Taglines: Lawrence Woolsey presents the end of civilization as we know it. Make that… Proudly Presents!
Matinee movie storyline. In Key West, Florida in October 1962, boys Gene Loomis (Simon Fenton) and his brother Dennis (Jesse Lee Soffer) live on a military base (N.A.S. Key West); their father is away on a nearby submarine. After hearing the announcement of an exclusive engagement of Lawrence Woolsey’s (John Goodman) new sensational horror film Mant! (“Half man! Half ant!” “in Atomo-Vision and Rumble-Rama!”), including Woolsey’s appearance in-person, they arrive home to President Kennedy’s television interruption, stating the presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba. Woolsey finds this atmosphere of fear to be the perfect environment in which to open his atomic-radiation-themed film.
Woolsey brings along Herb Denning and Bob (John Sayles) to stir up the yokels by protesting the film, but Howard, the theatre manager (Robert Picardo), assures him that “the people of Key West are not yokels.” Indeed, the progressive Jack and Rhonda (David Clennon and Lucy Butler) make a strong free speech argument for allowing the film to proceed.
New to the local high school, and not getting along with the similarly-aged Andy (Nick Bronson) on the base, Gene ends up associating with Stan (Omri Katz), and becomes infatuated with Jack and Rhonda’s daughter, Sandra (Lisa Jakub), after she takes a detention for protesting the uselessness of an air raid drill and yelling the truth of the false protection at the students in the hall. In attempting to get a date to the dance, Stan goes for Sherry (Kellie Martin), who was seeing a prison poet, Harvey Starkweather (Villemaire), who regularly bothers Stan about his interest in her (and hers in him).
Matinee is a 1993 period comedy film directed by Joe Dante. It is a ensemble piece about a William Castle-type independent filmmaker, with the home front in the Cuban Missile Crisis as a backdrop. The film stars John Goodman, Cathy Moriarty, Simon Fenton, Omri Katz, Lisa Jakub, Robert Picardo and Kellie Martin. A then-unknown Naomi Watts has a small role as a character in a film within the film. It was written by Jerico Stone and Charlie Haas, the latter portraying Mr. Elroy, a schoolteacher.
Matinee (1993)
Directed by: Joe Dante
Starring: John Goodman, Cathy Moriarty, Simon Fenton, Omri Katz, Kellie Martin, Lisa Jakub, Lucinda Jenney, James Villemaire, Robert Picardo, Lucy Butler, Jesse White, Naomi Watts
Screenplay by: Charles S. Haas
Production Design by: Steven Legler
Cinematography by: John Hora
Film Editing by: Marshall Harvey
Costume Design by: Isis Mussenden
Set Decoration by: Eric Weiler, Frederic C. Weiler
Art Direction by: Nanci Roberts
Music by: Jerry Goldsmith
MPAA Rating: PG for language, and for mild violence and sensuality.
Distributed by: Universal Pictures
Release Date: January 29, 1993
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