Great movie, delighted that I introduced my kids to it, (9 and 10 year old) I wouldn't let much younger kids watch but your choice!
There is next to no story here, which left the filmmakers free to focus on what really matters - gremlin hijinks! As with most movies from the 80s (and 90s, and 00s, and...) there are thing's that haven't aged well, specifically by falling into lazy Orientalism, but still manages to be nostalgic fun (probably helped by there being very little dialogue!). Kate's speech about her worst Christmas still gives me chills. Now off to watch Gremlins 2!
With its inane mix of genres, attitudes and inspirations, there's really no good reason for this movie to work as well as it does. Like the ubiquitous creatures at the heart of the plot, Gremlins delights in mayhem. The proud owner of a restless spirit and a tendency to rattle the gearbox at the slightest hint of a lull, the film can be splendidly unpredictable, charmingly sweet and morbidly profane, sometimes all within the same scene.
It's vividly violent, often shockingly so, but still touts a wild sense of humor and an unexpected knack for sentimentality. I was pleasantly surprised at the lengths it was willing to go to, considering no member of the cast indispensable, and that left me hooked right up until the closing showdown. It's not the perfect picture - there are holes in the plot large enough to rumble a bulldozer through - but as a sharp, silly change of pace in the holiday season, one could do far worse.
[4.7/10] Different movies can offer different things, and that’s okay. Movies focused on visuals or pure plot machinery, aren’t my cup of tea, but I’ve come to appreciate them for what they are, or at least accept that they can be great, even if their particular brand of greatness doesn't really resonate with me.
But Gremlins is not great. Gremlins is a creature feature, and those films can be exciting, entertaining, and even transcendent. But Gremlins isn’t any of those things; it’s an excuse for the filmmakers to go wild with puppets and animatronics for two hours with the faintest spackling of story and character and, you know, movie build around that to justify their budgets.
Sure, the film has the barest excuse for theme and symbolism in it. There’s a xenophobic trend here, where the “hot new thing” is delivered from a thin Asian stereotype, and Americans fear, ignore, or mistreat it until it wreaks untold havoc. Meanwhile, the American inventor can’t create something that actually works, and the underemployed local is railing against foreign-made products. There’s problems with that point of view to begin with, but even setting them aside, Gremlins only applies the thinnest layer of paint from those ideas to half-justify its extended puppet party as some high-minded social commentary.
And the puppet party isn’t bad in small doses. Gizmo, the original furry gremlin or “mogwai”, is manipulatively adorable in that ugly cute sort of way. He’s got big eyes, he makes baby cooing noises, and he sings, cowers, and saves the day in a toy race car. Every time Gizmo’s on screen, I’m torn between being utterly charmed by the little furball and all too aware of how committee-designed he is to win hearts and sell toys.
The evil Gremlins aren’t bad either. The film’s effects team leans hard into the gross and grotesque, and it’s impressive, if not always particularly compelling. When a gremlin’s back starts to pulsate as its about to spawn, or the evil critters emerge from their pupal stage, or a villainous evil Gremlin slowly turns to goop when exposed to light, you can’t help but be impressed by the craftsmanship, even if it’s easy to be repulsed by the imagery. But that’s all Gremlins really has to offer -- a feature-length collection of creature effects that display some creativity and commitment to the bizarre, both of which are welcome in a X-mas movie, but without anything to make you care about what’s happening beyond the quality of the effects themselves. That’s the sort of tack that leads to diminishing returns decades later when technology inevitably makes your achievements seem like old hat.
That’s especially true when your film has no real characters to speak of. I defy you to tell me anything about Billy, the nominal protagonist of Gremlins beyond the fact that he likes his dog, his Gremlin, and Kate. He is the blandest, most flavorless main character I’ve watched in a while, with essentially zero distinctive characteristics, let alone any kind of arc. Some of the other characters have one-line description personalities, but that’s just enough to make them mildly-recognizable Gremlin fodder, with no depth whatsoever.
That’s a hobbling, if not necessarily fatal flaw, except that the film barely has a plot either. I don’t think it’s being unfair or overly reductive to sum up the film as “Boy gets Gremlin. Gremlins wreak havoc for a while. Boy defeats Gremlins.” The plot is aided ever so slightly by the three, somewhat nonsensical rules for mogwai-raising -- no light, no water, and no food after midnight -- but even then, stuff just kind of happens in Gremlins. Nobody in the movie really wants anything, and if they do, it’s barely, if at all, impacted by the events of the movie.
Instead, the movie just wants to screw around and have fun with a bunch of grotesque critters. There’s nothing wrong with that necessarily, but you can’t help the feeling that director Joe Dante might have done better if he’d made a series of shorts or bumpers featuring random amusing Gremlin antics, rather than trying to string all of this together into some kind of coherent story. There’s dark, absurd humor in the Gremlins as rowdy bar patrons or Disney sing-a-long moviegoers, but these sequences go on and on to the point of exhaustion.
Worse yet, they all but ruin the movie’s mild attempts to have the audience take it, its characters, and its threats seriously. There’s nothing wrong with a Looney Tunes-style approach, but the audience isn’t expected to actually fear for the lives of Bugs Bunny or Elmer Fudd while they’re engaging in comic lunacy. Gremlins seems to want you to worry for Billy and Kate and their allies, in between its slapstick deaths and creature laugh-a-thons. It offers a laughably bad backstory monologue on why Kate hates X-mas that adds nothing to her character and the movie, and puts her and Billy in nominally mortal danger several times, but there’s no intrigue or stakes because Gremlins can’t decide whether it wants to be a horror film or a Tex Avery cartoon.
If all you’re asking from a creature feature is to see some well-designed puppets do some cute, wild, or wacky things that puppets don’t normally do, then Gremlins has you covered. In isolation, the big setpieces in the film are contrived, but technically ambitious and full of animatronic insanity. Critters swing from the ceiling, try to commit robberies, and chirp along to Snow White and the Seven Dwarves in a way that could be entertaining in three-to-five minute chunks.
But tasked with building that up into an actual movie, one that gives you a reason to care about the Gremlins’ antics, to fear the threat that they pose, to appreciate Billy or Kate or Gizmo for reasons beyond the little guy’s laboratory-perfected cuteness, Joe Dante and company fail miserably. Stretched out to two hours, with the necessary-but-perfunctory attempts at story and character that films call for, Gremlins reveals itself as nothing more than a creature effects showcase in cinematic clothing that, like its title character, should have been left in the shop.
I love the Gremlins. I wish they were real for me to have one as a pet. They are super tender. Even the bad Gremlins seem adorable to me.
I watched this when I was like 8.I thought it was a kids' movie.It clearly was not.
I remember watching this as a teenager and loved it.
My 18yr old son wanted to watch it this evening as he’d never seen it.
I remember it as more as a comedy, but I suppose it’s not really, but it is comical lol.
Truly a dated film now, which added to the comical value.
I kind of wished I’d not watched it again, it’s spoilt my blurred memories of it.
But, we still had a good laugh and enjoyed it.
Steven Spielberg presents Gremlins, a hauntingly frightening, but tremendously hilarious horror-comedy. After receiving an exotic pet for Christmas called a Mogwai, Billy mistakenly breaks the rules for caring for it; causing it to multiple and turn into dangerous monsters that soon ravage the town. Featuring Phoebe Cates, Corey Feldman, and Judge Reinhold, the film has a pretty solid cast. Also, it does a good job at balancing the horror elements and with the themes of friendship and family. Additionally, the creature effects for Gizmo and the Gremlins (which have become iconic) are incredibly well-done, and Jerry Goldsmith’s score is phenomenal; “The Gremlin Rag” is a simple yet creepy theme that embodies the mayhem and the terror of the gremlins. Without the guidance of Spielberg, this film could have become just another B-movie, but under his helm Gremlins has both comedy and heart to go along with the scares.
This film is so fun. Fucked-up fun. I never understood why it was a 15 until now. And I remembered gremlins wielding chainsaws and being blended in food processors. If the second act doesn't appeal to you in all it's hyped up, maniacal horror fun, Gizmo will definitely melt your heart. I want a Mogwai so bad.
“It takes a certain kind of guy.”
“And that guy needs a certain kind of fame”
Gizmo for the Christmas win
PG-13 sci-fi horror at it's absolute best! Gremlins is charming, funny, creepy and it even has holiday spirit.
Thank god for practical effects and animatronics/puppets, if done today this would be entirely CGI. There's even a few crazy stop-motion segments. The Mogwai/Gremlins look awesome, great design and their faces are so expressive. The gooey eggs can only be matched by Alien. As if all those practical effects weren't enough for one movie, they even went through all the trouble of doing cool inventions for the dad side character. A great addition, I really enjoyed those and I want a Bathroom Buddy.
A negative would be the main character, he's far from being the worst character but I wanted to know him more. Not much of a story either. The start is a bit slow compared to the rest but once the Gremlins show up, it's non-stop fun and comedy until the end—so much chaos. The mother was such a badass, the blender and microwave kills were epic. The bar sequences are peak. Did not expect Kate's father's backstory. The Gremlin Rag score is one of my favorites ever, it's too damn good.
One of my childhood favorites. Still holds up well in my opinion. Gotta love the mischief the Gremlins get into, their joy in what they do is contagious.
Spielberg's hand is noticeable in this tender and terrifying story
All I want for Christmas is a Kentucky Harvester and a Bathroom Buddy
"While everybody else is opening up their presents, they're opening up their wrists."
Damn, this line hits hard, but sadly, there is truth to it.
Man, movies back in the 1980s had some balls because the way Billy's mum took out three of the Gremlins is so brutal and violent; I understand why this was rated a 15 in the UK. The Gremlins have killed so many people that Billy's father needs to face some consequences for bringing a Mogwai to town.
Also, Gimzo is so cute I nearly want to turn off the movie because I couldn't take it. His little noise :sob:
Looking at Gizmo physically hurts. He's so cute I can barely put it into words
This movie looks just to be an excuse for the filmmakers to do whatever they wanted with the puppets and it's not even funny. I didn't like it.
1984 was such a phenomenal year for movies in general, and this classic still rose to the top. For good reason as everything about it works so exquisitely. One of my personal favorite films. Couldn't get enough of it as a kid and still love it to this day. In my top 3 Christmas movies ever
I remember seeing this flick in my teen years, either on VHS or as a noisy terrestrial broadcast. Revisiting it on bluray now, i’m kinda surprised how well it holds up. While there’s quite some amount of the spielbergian reagan-era blockbuster cheesiness that i’ve really come to hate over the years, it can’t do anything to diminish the pure joy the gorgeous oldschool animatronics and practical effects bring to the screen any time the creatures make an appearance. This could have been a 9/10 if the overall plot and characters were just a bit more original to at least somewhat match up with the remarkable creativity and filmmaking skills showcased in staging the creature scenes.
"You do with mogwai what your society... has done with all of nature's gifts. You do not understand."
I hardly ever meet anyone who doesn't want a Gizmo after watching this movie. It will always be an annual movie to watch in this household because it has Christmas lights, a good score, and the horror elements are great. I am also impressed the filmed this in the summer. Could've fooled me.
We had a saying back in the 80s that describes this movie.......Bat sh!t crazy!
I haven't seen this movie on the big screen since it came out originally. A lot more Christmas in it than I remember. Best of the fantasy pet movies of the 80s with the possible exception of E. T. Funny, entertaining, suspenseful, and curiously violent, it still packs a punch. 9/10
I remember always hiding behind my seat at the theater when the teacher is killed.
Watched this years ago, definitely not for small kids!
Really good I watch it at movie theater
A comic horror movie classic.
Shout by Carlos Fernando IbarraBlockedParent2018-12-24T08:47:58Z
One of my favorite movies period. But also one of the best damn Christmas movies ever. I try to watch it every year, and it still never disappoints. Sure some of the effects are dated, but it doesn't stop the whole thing from being mischievous, looney toons fun.