We've seen Joe Dante pay tribute to the classic monsters and movies of his youth, but here might have been his first serious misstep. Does that mean it's a bad film?
October, 1962 and the Cold War is in serious danger of going hot. In Key West, brothers Gene (Simon Fenton) and Dennis (Jesse Lee) are more concerned with the normal things. Specially, monster movies as famed director/producer Lawrence Woolsey (John Goodman) is premiering his latest flick, Mant! and further more, he'll be making a personal appearance!
Why would a Hollywood bigshot (in his own mind, anyway) bother showing up in Key West? Because President Kennedy has just announced the Soviets have put missiles in Cuba, striking distance of the US and Key West in particular. People are freaking out and what better way to capitalize than a scary movie?
Naturally this attracts some good old fashioned moral crusaders, Herb (Dick Miller) and Bob (John Sayles). Thing is, Gene is an avid reader of Famous Monsters of Filmland plus a Woolsey fan, and just happens to recognize Herb from some earlier Woolsey flicks.
Of course, other things are going down too. Gene happens to make a pal with Stan (Omri Katz) and Sandra (Lisa Jakub), the latter he meets in detention after she protests against the duck and cover drills at school. Stan falls for a girl too, but the issue here is that Sherry (Kellie Martin) has a former beau, or at least he thinks he's the current and Harvey Starkweather (James Villemarie) doesn't play second fiddle to anyone.
Woolsey is busy too. In order to promote the film, he fires the first smuck he can find to wear the Mant costume, and Harvey's just the right size. With Harvey nowhere in sight, Stan asks Sherry out on a double date with Gene and Sandra. Their destination?
Why, the same theater that is screening Mant! of course, where else? But the theater manger (Robert Picardo) is concerned about the balcony. Why, if more than a hundred people were to get up there who knows what could happen?
Honestly pretty darn good, and it's failure at the box office disappoints me. Nice pace and the characters are well rounded. There is a sense of an age passing, when movie producers were larger than life and the movies were pure magic on the screen. Gimmicks were needed and everyone had a good time. Nuclear death was also considered a sure thing too, so maybe the past wasn't the best place.
No comments:
Post a Comment