Joe Dante

April is Joe Dante month at L.A.'s New Beverly Cinema.

'Monsters, Movies and Trailers From Hell!' with filmmakers John Landis and Joe Dante Where: Larry Edmunds Bookshop, 6644 Hollywood Blvd., L.A. When: Saturday, 7 p.m. Price: Free Info: (323) 463-3273; larryedmunds.com

'Monsters, Movies and Trailers From Hell!' with filmmakers John Landis and Joe Dante Where: Larry Edmunds Bookshop, 6644 Hollywood Blvd., L.A. When: Saturday, 7 p.m. Price: Free Info: (323) 463-3273; larryedmunds.com

From the earliest days of cinema, audiences have loved to be scared. The three-minute film from French cinema pioneer Georges Méliès, "The Haunted Castle," hit screens in 1896 with celluloid skeletons, ghosts, witches and even the devil himself, and our appetite for thrills hasn't abated since. Franchises such as "Saw" and "Paranormal Activity" continue to redefine the horror genre while setting records at the box office. Directors John Landis and Joe Dante know about horror: Their respective films "An American Werewolf in London" and "Gremlins" are classics of the genre (even if they do have elements of humor)

From the earliest days of cinema, audiences have loved to be scared. The three-minute film from French cinema pioneer Georges Méliès, "The Haunted Castle," hit screens in 1896 with celluloid skeletons, ghosts, witches and even the devil himself, and our appetite for thrills hasn't abated since. Franchises such as "Saw" and "Paranormal Activity" continue to redefine the horror genre while setting records at the box office. Directors John Landis and Joe Dante know about horror: Their respective films "An American Werewolf in London" and "Gremlins" are classics of the genre (even if they do have elements of humor)

Cute on top, horrific underneath, the "Gremlins" of Joe Dante's 1984 chuckle-scream hit in some ways symbolized their own decade. In the ferocious sequel "Gremlins 2: The New Batch" (citywide), Dante brings them back, flings them into the belly of the mass consumer beast--midtown Manhattan--and lets them seethe, roar and run riot. It's an infernally funny mass entertainment: the Dream Machine snapping at its own tail.

Some people who love movies regard the rapid progress of special effects technology over the past decade as a threat to the medium's very soul. And when you see a picture like "Godzilla," it's tough to disagree. Are some high-tech movies getting made now simply because they can be? Almost certainly. But is it inherently impossible to make a soulful film that pulls out all the stops, technologically speaking? Joe Dante is a filmmaker better equipped than most to ponder such weighty issues.

I worried always that this movie would be too cute. --Director Joe Dante, 1984, on "Gremlins" Well, this one is even more cute. --Dante, 1990, on "Gremlins 2: The New Batch" Has Joe Dante, a graduate of the Roger Corman school of exploitation filmmaking, gone soft? The original script for Dante's "Gremlins" had the malevolent title beasties chewing up the family dog, not to mention gnawing off the head of the hero's mother and bouncing it down the stairs.

As the schlock movie magnate Lawrence Woolsey in "Matinee," John Goodman is paunchy but battering-ram solid. He seems inflated by his own expansiveness. The jumbo cigar he perpetually waves is never lit. It doesn't need to be; Woolsey is the one who is constantly smoking with "ideas." His latest micro-budget epic is a "cautionary" horror tale about the effects of A-bomb radiation on a man bitten by an ant. Its title--what else--is "MANT" (The ad line is "Half Man . . . Half Ant . . . All Terror!

As the schlock movie magnate Lawrence Woolsey in this 1993 movie John Goodman (pictured) is paunchy but battering-ram solid. Joe Dante, who directed "Matinee" from a script by Charlie Haas, has a genuine affection for Woolsey and for the whole madcap schlock-horror world. Dante is the movie-maven Peter Pan of film. (ABC Saturday at 9 p.m.).

Steven Spielberg's "Jaws," which opened 35 years ago this summer, is often credited — or blamed — for inventing the modern blockbuster: the art form, or rather economic model, that brought with it tentpole releases and long summers of big, expensive, aggressively hyped movies. But in its immediate wake, the influence of "Jaws" could be felt on a more literal level. The late 1970s and early 1980s saw a string of shockers that were designed with varying degrees of shamelessness to exploit the fear of carnivorous aquatic life: among many others, " Mako: The Jaws of Death" (1976)

April is Joe Dante month at L.A.'s New Beverly Cinema.

HOLLYWOOD has always been portrayed as a hotbed of liberal activism, so who would've imagined that its first full-blown anti-Iraq war movie would come not from a famous political loudmouth like Oliver Stone but from Joe Dante and Sam Hamm, a pair of horror-thriller aficionados? Their hourlong film "Homecoming" premiered Friday as part of Showtime's "Masters of Horror" series.

Douglas MacKINNON's Counterpunch article ["Insert Bias in Films -- Deduct From the Bottom Line," Aug. 16] detailed his self-described "Republican" take as to how, if someone was to buy one of his screenplays, he "would do everything" in his power "to ensure that it contains no political viewpoint" and that if moviemakers "want to get into politics, then they can run for office, take out ads or make documentaries." May I humbly submit this is a lousy way to approach a career in movies, literature or art of any kind?

Some people who love movies regard the rapid progress of special effects technology over the past decade as a threat to the medium's very soul. And when you see a picture like "Godzilla," it's tough to disagree. Are some high-tech movies getting made now simply because they can be? Almost certainly. But is it inherently impossible to make a soulful film that pulls out all the stops, technologically speaking? Joe Dante is a filmmaker better equipped than most to ponder such weighty issues.

As the schlock movie magnate Lawrence Woolsey in this 1993 movie John Goodman (pictured) is paunchy but battering-ram solid. Joe Dante, who directed "Matinee" from a script by Charlie Haas, has a genuine affection for Woolsey and for the whole madcap schlock-horror world. Dante is the movie-maven Peter Pan of film. (ABC Saturday at 9 p.m.).

Explorers (KCOP Friday at 8 p.m.), a 1985 kids-in-space adventure with the euphonious team of Ethan Hawke and River Phoenix, has some of the antic wit and frenzied visual imagination director Joe Dante pumped into the Gremlins movies but, at the end, it turns into a crazy sundae with the nuts on top: a space cartoon climax full of nyark-nyark goofiness.

Is director Paul Bartel ("Scenes From the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills") the first casualty of "Casualties of War"? Last week, Bartel was barred from a screening of the pic when he showed up at Burbank Studios with a journalist friend. "It was nothing personal," stressed a Columbia spokesperson about the incident. "But . . . the screening was strictly for long lead press." Given the boot, Bartel "was walking around the lot, looking for someone to have lunch with," he told us, when he ran into an old friend, director Joe Dante.

As the schlock movie magnate Lawrence Woolsey in "Matinee," John Goodman is paunchy but battering-ram solid. He seems inflated by his own expansiveness. The jumbo cigar he perpetually waves is never lit. It doesn't need to be; Woolsey is the one who is constantly smoking with "ideas." His latest micro-budget epic is a "cautionary" horror tale about the effects of A-bomb radiation on a man bitten by an ant. Its title--what else--is "MANT" (The ad line is "Half Man . . . Half Ant . . . All Terror!

Explorers (KCOP Friday at 8 p.m.), a 1985 kids-in-space adventure with the euphonious team of Ethan Hawke and River Phoenix, has some of the antic wit and frenzied visual imagination director Joe Dante pumped into the Gremlins movies but, at the end, it turns into a crazy sundae with the nuts on top: a space cartoon climax full of nyark-nyark goofiness.