Joe Dante's Matinee Puts On One Heck of a Show

Joe Dante loves movies. Now, you have to love this artform to get into the field of making movies. But even by that standard, Joe Dante really really really loves movies. His features aren't just full of references to older films. Dante loves to pay homage to the very act of watching films themselves! Sometimes, this happens in more subtle ways, like the Gremlins watching Snow White in a theater in Gremlins. Other times, like the Gremlins overtaking a projector in Gremlins 2: The New Batch, these homages are the sole focus of a scene. Dante's love for movie-watching, as well as his filmmaking skills, reached new heights with the 1993 film Matinee.

Huzzah!! Steven Spielbergs Next Two Movies Have Been Announced!

He gets a lot of peculiar criticism from the cynical Internet community, but Steven Spielberg remains one of my favorite directors ever. His blockbusters movies alone would be enough to earn a place among the greats (Jurassic Park and Jaws were particularly impactful for me) but his ability to deliver the goods in dramas like War Horse just shows how expansive and talented the filmmaker is.

His expansiveness is on display again here in his next two movies, which have just been given dates.