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Poster art from imdb.com.
Cute furry creatures who talk in nonsense language and never shut up. Furby? Nope, it's a Mogwai, a thing that a man, Randall Peltzer (Hoyt Axton), buys from a Chinese man to give his son Billy (Zach Galligan) for Christmas. Billy firstly enjoys it, after hearing the three rules of taking care of them: don't put them in bright light, don't let them get water on them, and don't feed them after midnight. Bright light kills them, water makes them reproduce, and feeding them after midnight makes them into monsters. So, of course, Zach breaks the rules and wrecks havoc on his small town.
Cheesy but fun, Gremlins is a film that seems to just let go and play along. The gremlins were very well made and didn't seem that mechanical (and they do look like giant Furbies). People behind me were talking about how they wanted one. Of course, until they turn evil.
This is definately not a thinker's movie. If you just put your mind on hold, it's a fun 100 minutes. If you over-analyze, it can get confusing. Since this is a perfect description of a popcorn movie, the characters leave something to be desired. Who is who? I don't know. But in movies like this, you shouldn't care.
The main actors were all good, but it wasn't as funny as movies like this should be. These should be laugh-during-their-adventures, not a-few-laughs-let's-call-this-a-comedy. The stupidity of the characters made most of the laughs.
Gremlins (and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom) are the two movies that caused the PG-13 rating to come into play, since the MPAA decided that they were too violent for PG but not enough for R. I understand what they mean (although most of the blood in this movie is green and are the gremlins).
Cheesy and fun, but not very funny, Gremlins is a good time waster.
Rated PG for language, creature violence, and scary situations.
Review Date: December 22, 2002