It’s about monster movies, and some teens interested in each other, with the Cuban missile crisis as a backdrop.
Most reviews seemed to love it, but I didn’t. And I mean contemporary reviews, where they surely don’t remember 1962 any more than I do, so it’s not nostalgia for the stuff of childhood.
Some mention that the movie-within-a-movie is the best part, and I absolutely agree, although to be fair putting together an entertaining 10–15 minutes is easier than an entertaining hour and a half.
What bothered me the most was the relationships. They weren’t played satirically that I could see, other than that there was a criminal-slash-beat-poet type as the older bad boy villain. Kellie Martin’s still into the villain and he’s still into her, but for whatever reason she also takes on Omri Katz, who’s not playing a type that she’d want. His character is kind of nervous with the novelty of her. And the central character gets involved with a girl who might be as close in height to his much younger brother as to him. She just looks so young like maybe she is old enough to have a crush on a boy, but would he be interested back?
And the villain threatening and attacking Omri Katz reminds me of being bullied growing up.
I kind of liked Cathy Moriarty. I’ve never seen anything else she was in.
Yes, John Goodman is watchable, but I don’t find that character all that hugely appealing.
Oh, and the music behind it all. So Hollywood awful. Reminded me of Spielberg movies when I was a kid.
I did see something mention that the ending shot could be a suggestion of how Vietnam was just over the horizon for these kids. That’s interestingly dark.