Review and news hub for movies, music and video games

4096 guests and 22 members online

GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH

This is another one where the underrated moniker could be contested, just because everyone I know likes it, but I think it’s fair, if only because I never hear it mentioned in the breath of either great horror or great comedy, and I feel it to be both(and is there a combination of genres that works less frequently?). It also works really well as a sequel, exploring the possibilities of the original while deepening the satire (even if it doesn’t quite top the original’s Santa Claus monologue). As far as I’m concerned, this movie deserves the kind of regard that Evil Dead II gets.

There’s a plot here, but it’s kind of beside the point. This is a movie of bit gags, nearly all of which work, but even when they don’t, they’re so uninhibited and zany that you don’t even notice. Has there ever been a more hilarious satire of a public figure than John Glover’s Daniel Clamp (a clear parody of Ted Turner)? Maybe Chaplin’s Hynkel, but that’s all that I can think of. Could any other director but Joe Dante have pulled off the variations on the gremlins that appeared, such as the Spider Gremlin and the Brain Gremlin (voiced by Tony Randall), without making it seem totally out of place? And name one other film that has the audacity to simply stop right in the middle for anything like the infamous Hulk Hogan bit. I can’t.

What makes this all the funnier is that the movie is marketed to children, who no doubt enjoyed the film, but in no way understood all of its references, let alone understood how provocative what they were watching was. I don’t know. That gives this bonus subversion points.

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (4)

October 31, 2008, Matt Medlock said:

	Fun choice. Love Gremlins 2. Even though I'd never cla*sify it as horror, but it's a moot point. By the way, the Hulk Hogan segment you speak of was completely new to me until a few years back. The version I knew had an alternate sequence involving the Duke. Either way, wild stuff.
	Votes: +0 report abuse vote down vote up

October 31, 2008, Anders Nelson said:

	Yeah, I've seen both. They both work, but I think I like the Hogan one more, if only because it's based on an actual experience of Dante's.
	Votes: +0 report abuse vote down vote up

October 31, 2008, Matt Medlock said:

	"because it's based on an actual experience of Dante's." New to me. Do explain.
	Votes: +0 report abuse vote down vote up

October 31, 2008, Anders Nelson said:

	The mother yelling with the screaming kid at the beginning of the clip is based on a mom screaming at Dante during an early screening of the first Gremlins (presumably just after the kitchen scene).
	Votes: +0 report abuse vote down vote up

Name

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (Registered users only)

Add Comment Preview