Gremlins
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Movie Reviews of Gremlins
Movie Review: The same great movie, but the images were dark (in my TV, at least)
Summary: 4 Stars
I have always loved this movie, with it's strange and funny story. Watching it again after lots, and lots of years felt unusually good, and having my kids roaring with laughter (I had been telling them about the movie, and they were really eager to watch it) next to me felt even better. The images were dark, and I tried to fix it, but at the end gave up. Maybe it was just that I didn't know how to adjust properly the TV, and since I had not tried again, well...Movie Review: It's classic!
Summary: 4 Stars
I've been watching this movie since I was about 5 years old! I used to jump into my bed because I was afraid there were gremlins under it. This movie is just plain awesome. How could anyone not like it? Its funny, cute, gross, scary and everything in between. If you don't own this movie, you are a sinner!Movie Review: Cute and scary, what a combo
Summary: 4 Stars
When I first saw this movie I was around 6 or 7 and I just loved it. Some parts could be considered scary, I found it thrilling more then anything else. It is still extremely funny and heartwarming. Besides Magwai's are just so darn cute, how can you not love them at first sight.Movie Review: Scared me to death (almost)
Summary: 4 Stars
When I was a kid....I spent many a night wide awake listening for gremlin claws from under my blanket. LOLMovie Review: Mostly fun; sluggish at points.
Summary: 3 Stars
I had remembered this movie as much better than it really is, having been a huge fan of the sequel for years. Gremlins had a great concept, but it falls into an uncomfortable middle between children's movie and teenage comedy-horror, and the scripting and lighting are badly dated.Chris Columbus script takes much of the blame for the insufferably cutesy small-townisms. The stereotypes portrayed in this movie are pretty nasty at their core -- for example, the black high-school science teacher is so incredibly dumb that it looks like a racial statement, and the character of Mrs. Beagle, the inhumanly sadistic widow, is neither believable nor funny. The pacing lags badly, and there is a sore lack of good dramatic scenes throughout the movie, especially in its languid second act before lead character Billy finally goes out into the town after the bad gremlins. Zach Galligan is only mildly interesting in the lead (he would really come into life in the sequel), and Phoebe Cates is mostly window dressing, while Judge Reinhold's part was cut down to, mostly, one barroom scene and then, unfeasibly, disappears from the film entirely.
When this movie tries to make the gremlins a real monster threat, it doesn't work all that well. On the other hand, Gremlins is hugely enjoyable when the gremlins are just acting like weirded-out humans. The bar scene at Dorry's with the gremlins getting drunk and acting out is mostly hilarious (although the dated Flashdance spoof is a bit much), and the creatures look great. Notably,Gizmo is less cutesy than he is in the second movie -- probably because the powers-that-be were trying to go for even more kid-oriented merchandising imagery in the second film.
While its flaws don't prevent Gremlins from being a pretty enjoyable movie overall, I felt this movie to be slow and a little thin almost two decades after I'd first seen it. But in 1989 the sequel would turn the franchise on its head and correct every flaw -- and then some.