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One of the holy grails of the collecting community has been given the royal treatment from Arrow Video
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Blu-ray + DVD
Released by: Arrow
Release Date: Jan. 29th, 1993 (Theatrical)
Sept. 12th, 2016 (Blu-ray)
Region Code: B (locked) (blu-ray)
2 (locked) (dvd)
Run Time: 1h 39m
Audio: English: LPCM 2.0
Video: 1080p (1.85:1 Aspect Ratio)
Bit Parts! The Joe Dante Players (10m 7s, HD)
Joe Dante, Robert Picardo, Archie Hahn, Belinda Balaski,
John Sayles, and Dick Miller talk about working together. We get some nice
stories about how each one became Dante’s go to actors. Each of these actors
have appeared in multiple Joe Dante films and each has earned the right to be
remembered.
This is a nice featurette focusing on the actors that don’t always
get the praise they deserve. We have seen each of these actors in films outside
of Dante’s and I always have a great time trying to remember where I have seen
them before running to imdb.com to find the answer.
Atomo-Vision! The
Making of Matinee (8m 4s, HD)
The titled of this featurette is deceiving in that it is not
a making of. We get to interviews spliced together: the first is with John
Hora, the cinematographer of Matinee
and Marshall Harvey who is the editor of Matinee.
Both of them share fond memories of working on the film and we get a little bit
of insight into how Dante directs and works with the various departments that
help make a film possible.
Paranoia in Ant
Vision (31m 21s, HD)
This is a discussion with Joe Dante that was recorded in
2011 for the Carlotta Films blu-ray release. Here we learn a lot about the
original script, which was more of a fantasy film, and how they had to reshape
the script numerous times before anyone would want to finance the film. We also
learn about shadiness of the financer who almost screwed the film completely.
The interviewer then dives into
Dante’s past and how it closely resembles some
of the events in the film.
This is a great interview. The interviewer asks many great
questions and Dante gives really detailed answers. It is clear that Dante loves
film, especially monster films from the 50’s and 60’s. I wasn’t that big a fan
of Dante, but after watching this, I have started to see him in a different
light. This is the best special feature on the disc.
Mant
-Foreword by Joe Dante (6m 18s, HD)
This foreword is culled from the
same footage as the last interview was. Dante talks about the idea for Mant and
how they shot the film within a film.
-Mant! (16m 9s. HD)
This is the one feature that U.S.
fans of the film have been asking for since the advent of dvd. Since this is a
U.K. release, U.S. fans will have to wait longer, but obtaining this version
will not be as hard as other releases have been.
This is all the scenes for Mant that were shot to be shown in the
film. I was surprised by how much of Mant
we actually see in Matinee, but there
is plenty to discover here. I love the way the film was shot, in glorious black
and white, and how the actors ham it up. Going into this release I thought that
this would have been my favorite special feature. It isn’t but I am happy to
have finally see the footage, and in HD to boot.
-Mant! Theatrical Trailer (3m 22s, HD)
This is the trailer that we see
towards the beginning of the Matinee. This is a wonderful trailer that sells Mant incredibly well and is a great
reminder of all the great trailers from the 50’s and 60’s.
Original EPK (4m 26s,
Upconverted SD, 1.33:1)
I love these EPKs from the 80’s and 90’s. These were used to
help sell a film to theaters and video stores. Sometimes these would be shown
on tv. This is a quick summary of the film with some behind the scenes footage
thrown in. I miss these.
Behind the Scene
Footage (8m 21s, Upconverted SD, 1.33:1)
This footage was sourced from Dante’s archives and gives us
a look at how Dante interacted with his
cast and crew. We also get to see some
of the scenes of Mant being shot.
Deleted and Extended
Scenes (2m 27s, HD)
We get bits and pieces of scenes but nothing that is worth
the time. Move on.
Theatrical Trailer
(1m 55s, Upconverted SD, 1.33:1)
I remembering seeing this trailer all the time. Any time
that I rented a Universal Pictures VHS, this was one of the trailers that would
play before the film you rented. It is a decent trailer, decent enough that I
wanted to see the film, but it doesn’t sell the film all that well.
THE PACKAGING: [3.5 out of 4]
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| The booklet is on the right and the card that Arrow puts in every release is on the left. |
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THE FILM: [4 out of 4]
I love Matinee. I remember seeing the film when it was released on VHS. My parents were going to take me to see it, but the film left theaters really fast. I also wanted to get the film on laserdisc, but I could only afford so many of those due to them being really expensive. (a typical laserdisc would be between $30 and $40, with the Criterion discs being more than $100.)
As a kid of the 80s I remember watching the 50s and 60s
monster movies on tv. The cable channels USA, TBS, and TNT would play these
things like they were going out of style. Joe Bob Briggs gave kids like me
introductions to all types of films and I loved them all. There is something
about the way the films were made that made them entertaining to everyone.
Around this time I also got to know who William Castle was.
Castle was known for ‘gimick films’ where a film would have something extra
that would enhance the viewing of the film. For the film ‘The Tingler’, Castle had theaters put buzzers underneath some, or
all, of the seats. Then at certain moments in the film the buzzer would buzz
the seat, scaring the viewers. Castle did this for the films that he made in
the 50’s and 60’s. Soon the fad wore off and never really came back. I wish
that studios and theater owners would something like this today, but someone
would sue and that would be the end to that.
The character that John Goodman plays in the film, Laurence
Woosley, is modeled around a few filmmakers, but the most apparent on is
Castle. Goodman is one of the highlights of the film and really has fun with
the role. Goodman is an actor that can make any film better just by being in
it.
The film takes place during the last weekend of the Cuban
Missle Crisis. Fear was at an all-time high, but the movies were there to help chase
away the fear, with more fear, even if it was only a few hours.
We are shown
the drills that the kids back then had to go through that was supposed to save
their lives. All the adults knew that these drills were bullshit and a
character in the film, one of the kids, knows this too and tries to tell
everybody.
Matinee is a
comedy with some dramatic elements sprinkled throughout. The big show piece of
the film is the showing of Mant, Woosely’s knew film. He employs everything
from smoke and mirrors to an actual person dressed up as the titular character.
We get to see some of the film and experience as much of the theatrics as
possible. Woosely is played as a man who loves scaring the shit out of his
audience.
The film is gorgeous to look at. DP John Hora added a lot of
colors to the film that wouldn’t normally be there, creating an nostalgia for
some viewers and a safe zone for others. Nothing really bad can happen because
everything is so bright and colorful.
Dante, in the big interview in the special features, says
that this is his most personal film. You can tell. Dante never frames his
actors in a menacing angle, even when they are supposed to be. He also takes
the time to set up believable characters before giving us the film within a
film. We know the characters and want them to be safe and happy. We are also
happy because we are watching a great film by a director who kept getting
knocked down with each flop, but getting right back up to do it again. Dante’s
films will be remembered as films made by someone who was in love with film.
Matinee is one of the best films of the
90’s and holds a place in this reviewers heart.
OVERALL: [3.5 out of 4]
Matinee is a wonderful film and Arrow
has given us a really good package. I really wish that Dante recorded an audio
commentary for the film, but the half hour interview will have to suffice. I
think that this is a really good package overall and wish that some of Dante’s
other films would get the same treatment.
 Blu-ray Review + Screenshots){kind=link}
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