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Post by Primemovermithrax Pejorative on Dec 28, 2017 7:13:05 GMT
Liked it when it came out, mainly due to the novelty of the retro MANT! movie within a movie. For a cast of teenagers that were actually playing their own ages they did a good job, especially the lead, who I believe was a British actor putting on an American accent.
Re-watched it after several years and I find that the kids story is now intolerable. It is when John Goodman and the pastiche segments are running that it comes to life. I think they make a major blunder focusing on the children and the baby boomer nostalgia about the Cuban Missile Crisis--the real story was Goodman and his low budget filmmaking--a subject that proved to be a winner the following year with ED WOOD.
Joe Dante started out writing reviews for Castle of Frankenstein and Famous Monsters. Despite his obvious affection for all genre films, he tends to make films that are comedic. If he has ever done a serious film I am not aware of it. What makes his pastiche segments so intriguing for Matinee is how perfectly he captures the style of the 50s-60s films he is spoofing--and the self-awareness is cranked way down. Mant! was brilliant, but the Shook Up Shopping Cart was also a faithfully filmed send-up (learned recently Naomi Watts was the star).
Truth is, I wish there was MORE of both!
I thought those two film stories much more interesting than what now seems a really trite coming of age story, the weakest part of the film.
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