The movie critic was on a roll. He was talking stars, discussing scenery in Daytona Beach and praising Robert De Niro in Dirty Grandpa. And then, out of nowhere, came his withering critique:

"This is a movie that really should have been (filmed) in Florida," state Sen. Jack Lat­vala, R-Palm Harbor, said during a Senate committee meeting Monday. "It talked about Florida, it represented that it was in Florida, and it was done in Georgia.

"When are we going to do something about that?"

Apparently, sooner than many people expected.

Until recently, legislators have shown very little interest in replenishing a film industry incentive fund that has been flat broke for three years and was set to expire this summer.

That may very well change now that Latvala has thrown his considerable influence behind the idea.

"I think a lot of legislators are looking at what's happening just to the north of us," said Gus Corbella, chairman of the Florida Film and Entertainment Advisory Council, "and they're not happy seeing the number of projects and money being lost."

This is not a new argument. Competition to lure productions away from Hollywood has been going on for decades, and Florida lawmakers were on board in 2010 to the tune of a $296 million investment.

The problem was, nobody was overseeing where all the money was going, and a six-year fund was depleted in less than three years.

The result is that Georgia has become the faux Florida.

Ben Affleck's film set in Ybor City was actually filmed in Brunswick, Ga. A Whoopi Goldberg movie set in Fort Pierce is being filmed in Savannah. Savannah also doubled as the Daytona Beach of Dirty Grandpa.

Other films that were supposed to be set in Florida — such as Magic Mike XXL and Hot Tub Time Machine 2 — adjusted their locales to Myrtle Beach and New Orleans.

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal recently said film productions spent $1.4 billion in his state in 2014 and had an economic impact of $5.1 billion.

That may explain why MovieMaker magazine just listed Atlanta as the No. 1 large city to work in the film industry, and Savannah was ranked No. 1 among mid-sized cities.

Georgia has spent so lavishly to attract filmmakers that it now trails only California and New York for the number of productions. Florida used to be No. 3.

"We should be outraged," Corbella said. "We're losing all of this business that should be in Florida."

Advocates for the incentive money will have to overcome a state study that suggested Florida was only getting 43 cents back for every dollar it spent to lure filmmakers.

Corbella says the study did not consider other factors, including benefiting offshoot industries like video game makers, or retaining film graduates from Florida State and Ringling College, which have both made the Hollywood Reporter's list of the nation's top 25 film schools. And he said soon-to-be-released studies will argue the economic impact is far greater than the previous numbers.

Sen. Nancy Detert, R-Venice, also has tweaked a new bill to address the incentive program's shortcomings.

Because other states are so eager to lure filmmakers to their towns, the choice eventually comes down to this for Florida lawmakers:

You can either spend the money to be a Hollywood player, or you can watch the movies from the third row.