Gremlins (1984) Review

"Light bright!"

-Gizmo

Rand Peltzer (Hoyt Axton) is an inventor trying to sells his contraptions when he comes across a mysterious creature called a mogwai in an antique shop.  He purchases the creature and names it Gizmo (Howie Mandel).  Rand gives Gizmo to his son, Billy (Zach Galligan), as a Christmas present. Billy quickly learns the creatures multiply if they touch water and if given food after midnight, they turn into ravenous monstrous.  As his town erupts into chaos, it's up to Billy and Gizmo to stop the killer gremlins before it's too late.

What Works:

Cards on the table, I freakin' love this movie, so excuse me if I gush about it too much.  By far my favorite part of the film is Gizmo.  The guy is just too adorable to handle.  You can't help by love the little fellow.  Gremlins frequently puts Gizmo into peril, which really ramps up the tension of the film.  He is voiced perfectly by Howie Mandel and Gizmo is one of my all time favorite movie characters.

The practical effects for this movie are just superb.  Not only do we have Gizmo, but the rest of the gremlins, especially in their monstrous forms.  The creatures look fantastic, plus we get some really gnarly kills involving them.  Most of the human deaths in the film are really tame, but Joe Dante went all out with the gremlin deaths and they are a lot of fun.

The one really good human death goes to Mrs. Deagle (Polly Holliday).  She is a vicious and horrible woman and no one watching this film was sad to see her get killed off.  But the way she goes is magnificent; launched out of her house via an out of control stair lift.  It's hilarious and a phenomenal way to kill off a despicable character.

I really like the world of Gremlins in terms of Rand being an inventor.  His house is full of strange inventions that add some more depth to the film.  This also leads us to probably my favorite sequence of the film, where Billy's mother, Lynn (Frances Lee McCain), takes on a group of gremlins on her own.  I thought she was dead meat, but instead she takes out most of the gremlins using the various inventions around the kitchen.  This gives us lots of fun kills including one with a microwave that I just love.  It's great to see a motherly character in a film like this be an absolute badass.

Overall, I just love the general insanity of Gremlins.  This movie goes absolutely nuts and it's such a blast to watch.  Gremlins goes off the rails and takes you with it.  It's a really fun ride and I love when a movie can pull that off.

What Sucks:

I only have one problem with Gremlins and that is the bar sequence where Stripe (Frank Welker) and the other Gremlins have taken over the town bar and are holding Kate (Phoebe Cates) hostage.  The sequence is one of the over-the-top craziest scenes of the film, which is fine at first, but the scene goes on for far too long giving us shot after shot of gremlin hijinks.  It really throws the pacing off and feels like the filmmakers were just showing off with what they could do with these creatures.  I get it, but when making a film, you have to be able to kill your darlings if it makes the film better.  Some of these shots could have and should have been cut.  It was just too much and took me out of the film.

Verdict:

I freakin' love Gremlins.  Apart from one scene, I love every second of this film and wholly enjoy watching it.  It's got great characters, awesome effects, fun kills, and one of my single favorite movie characters of all time in Gizmo.  Gremlins is a balls-to-the-wall insane film and I can't recommend it enough.  Gremlins has absolutely got it going on!

 9/10: Great