GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH

One of the greatest examples of a dark family film made in the 80s that would have received a PG-13 rating if made today is "Gremlins". The film contained wacky yet likable characters, tons of humor, a sentimental light-hearted charm connecting to Christmas, and one of the most adorable characters to have ever existed. But on the other hand, it was also intense, violent, scary, and downright insane as we watch devil like creatures cause mayhem in a small town to have fun at the cost of humanity. It's a movie that's still being celebrated today for its innovation through the mythos, comedy, and special effects. For a film as successful as this, naturally it would seem destined to get a sequel. Director Joe Dante not intended to make a sequel to the film and turned down Warner Brothers Studios offer to make a continuation. After a few years of approaching various directors and writers, as ideas for where the Gremlins would attack next would keep being scrapped, Dante was approached a final time with the offer to give him complete creative control. Dante accepted the offer, was given a bigger budget, and we had the follow-up to the 80s classic...

 

The sequel did fine with critics, as audiences detested it at the time. The reasons for it was that the film didn't contain the same edge as the original, as it came out 6 years too late to capitalize on the success of these creatures when they were big. Over time, audiences began to warm up to the film appreciating its comedy and creativity. However, the opinions still appeared to be mix, as some find it to be a downgrade to the original for being different in tone, while others consider it better than the first film for going all out with no restraint. What are my thoughts? ON WITH THE REVIEW!

Billy (Zach Galligan) and Kate (Phoebe Cates) are engaged to be married, and work in Manhattan at the largest automated building containing all different kinds of businesses in North America runned by the eccentric millionaire Daniel Clamp (John Glover). To Billy's amazement, he finds the mogwai Gizmo in the building's gene-splicing lab who is scheduled to be dissected. Billy rescues Gizmo, preparing to assume responsibility for him now that his master has been diseased. But Gizmo accidentally gets wet from a broken automatic drinking fountain and starts multiplying new mogwais. Eventually (as I'm sure anybody would expect) the mogwai's turn into gremlins, multiply a whole entire army, and cause chaos. This time instead of being in a small town, they're inside a gigantic building where they'll have their deranged fun until night fall with the intention to devour the big apple.

Right from the very second the film begins; it makes itself perfectly clear that this film is not meant to be taken seriously by presenting the Looney Tunes in the opening scene for Bugs Bunny's 50th anniversary (animated by Chuck Jones himself who was lured out of retirement). This was an unusual way to start out a movie about monsters playfully terrorize and endanger humanity, I can only imagine how many people at the time confused it for an actual short cartoon being played than being part of the actual film. From this point-on, the film throws more countless gags at the audience than the original had now that it has a higher budget, full of cameos and countless references to films involving Sci-Fi, horror, and 80's action. The hardest jabs that the film hits with its comedy is by mocking itself. It shows no mercy when making fun of elements from the original film such as the confusing logic involving the mogwai, audience's reaction to the darkness surrounding the first film, and even the speech that Kate makes about learning that there is no Santa Claus. It cares so little about the logic and continuity involving the first film that we get a brief cameo of Leonard Maltin reviewing the original film itself as he holds a VHS tape of the movie. How is that possible? Talk about breaking the fourth wall! Well to be fair it's not as massive as when the film stops dead in its tracks to have the gremlins take over the projector reel to make audiences believe that they were in the theater during the film's release (calling back to the theater gimmicks that horror Director William Castle would do). As iconic as the humor in the original film is, the laughs are certainly harder for its endless insanity.

The effects and puppetry used in the original is still impressive. I'd even argue that the mogwai's designs are more realistic in the original than they are in the sequel. The mowgai's here appear less like living creatures you'd want as a pet, and more like stuffed toys that kids would beg their parents to buy for how goofy and drenched in color they are. But I can't deny that the effects aren't an upgrade either. They are given more expression and movement where you don't feel the limitations to the effects as you would with the original. In the first film for example we don't see Gizmo walk on his own, he's usually shown sitting around or hiding somewhere. This film gives him scenes where he can walk on his own, as well as dance. We're no longer seeing the gremlins and mogwais look the same as they did in the previous film either (except for Gizmo and Stripe), many of them are given distinctive designs and characteristics for them to have an identity. Each mogwai has their own facial feature or color pattern on their fur to make them stand-out on its own instead of looking like mischievous clones of Gizmo. Some of the gremlins in the film are later mutated by drinking potions in the gene-splicing lab, which causes them to take different shapes and sizes. A few of these forms include a Bat-Gremlin, a Spider-Gremlin, and an Electric Gremlin. They're not just different by the clothes they wear. The changes to them also lead to a wide variety of different effects like Stop-Motion and hand-drawn animation. Do all the effects work, no, but they're still fun to watch for how inventive they are with the designs and situations.

The Gremlin who steals the show is the "Brain Gremlin" voiced by Tony Randall (Tim Curry was originally considered for the role) for his charismatic sophisticated behavior with a touch of insanity, not to mention that he sings too. It's fascinating to see a Gremlin verbally communicate with humans in a polite matter who only wants his kind to be as civilized as humans, an element of the film that makes me wish was explored more. This gremlin could've been perfect as the film's primary antagonist for how well rounded and entertaining of a foe he is with a fascinating motivation that could give these savage creatures a whole new layer of character. But instead we get an uninspired knock-off of the villain in the first film Stripe, under the name of Mohawk (who even contains the voice-work of Frank Welker). There's nothing new about the villain's character and motives when compared to Stripe, except from having a different design who later gets mutated with a couple of other gremlins. He's nothing more than a lazy re-trend of a foe we've already seen who has more screen-time than the gremlin who clearly deserves more attention.

The most disappointing aspect of the movie is how incredibly dumbed down it is. The film is wildly entertaining and big with laughs, but as a sequel to a family film that managed to shock audiences it's quite degrading. It's so cartoony and self-aware of its pointlessness that it at times doesn't feel like it's part of the same world as the first movie, serving itself more as a parody spin-off. And since the film is aiming to be less intense to satisfy the audiences and critics who bashed the first film for it, it can't go as all out as it did before. That's not to say that the film doesn't contain these kinds of moments. The reveal of the first gremlin was shockingly unexpected; the struggles that Mr. Clamp has when he sees a gremlin is nearly as intense when watching the Mother fighting off the gremlins in the kitchen; and it does contain a few grotesque bits of the gremlins being slaughtered and multiplying. But those scenes are rare, and don't have the same impact or suspense as what was carried out prior to this film. And somehow this film gets a PG-13 when there's hardly anything in it that would warrant one (was the rating for the film supposed to be a joke since "Gremlins" was one of the film's that helped launch the idea of a rating between PG and R)? To be fair with the film's lack of ability to shock people, it's not the choice of making the film fully comical alone. It's the fact that its predecessor had already managed to successfully frighten audiences with its twists, turns, and effects. It would seem near impossible to bring the same kind of element of surprise again now that people are already fully aware of the behaviors and appearances of these creatures. That is unless they decide to take it to an R rated route, which you know the makers won't do given its popularity among kids. Therefore, the choice of going for complete comedy seemed like the best way to make a pointless sequel since the original did function like a cartoon at times too. It still surprises audiences just more on a level of humor than it does with terror.

 

A Gremlins sequel would never be complete if it didn't have its adorable mascot Gizmo (voiced again by Howie Mandel). Going into this film, aside from Gizmo multiplying new gremlins, I didn't think he would have much of a purpose in the film except for fan-service. It certainly seemed that way at first giving that all he does is look innocent and helpless as the gremlins torture him for half of the film where I was just waiting for him to be saved by the characters and just witness everything. But during the film's third act, he's shown to be done taking the gremlins crap by deciding to go Rambo/John McClane on their green asses. The concept of Gizmo turning into an action hero is as silly as it sounds. However, it doesn't become cringy where it seems out of character (watch the behind-the-scenes featurette if you want to see Gizmo act out of character). There is sympathy to be felt when being abused by Mohawk making his arc feel warranted since his pain and fear is constant in the first two acts. And seeing him turn into a heroic badass is both cool and incredibly cute. Gizmo did kill Stripe at the end of the first film after being abused too, but his retaliation against him didn't feel as earned as it did in this film for how downplayed it was. There was never a moment of him feeling that he's had enough since he's just shown hiding inside Billy's pack-back reacting to the chaos around them until he drives a toy car to rescue Billy without showing hesitation at doing so.

Billy and Kate’s return in the series aren't given anything new for these characters to grow-upon apart from being an engaged couple. They pretty much do what you'd expect them to do. Take care of Gizmo, warn everybody about the gremlins, and try to stop the chaos. No arcs or challenging obstacles are given to them. All we get is a thrown in love triangle that really doesn't go anywhere nor is given as much attention as you'd think. Galligan and Cates are still likably wholesome as these characters, and do make a cute couple, there just simply isn't anything given to them that's new. Keye Luke as Gizmo's previous owner Mr. Wing gives just as strong of a performance as he did in the first film, but he only appears in one scene since the character dies after he's reintroduced, which is heartbreaking but disappointing that we don't learn anything new about this character. Really, the only human characters from the original film who are given something new to do are the Futtermans. It's stupid that the film decides to randomly retcon the Futtermans of still being alive where now a bit of the edge that the first film had has a smaller body count (I guess Joe Dante couldn't resist doing a movie without including one of his regular actors Dick Miller). But it's still neat to see these supporting characters have a larger part by aiding Billy, Kate, and Gizmo with destroying the gremlins. Dick Miller is just as a riot to watch as he was previously (who is still as humorously suspicious with foreign stuff as he was before), as Jackie Joseph has more than one scene as the wife by being overly happy while constantly taking pictures.

The new human characters the film introduces are just as animatedly excessive as the characters were in the original. Taking the place of Mrs. Deagle is the head of security at the building where Billy works at Frank Forster (Robert Picardo) who is a genuine jerk that fires and insults people for minor things. Unfortunately, he is nowhere near as memorable or threatening as his female counterpart was, who poses little to no threat in the entire film. The film's original villain was going to be the owner of the building Daniel Clamp (who is a parody of millionaire Donald J. Trump, and media mogul Ted Turner) which would've been fitting, especially since actor John Glover had already played an obnoxious backstabbing businessman in "Scrooged". But the film decides to make him the counterpart of Billy's Father by giving him an optimistic personality (with the same kind of child-like enthusiasm as a businessman like Walt Disney) and having him being obsessed with technology by creating automatic devices that go haywire. Glover delightfully sells the character's man-child personality who can be both very funny and endearing. In the horror themed channel out of the many other themed channels that Clamp produces (a joke in the film that eventually became a reality) is an actor playing an elderly Vampire hosting the channel played by Robert Prosky (a character based on Grandpa Munster that Al Lewis from the TV show "The Munsters". Lewis would later on in his career host a show showing old monster movies as the character). Prosky carries the same innocent likability as Glover does as Clamp who you pity for being chosen as a horror movie host than as a Newscaster, until he gets his unofficial chance. Watching the measures he takes to get his shot based on the absurdities surrounding the building with a crazy Gedde Watanabe acting as his cameraman are quite amusing leading to a few good laughs.

The strangest and (in my opinion) best new character the film offers is Christopher Lee playing a mad scientist who runs the gene-splicing lab with the twins from "Good Morning Vietnam" and "Terminator 2: Judgement Day" as his assistants. Lee plays around with the characters insane personality while still maintaining his dignity by playing him straight by being elegant and commanding with no feelings or remorse for Gizmo and the people around him, except for science. His character is so weird that when he first spots the gremlins, he's not shocked or amazed by them but more annoyed that they invaded his lab as if he's seen creatures more destructive and ghastlier than them. And witnessing what kind of crazy experiments he makes and how insanely into it he is, it almost seems that he's a character who can have his own film. I'd like to know how he found access to one of the pods from "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and what he intends to do with it. Haviland Morris as Billy's boss is quite entertaining for how flirty she is, but overall doesn't feel needed as she mainly serves as a pointless obstacle that takes the form of a love triangle, making her the least interesting new character in the film. At least Picardo chews up the scenery with his aggressively demanding and cynical attitude.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

The film isn't bad but as a follow-up to the first movie it's not up-to par. It lacks scares and shock value, doesn't show anything that new with half of the original characters, has so many great ideas that get thrown away, and goes so overboard with its comedy that it's at times hard to swallow that this is supposed to be part of the same universe as the first movie. But the number of gags, creativity, and impressively updated effects are so much fun to watch that you don't care about continuity and nor does the film itself. It's also nice to see Gizmo be given an arc than just looking cute. And the characters both old and new are very charming and as entertaining as the gremlins are. If you can accept the film's goofy nature, then you'll find yourself having a ball watching it!