it's beautifully made, but most of all it simply entertains from start to finish.