Gremlins the Movie – Buy it on DVD
- Format: DVD MOVIE
- Genre: HORROR
- Rating: PG
Description
A man buys a Mogwai as a Christmas present for his son. The young boy is told to keep the pet away from water, out of the light and never to feed it after midnight. Inadvertently, the creature is dampened and almost instantly, produces half a dozen furry replicas of itself –which continue to multiply and turn the small town upside-down.
Gremlins is a whee of a film (if you don’t mind the occasional gross-out) from producer Steven Spielberg, writer Chris Columbus, and director Joe Dante. Zach Galligan is the young man whose inventor father (Hoyt Axton) gives him an odd Christmas present: a tiny, furry creature that comes with a set of rules: don’t get him wet, don’t feed him after midnight, and keep him away from direct sunlight. But Galligan breaks the first rule and the damp little critter pops out a dozen little offspring. Then the offspring break the second rule and, overnight, turn from cute furry guys to malevolent scaly guys with world domination on their mind. The only way to stop them: rule three. But it’s an anxious (and extremely funny) battle to make it to daylight–and the bad gremlins find ways to multiply over and over. Great special effects and a gruesome sense of humor make this a wild (if occasionally dark and scary) ride. –Marshall Fine
Brian W. Glenn 5:06 am on February 11, 2010 Permalink |
…You watch it and find yourself sucked into an otherwise story by numbers movie (hey, the old guy says “no sunlight, water or food after midnight” so you’re warned what to expect already). Main criticism of course is its lack of focus on the hilarious antics of the evil Gremlins (something the sequel did a little better) who destroy a good portion of a town, but aren’t seen nearly enough to make you detest them – instead they’re little more than pests. The level of gore is surprising, which is how you can tell that this isn’t technically a “kids” movie, so care should be taken with young children (but saying that I’d have been 7 when I saw this and had no problem….but then Nightmare on Elm Street might have desensitised me a bit by that time) but it’s essential viewing if only so that you can watch the sequel too.
Rating: 1 / 5
Bruce Lee Pullen 3:34 am on February 11, 2010 Permalink |
Footnote: Official Actual Review: **** 1/4 stars (four and a quarter star rating)
In the summer of 1984 as Ivan Reitman’s ceaselessly beloved supernatural box-office comedic powerhouse Ghostbusters was prevailingly netting all the profuse blockbuster revenues and inestimably enshrining itself adamantly with adoring audiences across all divides as the year’s principally paramount money rainmaker of the year, a minor monster film B-Movie tribute to Capracorn and 1950’s space paranoia exploitation flicks came into circulation at around the same time. Internationally released to movie theaters around the globe, Gremlins was an unappeasably premeditative liberating commandeering of the world’s silver screens in one fell swoop of cinematic amnesty from the norm. Unhesitatingly conspiring and invigoratingly procuring to unhesitatingly unleash a mischievous torrent of cantankerously inconsolable scaly adversarial devils wantonly assailing restrained movie tastes with the provocatively stimulating rousing sensationalism of maliciously volatile foresight. Joe Dante’s phenomenally lucrative massively unfashionable bold creative re-imaging of the exploitation genre sensationally ran amok with the general public as it universally grossed resoundingly beyond anyone’s comprehension and beguilingly entranced millions more into an atypical personal connection with the film.
Dexterously consolidating into a whole new age of pop cultural advertising packaging integrating (beginning with Star Wars and exploding with E.T.), Gremlins was principally choked with indefinite unattributable mountains of merchandise. The Gizmo doll, Gremlin action figures, Gremlin lunch boxes, Gremlin posters, Gremlin story-time audio cassettes (do you remember those?) and all sorts of other cherished child and adult paraphernalia that became incredibly dispensed at an glaringly astronomical pace. Yet at the heart of this significant immeasurable love affair with the Gremlins and it’s essential myth, lies ultimately the film itself. After nearly twenty years and untold droves of imbecilic rehashes, moronic re-shoots, and Kindergarten retreads, the film remains an indisputable pop culture cinematic touchstone classic of the 1980’s. Directed by cinematic maverick satirist Joe Dante (Gremlins 2: The New Batch, The Howling, Looney Tunes: Back In Action) and executive produced by the omnipresent commercial dynamo of the 1980’s Steven Spielberg, Gremlins is the uncanniest ironclad combination of subversive divine parody (Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life) and thrillingly riveting acute joyride (Howard Hawk’s The Thing from Another World)
we’ve yet seen in the last generation of motion pictures.
Name me another picture that can so instantaneously, ambidextrously, and completely shift gears from brutal savagery to out-and-out comedic lunacy (just think of the Christmas Cookies/Blender Sequence) with the stunningly ghoulish extraordinary clout that Gremlins accomplishes without ever batting a reptilian eye. You may attribute this attractive charisma entirely to the Gremlins. However it’s also Dante’s steadfast no compromise craftsmanship that delivers the delicate balance of menace and perversity that remains so universally adored about this film to this very day by so many legions of fans and new viewers alike.
Overflowing with the quintessential Looney Tunes spirit of jovial irrelevance pulsating throughout its daffy festivities, the Gremlins bar sequence remains one of the single most mentally arresting moments of Eighties cinema. With it’s gleeful lunatic goofiness taken to the very optimal zenith of cantankerous hilarity, this definitive burlesque showcase of pricelessly gut-busting spectacle lampoons the shear shallow splendor of binge drinking, chain-smoking, gluttony, high-stakes poker, Dashiell Hammett film noirs (The Big Sleep), misogynistic anarchy, the television show Cheers, urban crime, and Jennifer Beals’s cheesy Flashdance renown to the absolute euphoric dizzyingly heights of galvanizing comedic possibilities.
Billy Peltzer (Zach Galligan) and Kate Beringer (Phoebe Cates) chaotically desperate escape from the old-town movie house is an especially exceptional affectionately subversive amicable nod to Disney’s masterwork Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1938). This singularly breathtaking climatic chase sequence remains a transcendental majestic tribute to the film medium’s boundless past that remains supernaturally priceless beyond the mere mention of words, and blows continuing proof of Dante’s ecstatically voracious exhilaration in ransacking the respectable into indelible comical genius. The exemplary majesty of Gremlins remains in it’s devilish application of absurdity so effortlessly that it leaves many viewers blushing way beyond the restriction of age. Gremlins has carved its own permanent niche in American Pop Culture and it’s definitely not likely to be carted away by any philosophical Asian mystic anytime soon.
As for the new Gremlins Special Edition DVD, it includes a 2001 remastering of the entire film with the inclusion of numerous extras including: a commendably impressive 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen presentation, a properly atmospheric Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track, an impressive Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround audio track, a charmingly nostalgic director and star commentary track featuring Joe Dante, Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Howie Mandel, and (Dante regular and greatly under-appreciated) Dick Miller, an intriguing director and special effects department commentary featuring Joe Dante, Michael Finnell (producer) and Chris Walas (Effects Supervisor), ten minutes of behind-the-scenes footages, theatrical trailer, and several other fascinating trappings to siphon through at your leisure.
P.S. Break-dancing Gremlins now that will be the day. Oh wait we do have hundreds of Agent Smiths, a skeletal Geoffrey Rush, a half-cranium mechanistic Schwarzenegger (was that a change?), and liquid medal invulnerable supermodels clamorously roaming around by now so who knows.
Rating: 4 / 5
Anonymous 2:30 am on February 11, 2010 Permalink |
I would not recommend this movie. It was violent, and scary. When my mom and I watched this a few years ago, my mom had to turn it off halfway to the middle. If it hadn’t been made before PG-13 was invented, that’s what this movie would have been rated.
A lot of kids would say this movie isn’t scary, but that’s because so many kids today are allowed to see rated R, which is as bad as it gets.
Don’t get this movie unless you like to be disturbed!
P.S. Please don’t insult my review in your own, thank you!
Rating: 2 / 5
Anonymous 12:14 am on February 11, 2010 Permalink |
What was Steven Spielberg thinking when he made Gremlins? What a lame movie. Bad special effects turns what looks like a stuffed rag doll into obviously fake puppet-like gremlin
Ooooooooo! Scary!
A silly plot and bad acting round out the score. If you’re seven years old or under, this movie’s probably a hoot. If not, then stay away.
Rating: 1 / 5
What happens if you feed a Gremlin after midnight? 11:40 pm on February 10, 2010 Permalink |
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