140 Character Movie Review – #140RVW
I really thought Gremlins 2 was a better movie than the original. I believed it for years. Then I re-watched them now back to back. Oops…
Spoiler-free Movie Review of Gremlins 2: The New Batch:
Gremlins 2: The New Batch is almost certainly the most unusual, atypical sequel ever made. It’s quite divisive for the same reason. It’s really interesting; there must be an equal percentage of people who liked and hated it, but it would be very hard to predict what percentage of each of those groups would count themselves fans of the original film.
My informal straw poll of acquaintances over the years finds that most people never even saw it. I suppose that isn’t very surprising. I didn’t see it in the theater, myself. The sequel came out in 1990, six years after the first film. That’s a little too long for a sequel for this type of movie. The film landscape had changed quite a bit in that time. There was no way this tale of a cute puppet that turns into monstrous puppets was going to have the same impact second time around.
Director Joe Dante really didn’t want to make a sequel, and the movie languished in development hell until he was persuaded to return with complete creative control. But a lot of time had passed; Chris Columbus, who came up with the original story, was now an accomplished screenwriter and director and about to hit it out of the park with the film Home Alone. Special effects wizard Chris Walas had also moved on to a directing career (if less successfully), and so the look of the Gremlins and therefore the film was going to have to change.
With the extra leash Dante had earned, he set out to make a film that would effectively skewer the very concept of sequels. Dante made a film like someone who has been talked into something and either a) wants to get fired, or b) knows he never will be fired and can therefore do whatever he wants. Gremlins 2 is a subversive cartoon of a movie.
The film was written by Charlie Haas, who is a fairly interesting choice based on his previous credits. My exhaustive research (i.e.; looking it up on imdb) shows him as the screenwriter of a pair of early Matt Dillon movies, Over the Edge & Tex, and some TV movies. I wonder what it was that caused the producers to hire him. Whatever it was, I’m grateful, because this is a great script, as is his follow-up, the wonderful Matinee.
FX legend Rick Baker came aboard to take on the thankless task of updating someone else’s work. He was likely persuaded by Dante & Haas’ vision of many more varied Gremlins. This produced mixed results.
It’s a crazy movie. It even starts off very unusually, with a Looney Tunes intro. Warner Bros was celebrating the 50th birthday of Bugs Bunny at the time and shoehorned this whole animated bit into the film. The plus side is that it reunited animation legend Chuck Jones with the characters that had made him so famous. The down side, of course, is that it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to have the cartoon lead-in. It was initially a few minutes long, but when studio execs found it confusing (which it was), they cut it back to a very brief intro (which did nothing to make its inclusion less confusing). This may seem to be an odd point to focus on, but it really is a bizarre decision. I think the concept was to let the audience know that the movie they were about to watch would have a cartoonish zaniness to it – it didn’t. It made you wonder what the hell was going on and gave you the impression that what you were actually in for was total madness. Hmm, actually, maybe it did work…
Because that tone is prevalent throughout the film, and this is really where the dividing line sits. If you thought the first movie was too dark, you were in for a treat. If you thought the first movie wasn’t dark enough, you were in for a long night.
Gremlins 2 as a sequel has the unique distinction of being criticized both for being too derivative, and too dissimilar. Sort of depends on what you thought about the first film.
The setup is nearly exactly the same, but the delivery is completely different.
Billy & Katie have left their hometown of Kingston Falls for the big city, where they both work in a futuristic automated tower, the province of billionaire media mogul Daniel Clamp (perfectly played by John Glover). Through an unlikely chain of occurrences, Gizmo ends up in the tower and briefly back in the custody of Billy. Of course Gizmo gets wet, spawns a bunch of mischievous Mogwai who will manage to turn into Gremlins nearly before the first act is complete.
Here’s where it gets a bit different. The whole picture takes place in one main location – the office building. The choice of single location is inspired; aside from the interesting things you can do with monsters in a tower, it provides a setting from which to completely satirize 1980’s society. And this is where you begin to realize that we’re in for more of a comedy farce.
They make the unusual decision to distinguish the Mogwai, leading to some of the all-time worst character designs Rick Baker has ever been responsible for. One has “crazy eyes”, which is always a sign of trouble; another seems to be channeling Edward G. Robinson of all people.
In order to keep things interesting, the Gremlins get into a genetic research lab (run by Christopher Lee because why not) where they can sample different formulas that will transform them into different Gremlin hybrids. Sort of interesting, but it also instantly takes the movie from scary to silly. I don’t think anything about this movie could ever be confused with the borderline horror feel of the original.
They even bring in John Astin (Gomez Addams) for a cameo and cast Robert Prosky as Grampa Fred, a Grampa Munster type character just to underline the camp horror aspect they’re going for.
For the most part, the humor is excellent, particularly the automated messages from the building itself or the building staff picking apart the ridiculousness of the 3 rules for the Mogwai. It’s good satire, but the whole movie is seriously dated as a result. All the topical 80’s references simply don’t play anywhere near as well now. In the first film, Gizmo marvels as Clark Gable as a race car driver and recreates the role later in the film as he’s becoming the hero. I didn’t need to explain to my daughter who Clark Gable was – it was an archetype, not an in-joke. But when Gizmo goes Rambo in the sequel, I did have to pause the movie to explain the whole Rambo thing. And don’t get me started on the Hulk Hogan cameo…
Once the movie settles into the endless scenes of Gremlin shenanigans, the style moves directly into cartoon territory and never looks back. This is the stuff you came to see. The original also basked in the insanity of the Gremlins misbehaving and taking over the town. Interestingly, when you think about it, while the Gremlins do a lot of damage, they appear to do little real harm. Only the school teacher and the nasty realtor buy it in the first film. After that, all the humans make miraculous recoveries. (A big change from the first script, which had the creatures going to McDonalds to eat people.) It’s even more toothless here. I’m not sure anyone actually conclusively dies in the whole movie.
The movie also suffers from a sequel trend found in many films but nowhere so much as in the 1980’s: what I’m going to call character creep. You have a bit part in a movie, it’s funny, people like it. (Judge Reinhold in Beverly Hills Cop, Rick Moranis in Ghostbusters, Dick Miller as Murray Futterman in Gremlins) They make a sequel and think “Let’s bring them back but now they’re one of the stars! Everyone wants more of them!” No, we don’t. Not at all. It worked because it was an aside, a little extra color to the film. No one wants more sprinkles on their ice cream – a little bit is enough.
For years I told anyone who would listen that Gremlins 2 was a chaotic, funny, subversive and great movie and superior to the original. Now I’m not so sure. It really doesn’t age well in comparison to the original. The of-the-moment jokes really date it, and while the cartoonish craziness is still very funny all of the varied Gremlin characters cross the line into actual cartoons. Like the Looney Tunes characters that interject themselves into the closing credits, the zaniness goes too far and feels out of place.
Poster:
Trailer:
Bechdel Test:
Pass
The Representation Test Score: C (4 pts)
(http://therepresentationproject.org/grading-hollywood-the-representation-test/)
| Main Cast | Zach Galligan Billy Peltzer, Phoebe Cates Kate Beringer, John Glover Daniel Clamp, Robert Prosky Grandpa Fred |
| Rating | PG-13 |
| Release Date | Fri 15 Jun 1990 UTC |
| Director | Joe Dante |
| Genres | Comedy, Horror |
| Plot | The Gremlins are back, and this time, they’ve taken total control over the building of a media mogul. |
| Poster |  |
| Runtime | 106 |
| Tagline | Take Your Batch to See the New Batch. |
| Writers | Chris Columbus (characters), Charles S. Haas (as Charlie Haas) (written by) |
| Year | 1990 |
