The Film: Gremlins
2: The New Batch, 1990
The Principals:
Joe Dante, Tony Randall, Gizmo.
The
Premise:
Six years after their small
town was all but demolished by rampaging beasties, Billy and Katie move
to New York City and get a job in the most advanced high rise in the
world. But where there are mechanical contraptions there may also be
gremlins. And post modern meta jokes.
Is it Good:
It’s much, much better than I remember. When Gremlins 2 came out in 1990 I had some sort of
weird purist backlash response to the movie, and I think prior to a Gremlins/Gremlins
2 at
LA’s Egyptian Theater a couple of months ago, I had only seen the
sequel twice. As a kid I was annoyed that the jokes and references had
taken over the narrative; I felt like Joe Dante just wasn’t taking it
seriously.
And
duh, he’s totally not. But being older and wiser I can see where that’s
a good thing. While Gremlins really hinted at the Looney Tunes
sensibilities of Dante (which he would obviously use to full effect
later), Gremlins 2
allowed
him to set that sensibility free. In fact, this is probably more Looney
Tunes than Looney Tunes: Back in Action, since Gremlins 2 is way more anarchic and crazy and
edgy than Warner Bros would allow their cartoon cash cows to be.
The
entire film is a tongue-in-cheek send up, and anyone tasked with making
a Gremlins
3 would
have to really sit down and try to figure out whether this movie would
count in continuity; the film, after all, has Gremlins breaking the
fourth wall and killing Leonard Maltin as he pans the first Gremlins movie.
That
silliness and self-referential humor does hurt the film on some levels,
though. The original Gremlins is an amazing movie because it’s
funny and scary and sweet and tense; Gremlins 2 is pretty much just funny. Things
are played way too comedically for their to ever be any real feeling of
danger for any of the characters. In fact characters who obviously die
in the first film show up in this movie. That being said, the movie is
obviously uninterested in scaring you, and it just wants to make you
giggle and enjoy the ride, so maybe critiquing the movie for failing to
deliver on what the original delivered on is a remnant of that angry kid
from 1990 showing his face.
Is it
Worth
a Look:
Definitely. It’s a fun film andit’s got some neat tricks and gags that feel years ahead of their time.
Dante was way ahead of the Tarantino curve when it came to references,
in-jokes and movie love.
Random
Anecdotes:
The scene where the Gremlins destroy the film print (that you’re
watching!) is an homage to William Castle’s The Tingler. The appearance of Hulk Hogan in
that scene is an homage to the 80s. Gedde Watanabe’s stereotypical
Japanese character, while meant to be self-mocking, feels pretty weird
in a movie made in 1990. The great film composer Jerry Goldsmith is a
customer at the yogurt shop, and the just as great director/actor Paul
Bartel plays the movie theater manager..
Cinematic Soulmates: Last Action
Hero, Fight Club, Blazing Saddles (but
just select parts of those films), Duck Amuck
The
Tally
So Far
18 comments
I swear to Christ, the part when Billy walks into the office that the Gremlins have taken over, and there's a Gordon Gecko, daytrader Gremlin screaming into a phone, "BUY SELL BUY SELL BUY SELL!"….I lose my shit everytime I see it. Just thinking about it make me laugh out loud.
"As a kid I was annoyed that the jokes and references had taken over the narrative; I felt like Joe Dante just wasn't taking it seriously.And duh, he's totally not. But being older and wiser I can see where that's a good thing" You're a fucking douche…as a kid you thought that way….as a kid…you thought that way? do your parents love you yet?
I've rediscovered these films thanks to my son, and find myself enjoying GREMLINS 2 now far more than I did as a grumpy fifteen year old who saw the original eight times in the theater when he was nine.
I always thought the same thing about the Futtermans, too– that they died in the first film, but no: at the end, when Key Luke takes Gizmo from the Peltzers, they're mentioned on the TV as having survived the snow-plow attack.
I literally just out of nowhere watched this last night. Weird timing. I agree, it's incredible (the part at the end where Phoebe Cates mocks her dramatic scene in the first movie…she says something about a man that looked like Abe Lincoln sexually harassing her or something) and hahahahahahahahaha about being a pretentious film douche kid. It's just a funny mental image.
"I AM a camera!!!" Ah, c'mon, Devin … the early 90's were full of embarrassing Japan-bashing . . . this one is at least so over the top that no one can take it seriously (although I know Generation-X Asian-Americans will never forgive Gedde Watanabe for anything he's done).
Honestly, one of the craziest films to get the big budget treatment in the past 20 years. On the DVD commentary, Dante basically says Warners threw money at him and gave him carte blanche, since the first one was such a big hit. Thank God they did … what a unique and wonderfully fun movie. The first film I saw Christopher Lee in.
Saw this in theaters when I had just turned 12 and I ate it right up. When the film breaks and they start doing hand puppets, that is when Dante completely won me over. It is so weird and funny; completely ditching any formulaic elements in exchange for gag-o-rama goofiness. I love the first one, but I adore the sequel.
I had actually read the novelization a while before the movie came out. For the part where the film breaks, the book mentions what happens in the movie then goes into Brain Gremlin giving some sort of lecture to reader.
You should mention that the home-video version had some signal-crossed scene with a John Wayne (?) western, instead of the Hulk scene. Does the DVD have both? The film dissolve was a great gimmick in-theater.
@#3: Didn't know that about the Futtermans. Awesome. I always loved the discussion about the midnight rule and the international timeline. The original video release had the gremlins destroying the cassette tape rather than the film, but I guess that got lost during the DVD conversion. For the best take on Gedde W's career, check this out: http://www.npr.org/programs/atc/features/2008/mar/in_character/donger_1.html
Play around on the menu– the VHS John Wayne bit is an Easter Egg…
Here's a pretty good break-down of the different versions of the film-break-sequence as done for different formats: http://blog.mondotees.com/2010/01/22/the-ultra-meta-gremlins-2-novelization/
Christopher Lee does some great comedic work in this. And the puppets are just as good as it gets.
Gee whiz, Devin was an ANGRY kid? SHOCKING!
Terrific satire. Saw this in theaters at the ripe old age of 17, and was blown away by the self-referential (not to mention self-defacing!) tone. This is in my comedy all-time top 10.
Since the movie was likely filmed in 1989, isn't the Hulk Hogan scene more of an homage to the "right fucking now"?
@11 Thanks for that, no telling where my copy is buried away. Reading that back when I was 12 I had no idea what he was talking about with some of that stuff.
The VHS "film break" sequence is included as an Easter Egg on the DVD.
Well, if Gremlins 3 ever does happen I really hope that it does not contain any giddy tomfoolery of Gremlins 2.
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