Goldsmith's original material for Matinee sounds much like the lesser-inspired moments of The 'Burbs from several years earlier, pulling also from the procedures of composer's equivalent contemporary dramas and comedies of 1992 and 1993. In regards to the familiarity of nearly everything heard in Matinee, the score may be less entertaining in a comedy or action sense than other Dante/Goldsmith pairings spanning from Gremlins to Looney Tunes: Back in Action, nine films total by the composer's death. Goldsmith's themes follow the route of sentimentality and nostalgia far more than comedy, with the first half of the score containing little excitement beyond the consistency of the composer's delightful, soft melodies for woodwinds and swooning strings. The themes Goldsmith concocts for these films are very similar, with Love Field, Rudy, and Angie all coming to mind, though in the case of Matinee, his customary electronics typically setting the pace in such circumstances are mostly absent. (Varied percussion serves the same role well.) Relying instead on the slur of a Henry Mancini-era jazz theme and occasional string theme borrowings straight from the style of Moon River as well, Matinee is an instrumentally conservative score. His identity for the kids of the story is a typical lightweight fare for pulsating piano, strings and woodwinds, though the ideas for the theatre owner are far more intriguing. For Goodman's character, Goldsmith inserts some sleazy jazz on piano, making for some greasy moments at the start, complete with carnival pipes at one point, but the idea matures to some outwardly elegant renditions as the show goes on in later cues. The unyielding optimism in this theme may annoy some listeners, but that's the point. Brief militaristic material representing the prospects of nuclear war echo some of Goldsmith's stereotypical war genre techniques in two early cues, but don't expect these entries to exhibit more than passing gravity. An attractive theme for suburbia takes a page from The 'Burbs with its chipper melody over pulsating brass and plucking bass strings. The villain of the tale receives a sleazy jazz identity of minimal malice.

The quantity of melodies for Matinee is surprisingly deep, with the final summary cues, "Preview" and "The Next Attraction," stepping through most of the thematic ideas in one strong, eight-minute sequence with adept transitions between melodies and ending on a cute whistling sound effect from Goldsmith's library. (These cues were separated in the film by a song but combined on the original album into one track.) These closing highlights include an expansion of the faster, rhythmic, percussion-driven piano cues that finally provide a small taste of that Gremlins attitude. The latter half of Matinee provides a much more varied and interesting listening experience than the first, melodically conservative half, including some Basic Instinct and Forever Young shades in "This is It." If you could throw the short blasts of B-rate horror music in "Showtime" and the striking military motif from "Mobilization" into the combined, closing trio of cues, you have all the music from Matinee that you really need. The original 1993 album was long among those plentiful Varèse Sarabande releases of Goldsmith's new music in the early 1990's that were too short for the most avid collectors but at least remained available at decent prices on the market for decades. In 2022, Intrada Records tackled the entirety of Matinee in truly outstanding sound quality, revealing a few important, unreleased cues in a loving presentation that is resounding in ambient quality. The mix isn't as reverb-dominant as that of the composer's late 1990's works, but it definitely skews in that direction, lending surprisingly fantastic presence for solo elements. The full score reinforces that the score's style meanders all over the place, especially by its end, and expect for it to test your patience. The bonus tracks at the conclusion of the Intrada product illuminate a few arguably unnecessary alternate takes but also provide the original source recordings unrelated to the older, tracked material, which was not licensed for the product. Goldsmith collectors will find merit in especially the additional early cues in the main presentation, "Mobilization" a clear, albeit short highlight. At the very least, Matinee is a pleasantly harmless score and remains a reliable survey of the composer's comedic tendencies from the era.  ***   @Amazon.com: CD or Download