GREMLINS 2 : THE NEW BATCH (1990)
Tagline : Here they grow again….
(Comedy, Fantasy, Horror) [PG-13]
People that watch TV at 3 in the morning aren’t afraid of THE WOLFMAN…
In this one both Billy (played by Zach Galligan) and Kate (played by Phoebe Cates) have moved to New York City (which no one should ever do) and both work for a mogul who owns a giant sophisticated sky rise. Meanwhile Gizmo’s owner (Mr. Wing) dies and Gizmo is displaced, and mogwai-napped by some scientists that are tenants in the building Billy works at. It doesn’t take long before he gets wet and a whole new comical, bizarre and sometimes horrifying nightmare begins.
This one I saw in theaters when it came out and remember feeling it was so chaotic, it became almost hard to digest as actual fun movie going. In re-watching it I am picking up a lot of the humor dialog, but it lacks the small town feel I loved about the first movie. GREMLINS is a classic, but it’s also extremely over the top in some ways. Especially regarding how once the Gremlins are born, they already know Gizmo’s name, and like I mentioned before, they have ready-made clothes just randomly lying everywhere. I get that it’s a movie, and none of it is meant to be taken seriously, but damn. GREMLINS 2 : THE NEW BATCH is even more out of control than the first one.
For me some of the strong points are the ideas that got us a spider-gremlin, a flying gremlin, and the ending. The weaker parts where we get ridiculously dumb gremlins, a really smart gremlin, and a gremlin that is sexually attracted to humans, kind of offset all that cool, with just a ton of lame. Not funny, but lame. Unfortunately a lot of this one comes across as more of a live Looney Tunes (even with the score) than it does a gremlins movie.
I wish this flick wasn’t as rough as it is. I think about half the attempts at humor might have done this movie some good and also expanding on some of the cooler concepts, rather than just trashing them as soon as they started to get going. As mentioned earlier there are elements I did like. Having Christopher Lee in your movie is never a mistake, and I also loved Robert Prosky as Grandpa Fred.
I have to give GREMLINS 2 : THE NEW BATCH a 3 out of 7. It’s a movie I don’t find myself running to very often (a lot like GHOSTBUSTERS 2). Still it is not horrible, and I can see why some fans still love this thing.
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