A bore! John Goodman almost saves 'Matinee', he's good, but not quite.

I personally didn't care for the characters of Key West and their stories, especially the parts with those portrayed by Kellie Martin, Omri Katz and James Villemaire. The story shoots off into quite a few directions, but I was genuinely not into any of it apart from the scenes with Goodman's Woolsey.

The 'film within a film', 'Mant!', is great though - it actually amused me a fair bit, which was a stark contrast to what the real comedy (or lack thereof) achieved. I appreciate what it was going for, but I just didn't dig the vast majority of it unfortunately.

"Mant". That was the name of the movie that Lawrence Woolsey unleashed on a small town theater in Key West, Florida. Woolsey's timing couldn't be better according to his own logic. The premier of "Mant" occurs during the Cuban Missile Crisis. On top of that, Woolsey is prepping the theater with special effects, in-the-theater actors, and other props to bring even more realism to his screening, in true William Castle-esque fashion.

I mean, how perfect of a name for a B-movie is "Mant"!?! It's seriously great. A man and an ant, bonded by atomic fallout, and during an atomic crisis, no less. This guy Woolsey is a genius. Actually, the genius is the real director, Joe Dante. "Matinee" pushes almost all of the right nostalgia buttons. It's a love letter to B-Movies and William Castle. It also reflects Dante's fondness for the frantic energy of children and their past love of Saturday Afternoon at the theater.

The only thing that knocks this down a bit is that it gets a little too chaotic at the end. Its focus on the mother/son relationship and worry over his father being shipped out during the brink of war falls a bit flat. Joe Dante has always made frenzied flicks (I'm thinking the "Gremlins" movies right now), but "Matinee" is a bit too grounded for its breathless final act.

Still, it's a movie that's energetic and filled with the curiosity of youth. It's pretty clear that was what Dante was after and it's another successful entry in his roster of films.