Matinee is a 1993 American comedy movie directed by Joe Dante. Presented on DVD.
John Goodman stars as Lawrence Woolsey, a movie promoter, who brings a brand new monster movie MANT! to a sleepy town in Florida. But as the spectacle of the MANT! premiere approachesso looms the omnipresent threat of the Cuban Missile Crisis just 150 kilometres off the coast!
Matinee Movie Review
“John Goodman's full-throttle performance as a William Castle-inspired schlockmeister propels Joe Dante's delightful and charming comedy Matinee. The film takes place during the fall 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, a time when America's innocence began to crumble. Goodman plays film producer Lawrence Woolsey, who is in Key West to premiere his latest horror epic, "Mant,” the story of a man who turns into a giant insect (“Half Man! … Half Ant! … All Terror!”). He's busy rigging the local movie theater with all manner of gimmicks, such as Atomo-Vision and Rumble-Rama, and stationing a buxom nurse – played by Woolsey's girlfriend and leading lady Ruth (Cathy Moriarty) – in the lobby to assist potential heart attack victims. Amidst all the hubbub, a quartet of local teenagers gear up for the big premiere: Gene (Simon Fenton), a Navy brat whose father is on alert for the duration of the crisis; Stan (Omri Katz), Gene's friend who has a furious crush on Sherry (Kellie Martin); and Sandra (Lisa Jakub), the daughter of two beatnik free-thinkers. As the premiere of “Mant” gets closer and Soviet-U.S. tensions increase, the four teenagers' problems and desires also mount to the boiling point." ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi