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Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)

Posted By: denisbul

Date: 25 Jul 2011 06:54:38

Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)
Languages: English (AC3 5.1 - 384 Kbps), French, Italian (AC3 2.0 - 192 Kbps)
Subtitles: English, French, Italian, Dutch, Arabic, Spanish, Romanian, Bulgarian
DVD5 (VIDEO_TS) | 106 min | 720x576 | PAL 16:9 - 3669 Kbps | 4,41 GB
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi | USA

IMDB: 6.1/10 (25,907 votes)
Directed by: Joe Dante
Starring: Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates and John Glover

A few years after the incident in Gremlins, Billy and Kate have movied to New York where they work for media mogul Daniel Clamp. Meanwhile, Gizmo's former owner has just died and he's been captured for the genetics part of the Clamp building. A little while later, a certain someone gets wet, creates a new Gremlin species, and learns to finally fight back after years of abuse. And while Gizmo and the surviving humans fight back, the Gremlins and their evil leader, the Brain Gremlin, are planning to escape when it gets dark. And if they do, New York will experience a new Hell.

"Gremlins 2: The New Batch" speaks to the gleeful hell-raising monster in each of us, and it speaks with much more verve, cleverness and good humor than the film on which it is based. Add this to the very short list of sequels that neatly surpass their predecessors.

"Gremlins 2" moves away from the sleepy small-town setting of the 1984 film, in the process shedding its fondness for movie references and taking on more personality of its own. Freed from the "It's a Wonderful Life" ambiance of Kingston Falls, it develops a more savvy, urban feeling and a faster pace. Another and more important alteration has to do with the gremlins themselves, who were often vicious and predatory in the earlier film but are a lot more playful this time. The new gremlins can also turn ugly, but what they most enjoy is throwing things, making colossal messes and playing practical jokes. They're a lot less like horror-film fixtures, and a lot more like mischief-loving children.

Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)

Once again, the gremlins spring forth from the huge-eyed, tender-eared, perilously cute little pet called Gizmo, who never means to cause trouble but spins off vicious little flesh-and-blood gargoyles whenever his human keepers violate certain basic rules. The new film finds Gizmo once again in a Chinatown shop, directly in the path of a familiar-sounding, publicity-loving real estate developer named Daniel Clamp (John Glover).

Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)

Clamp dreams of "the Clamp Chinatown Center, where business gets oriented", but for the moment he must concentrate on a brand-new midtown office building called the Clamp Premier Regency Trade Center, which is meant to be the last word in high-tech magic. The Clamp logo outside shows the world held in a vise.

Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)

Although the earlier film's colorless leads are still on hand, with Billy (Zach Galligan) working at Clamp Center as a designer and Kate (Phoebe Cates) as a tour guide, the building is more of a star. As Clamp strides importantly through the lobby, a voice is heard over a loudspeaker instructing the owner of a car to "please remove it from the Clamp Parking Garage. Your car is old and dirty."

Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)

Meanwhile, machinery can often be seen malfunctioning in the background, even as the ground floor bookstore displays a huge stock of the autobiography celebrating Clamp's many triumphs. The very lively screenplay, by Charlie Haas, makes Clamp a television mogul as well, with a network that not only colors classic films but also gives them happier endings.

Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)

Obviously, Clamp Center cries out for the disruptive presence of a gremlin or two. So Gizmo is inadvertently allowed to get wet, after which the creatures are spawned and the place quickly overrun. Gremlins pop up (quite literally) in the salad bar, in the toy store (building a huge gremlin out of Lego blocks, then merrily knocking it over), and even in the genetics laboratory run by the devilish Dr. Catheter, a k a Christopher Lee. Mr. Lee's irresistibly ghoulish presence, and the precise nature of his medical experiments - cows listening to self-help tapes, rats using their energy to run light bulbs - give the film an added measure of fun.

Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)

The gremlins also find their way into a movie theater, and what they do there is a particular bright spot, though it's a surprise that deserves not to be spoiled. They also do many of the same things they did in the earlier film, but the director Joe Dante makes no effort to avoid any feeling of deja vu. This time, some of the same gags are simply staged better.

Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)

It's too bad that one holdover from the earlier film is an element of graphic gremlin-bashing, like the scene that sends one gremlin through a paper shredder and spatters green goo all over the frame. The film is only rarely scary or disgusting, but even this is more than it needs. Indeed, this time the creatures are so likable that the story's resolution, involving high casualties among the gremlin population, seems a bit sad.

Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)

"Gremlins 2", which largely belongs to the creatures themselves (with effects supervised by Rick Baker and one particularly urbane gremlin voice provided by Tony Randall), also has a large and amusing human supporting cast. In addition to Mr. Glover and Mr. Lee, the film's more buoyant performers include Don and Dan Stanton, as twins well suited to work in the doctor's cloning lab, Robert Prosky as a down-on-his-luck television Dracula, and Haviland Morris as a fast-talking boss who has her eyes on innocent young Billy. On a romantic evening, she takes him out for Molson, Mounties and (chocolate) moose at the Canadian restaurant that's one of the film's better comic inventions.