GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH (1990)

After the events of Part 1, Billy and Kate have moved to NYC. They both have jobs in the high tech, high rise Clamp Tower. Their lives seem mildly happy, but as fate would have it, there happens to be a genetics laboratory in the building and who else but Gizmo is being held there!  Imagine that.  Stuff happens and Billy rescues Giz only to carelessly leave him alone in his desk.  Gizmo then decides to go exploring on his own.  Brilliant!  Naturally, he gets water splashed on him and before you can say "Mogwai penis" there's like a thousand crazy gremlins wrecking havoc all over the building. And thanks to the genetics lab these new gremlins come in all kinds of flavors: talking, spider, vegetable, electric, bat, female, etc.

GREMLINS 2 isn't as sweet or endearing as the original, instead it's more for an irreverent, tongue-in-cheek vibe.  That's okay, but in the end, Part 2 doesn't have the same magic that the original had.  It's almost like an explosion of small ideas just slapped together, whereas the original had a straightforward story with likable characters and a sweet hometown feel to it.  If I had to guess, I would say that Spielberg had less involvement with this film than the original.  As it is though, it's still an entertaining watch.

I'm still hoping for a hard R-rated Part 3.

Part 1 - Gremlins (1984)

GREMLINS (1984)

While on a business trip, a struggling inventor purchases a small little creature for his teenage son, Billy.  The critter is called a Mogwai and they name this one, Gizmo.  It kinda looks like a little humanoid guinea pig with big ears.  It can also understand English and likes to hum.  The three main rules for taking care of this dude are 1) no bright lights, especially sunlight 2) no water ever and 3) never feed it after midnight (I'm guessing for the current time zone).

For the first day or two things go pretty well.  Billy and Gizmo have a lot of fun playing the keyboard and watching TV, but then things get all fucked up when Giz gets water on him and pops some more Mogwai's out of his friggin' back!  These dudes aren't as sweet as Gizmo and when they eat after midnight, all kinds of Hell breaks loose.  Soon, these new brand of critters have completely taken over the town and are hellbent on killing Billy.

I'm sure by this point in time about everybody has seen GREMLINS a few dozen times, but if you haven't...it's a great film.  It's a little dated, there's not enough Corey Feldman, Phoebe Cates never gets naked and there are some darker elements to the story (that might disturb younger, sensitive children) if you think about it too much, but overall it's a fun family film with that familiar 1980's Spielberg feel to it.  Pretty much mandatory viewing if you are at all interesting in good movies or influential films of the last few decades.

It would be awesome if they did make a full-on dark as fook remake!  Gore, nudity, ultra-violence, Stripe pulling someone's intestines out and eating it as the die watching...mmmmmm!!!  If you want to know more about Mogwai's, then check out the novelization by George Gipe.

Part 2 - Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)

Steven Spielberg cameo.

I think we all remember that building in the background.

INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1958)