Matinee


Colosseum (4005939540821)
Varèse Sarabande (0030206540826)
Movie | Release date: 02/02/1993 | Film release: 1993 | Format: CD
 

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# Track   Duration
1.Coming Attraction2:12
2.Hold On3:21
3.Brother To Brother2:29
4.Real People2:16
5.The Scam4:10
6.Halfway Home3:48
7.Showtime4:35
8.The Wrong Business3:41
9.This Is It3:53
10.The Next Attraction7:57
 38:22
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Matinee - 08/10 - Review of Tom Daish, submitted at (English)
This was the film that rather broke Joe Dante's film making record. After striking gold with Gremlins, his later films weren't generally very popular, even the sequel to Gremlins didn't exactly set the box office alight. It wasn't until his 1998 effort Small Soldiers did Dante get going with film directing again. I suppose it must be his particular style of film, generally portraying adults as idiots who deserve what they get and kids who eventually save the day. Kind of like Spielberg films with a bit more bite really. Dante's films don't really fall into a neat genre or age bracket. Most adults would find them a bit juvenile (the very reason I think they're great), most parents would possibly not want their little kiddies watching them. Some parts (most notably in Gremlins) are quite mean spirited and gruesome and so the child market is somewhat reduced. It's a great pity I have to say, I've enjoyed pretty much every Dante film I've seen, they aren't high art by any stretch of the imagination, but they are at least made with more imagination and black comedy than many films these days and aren't afraid to fool about and have lots of movie in jokes which are often hilariously funny. Matinee was neither particularly nasty, but neither was it particularly aimed at children - almost the archetypal problem for a Dante film. Who would see it? It's basically about a cinema director (played by the always reliably comic John Goodman) who tries out his new sensation in movie going at an unsuspecting movie theatre in the 50's. The movie within a movie is Mant - half man, half ant. An often hilarious hommage to b-movies and tacky dialogue - most notably for the scientist who treats everyone as idiots. It plays a lot on the hysteria about the threat of nuclear war, particularly near the end - most notably for Robert Picardo's hilariously paranoid cinema owner and a resolution where everyone watching the film thinks the bomb has been dropped.

For the score, Goldsmith wrote a bouyant.and nostalgic effort that, as usual, isn't high art, but is extremely enjoyable. There are loads of themes in the score, the opening being yet another bouncing suburban theme that is almost a necessity in a Dante film. It does rather recall The Burbs perhaps a little too much, but is extremely enjoyable in its own right with bouncing horns, twinkling percussion supporting a theme first in woodwing and then strings. The second theme is introduced in the second half of Coming Attraction and is nostalgic and vaguely romantic and a perfect counterfoil to the opener. Hold On introduces a swaggering, but endearing jazzy theme for John Goodman's director. These are the basic blocks around almost all of the remaining score is constructed, at least until toward the end. The Wrong Business and This Is It feature some more bubbling action writing. Goldsmith cleverly weaves the crushing brass theme for Mant into his underscore so that whenever we get a shot of a midget in an ant suite on the screen, suitable b-movie music is playing - Bernard Herrmann without the flair I think would be the best description. An endearing spoof of the over the top music that pervaded horror flicks of the era. The Wrong Business introduces a minor key version of the jazzy theme which in turn sounds a bit like Ave Satani from The Omen, but I'm convinced that it's just a coincidence that the minor version happens to sound similar. I'd never thought you could get from demonic chanting to light jazz just by changing key, yet here it is. This is It features a great jazzy trumpet descant to the action music toward the end that works a treat.

The final cue wraps up the movie for the first half with a warm and low key finale cue that then segues into the end credits which is a well arranged compilation of the three main themes. Ending with a short swanny whistle gliassando (I'm not making this up, honest...), brings to a close another Jerry score that the toffs will loathe, but the peasants will love. Undemanding, but utterly engaging - like the film. Worth seeking and purchasing.

Other releases of Matinee (1993):

Matinee (1993)
Matinee (2022)
Matinee (2022)


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