Gremlins 1 & 2

Next up for “Halloween Month” are two movies that almost were reviewed last year. I was debating on whether to review these two movies or the “Ghostbusters” movies, but I decided to go with “Ghostbusters” instead, just for the comedic factor since I had done so many movies that would have scared everyone and decided to go for something more light-hearted. However, I won’t miss out on it this year, so let’s get started with the 1984 classic, “Gremlins.”

Roger Ebert described this movie as, “a confrontation between Norman Rockwell's vision of Christmas and Hollywood's vision of the blood-sucking monkeys of voodoo island.” It’s one of those crazy movies, but has an enjoyment to it. I think Ebert said it best in his review with, “On the one hand, you have an idyllic American small town, with Burger Kings and Sears stores clustered merrily around the village square, and on the other hand you have a plague of reprehensible little beasties who behave like a rodent road company of Marlon Brando's motorcycle gang in "The Wild One."”

The whole movie is a cunning series of send-ups, which were influenced by other movie scenarios that are so simple that they will leave a permanent impact with you. Take the opening scenario of the movie which takes place in a small Chinatown shop where the usual rules don’t work and magic does. After Randall Peltzer, played by the late singer Hoyt Axton, buys a Mogwai named Gizmo, voiced by Canadian comedian who is also a judge on “America’s Got Talent,” had a cartoon series in the 90s called “Bobby’s World,” and also hosted “Deal or No Deal,” Howie Mandel, we now have a new pet that we would buy instead of the basic puppy. Of course, this movie has the basic characters that we have seen in just about every movie: Randall, who is the inventor, Sheriff Frank (Scott Brady) who is the typical sheriff, Randall’s clean-cut son Billy (Zach Galligan), his hot girlfriend Kate (Phoebe Cates), the neighbors (Dick Miller and Jackie Joseph) and the grouchy old lady, Ruby Deagle (Polly Holiday). Also, Corey Feldman is in here playing Billy's friend.

The first half of the movie is the best. This is where we meet cute little Gizmo, who Ebert describes as, “a cross between a Pekingese, Yoda from "The Empire Strikes Back," the Ewoks from "Return of the Jedi," and kittens.” He has huge eyes, he’s cuddly and friendly, and looks like he would make a great household pet, except there are three rules that you need to follow: never get a Mogwai wet, never expose them to bright lights, and never feed them after midnight. Obviously it’s always after midnight. That is to say that this isn’t a retread of the classic Spielberg movie “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” but is that it’s from an older tradition, a fairy tale or the magic realm. The second half of the movie shows Billy breaking all three of the rules, making Gizmo multiply and now all of the Mogwais (except for Gizmo) have turned into Gremlins, led by the sinister Stripe, voiced by the great Frank Welker (famous for voice works like Fred in "Scooby Doo," Megatron, Soundwave, Skywarp, Mixmaster, Laserbeak, Buzzsaw, Rumble, Frenzy, Ravage and Ratbat, as well as Autobots Mirage, Trailbreaker, Chromedome and Sludge in 'Transformers," Dr. Claw in "Inspector Gadget," and Ray and Slimer in 'The Real Ghostbusters"), and they look like they resemble the aliens in “Alien.” Even Michael Winslow, best known for his role as Larvelle Jones from the "Police Academy" franchise, is providing the Gremlins vocal effects along with Bob Bergen (the voice of the Looney Tunes character, Porky Pig), Fred Newman, Peter Cullen (best known for voicing Optimus Prime from the "Transformers" cartoon), Mark Dodson, Bob Holt, and Michael Sheehan.

Every monster trick is used in this movie. You have the Gremlins popping up in the foreground, others where they are stalking people in the background, and others where they drop into the frame and make us jump out of our seats. The movie itself becomes very graphic, like the part where Billy’s mom, played by Frances Lee McCain, stabs a Gremlin with a kitchen knife, microwaves another, and kills another in a blender, and when Kate tells Billy why she hates Christmas. Ebert said in his review, “Her story is in the great tradition of 1950s sick jokes, and as for the microwave scene, I had a queasy feeling that before long we'd be reading newspaper stories about kids who went home and tried the same thing with the family cat.”

“Gremlins” was called another “E.T.,” but it’s not. It actually falls into another tradition. When you put it on the scale of Serious Film Criticisms, it’s a reflection on the myths in our movies: Christmas, families, monsters, retail stores, movies, and even the boogeyman. This is a difficult, amusing B movie where the monsters are eating not only the defenseless town, but the years of defenseless clichés. I would advise not to go if you still believe in Santa Claus.

I know everyone might be thinking why I decided to review “Gremlins” this month when I should have saved it for December as a Christmas movie review, but I think it fits more for Halloween. If you want to watch it around Christmastime, be my guest. Definitely watch this movie if you haven’t, but bear in mind, it’s a really crazy movie. If you remember when I said that “Temple of Doom” was rated PG but was pushing an R rating, “Gremlins” also had that same problem. However, thank Mr. Spielberg for creating the PG-13 rating after that.

But what can be said about the sequel, “Gremlins 2: The New Batch,” released in 1990? Frankly, it’s average, kind of stupid, but is also in the same vain as the first one. Like I said how the first movie was like a reflection on movie myths, like Christmas, small towns, and things that will jump out and give you a fright, it was a superior B movie and a lot of fun. The sequel is a reflection on sequels and, like a handful of sequels out there, it’s a dull imagination on the original. It does have some laughs and some of the special effects are nice, but the movie crammed too many gremlins in here and didn’t really have a story line.

Before I continue, I would just like to remind everyone that Gremlins are the dangerous alter-egos of the cuddly, friendly creatures called Mogwais. They’re cute and look like household pets that you would want, except there are two rules which are never get them wet and never feed them after midnight. When you do feed them after midnight, they turn into little monsters like the ones you saw in “Alien,” and when you get them wet, they multiply faster than a rabbit proliferates.

In the first movie, Gremlins were terrorizing a small town in Kingston Falls, N.Y. In the sequel, Billy and Kate have moved to the big city, where now they got jobs working for a man named Daniel Clamp, played by the great John Glover. Clamp, who looks like a mutated combination of Donald Trump and Ted Turner, if you could do that, owns cable networks, financial concerns, and a giant, automated tower which was built so tall, planes that pass make quite a sound in his office. His corporate symbol, which I have to admit is funny, is a flattened globe between the clamped teeth of the letter C.

Clamp wants to evict the owner of the shop in Chinatown, played by the late Keye Luke, (the shop where Gizmo came from) because Clamp wants to build a Chinatown trade center. But when the owner dies and a bulldozer comes in and tears the shop down, luckily Gizmo escapes and is taken inside Clamp Tower by Don Stanton (who plays a double role in this one), where he gets wet and the others are fed after midnight, spawning a vicious breed of Gremlins. Frank Welker comes back in here voicing Mohawk, and Tony Randall voices the Brain Gremlin. This time we have different types of Gremlin, like a Spider Gremlin, a Female Gremlin, a Bat Gremlin, a vegetable Gremlin, a "Phantom of the Opera" Gremlin and even an Electric Gremlin.

Ebert is right when he says, “At about this point, if not sooner, the movie abandons all pretense of telling a story, and becomes a series of gags. Some of them are funny, some are near-misses, some fall flat, and who can debate what's funny, anyway?” I will say that I did enjoy Christopher Lee in this movie as Dr. Catheter, who is a disease collector and gene manipulator. The great Robert Prosky does a great job as Grandpa Fred, the host of one of Clamp’s television programs. Glover, who can play a great villain easily in a comedy as well as in a drama, has a lot of fun with this role. Also, Hulk Hogan makes a cameo appearance in this movie. Also, just like in the first movie, Kate tells Billy why she is afraid of Abraham Lincoln because of what happened to her on Lincoln's Birthday, which this time is played for laughs.

Eventually, the movie becomes very predictable. We’ve seen the first movie, we know the Gremlins are going to pop up and scare everyone, and we know that there will be a similar gruesome scene (if you remember the mom microwaving the Gremlin in the first movie, that gets topped with a Gremlin being put through a paper shredder). We know that Billy and Kate are going to try and convince everybody about the Gremlins, and we know that this sequel was only made to cash in on the first movie. Ebert ended his review by saying, “It's brainless summer fun, but you know what? I'd just as soon think, even in the summertime.”

In the end, if you want to watch the sequel, be my guest, but like I said, it’s not as good as the first. For years I have been hearing about a third movie being possibly made, but now I am hearing that they are talking with Spielberg to get the rights to reboot the franchise. I don't see why you should reboot it, but if you plan to get Howie Mandel back to voice Gizmo in the remake, then I'll be fine. Well, thanks for joining in today. Stay tuned tomorrow for the next entry in “Halloween Month.”