Joe Dante just doesn't know when to stop. That's always been his problem and most likely always will be. So, half of Matinée (the William Castle half) is fun and affectionate mostly, and the MANT scenes, although a little too smart aleck for their own good, are beautifully done. But trying to shoehorn that plot into a cliché-ridden Cuban missile scare story just doesn't work - it simply sucks the energy out of the film, and the climax is truly terrible - they didn't need the drama of the balcony collapsing - it's like Screen writing 101 - "Oh, we need one more really dramatic obstacle here." It's awful and I'm quite certain that it contributed in a large way to the movie's box-office failure.
And for those of us who grew up back then, I cannot name you one single occurrence of sitting in a brightly-lit movie theater watching a film. Sorry, Joe, didn't happen. Ever. What would have been so difficult to have it dark in the theater but lit so that you could see everyone. Hundreds of films have done it without much of a problem. That alone keeps taking you completely out of the film.
Nice Goldsmith score, well edited, well shot, but, as with a lot of Mr. Dante's films, despite enjoyable parts misses the mark.
And for those of us who grew up back then, I cannot name you one single occurrence of sitting in a brightly-lit movie theater watching a film. Sorry, Joe, didn't happen. Ever. What would have been so difficult to have it dark in the theater but lit so that you could see everyone. Hundreds of films have done it without much of a problem. That alone keeps taking you completely out of the film.
Nice Goldsmith score, well edited, well shot, but, as with a lot of Mr. Dante's films, despite enjoyable parts misses the mark.