Gremlins 2: The New Batch
Joe Danteās original 1984 Gremlins was a classic 80s black comedy of the highest order, depicting a Norman Rockwell like classic small town being decimated both physically and metaphorically by hideous monsters who also happened to be fun loving anarchists to the hilt, with fantastic subtexts and metaphors about the destruction of the old school American archetype (along with a stunning piece of acting in one amazing scene by Phoebe Cates that successfully kept the dark tone well in place despite the humor level maintained by its titular monsters). After being a smash hit, Warner Brothers immediately offered Dante a boatload of cash to do a quick sequel only for Dante to decline as he wanted to do other projects. The sequel remained on a developmental level for many years (and was turned down by many other directors), but in 1990 Dante felt that he was ready to return to the project, demanding (and receiving) complete creative control to do whatever he wanted along with a higher budget. Obviously, many felt that the film would be a major hit, but it was possible that taking too many years off between films along with opening it in the summer of that year directly against Warren Beattyās big comic book blockbuster Dick Tracy (said to be deliberate on Warnerās part to prevent Tracy from making more money than Burtonās Batman had) wound up killing it at the box office and caused it to fade quickly from sight (even though Dante has professed to it being his personal favorite of all his movies). Nonetheless, itās still a very good film in its own right with Dante utilizing the whole ābigger is betterā approach to the storyline, moving the whole thing to New York City where the gremlins could raise hell on a much larger scale. There are significant changes from the first film though, particularly in tone, as the more ādarkā aspects of the original are more toned down to the point of being non existent, preferring instead to make itself into a more unabashed comedy with some truly deranged anything goes bits (even Catesā legendary Santa Claus speech is parodied here) and a host of big name actors in both supporting and cameo roles. Most importantly (and the main reason that the film is so remembered today), one of the new major characters here is a billionaire real estate developer who at the time was clearly modeled after future United States President Donald Trump, here referred to as Daniel Clamp and played by John Glover. The character details are so closely rendered here that even the speech patterns used by Glover and the dialogue itself eerily resemble that of our current President, with an even more prescient bit that actually sees Gloverās Clamp ranting on about the dishonesty of the mainstream media (and even the Mad Magazine comic strip parody of the film at that time just directly cut and pasted Trumpās face onto their version of the Clamp character). The script originally envisioned Clamp as being the filmās de facto heartless human main villain, but then evolved into making him into more of an off kilter yet likable type of character (with Glover borderline stealing the movie in the process) with most of his intended villainy being transferred to his Head Of Security and corporate toadie played by Robert Picardo, first seen walking into the same Chinatown shop where the first filmās legendarily evocative opening scene had taken place and making a buyout offer on behalf of his boss to The Old Man played briefly by the returning Keye Luke. Naturally, he is turned down, but Picardo calmly assures his underlings that The Old Man is obviously dying (as Luke sadly was in real life) and that all they have to do is just sit back and wait. After his death, the wrecking ball comes in and displaces poor little Gizmo (voiced once again by Howie Mandel), the magically adorable little Mogwai who is soon picked up and sent to a genetics lab at Clamp Tower which is run by the imposing Christopher Lee. Fortunately, the also returning Cates (with her short haircut greatly cutting down on her natural girl next door appeal from the first film) and Zach Galligan also work there as well, he as a graphic design artist and she as an almost demeaning tour guide wearing a stupid hat. Eventually Galliganās Billy Peltzer and Gizmo are reunited (since the first filmās ending had hinted that he would be the next one to serve as The Mogwaiās Protector) but when heās called away on corporate business by his horny but hot female boss (Haviland Morris), Gizmo gets loose and unfortunately gets wet at the hands of a careless janitor (John Astin) and soon we have more (mean spirited) Mogwai for which the film deliberately eschews any suspense this time when it comes to them cocooning up and becoming the little beasties yet again, probably because we actually WANT to see them raise hell on the ultra technologically advanced Clamp Tower (even the bathrooms have recorded voices reminding you to wash your hands) along with the slew of cable TV networks headquartered within the building (a small compositing nod to Ted Turner in the process). And while a small group stick around to torture poor Gizmo (āGizmo Caca.ā) which results in Giz taking a page out of Ramboās book in seeking revenge (āI guess they just pushed him too far.ā), the others go on a rampage of unparalleled porportions, starting when they invade Leeās genetics lab and help themselves to several formulas in order to āmodifyā themselves. This leads to us having a well spoken, articulate one known as The Brain Gremlin (voiced by Tony Randall), a Bat Gremlin, an Electricity Gremlin, and many more. And as the infestation spreads, by the time we get to a little more than halfway through the movie, the entire plot just goes completely out the window and the film degenerates into a series of random sketches / scenes showing the gremlins just doing whatever the hell they feel like doing, not only giving the whole affair an everything goes, anything can happen vibe, but also giving off the air that the wild and crazy gremlins have completely taken over the actual FILMING of the movie itself, turning it into a straight up comedy that would make The ZAZ boys blush. A couple of bits include a cheesy horror movie host (Robert Prosky purposely made up to look like Grampa Munster) conducting a sit down interview with The Brain Gremlin, another Gremlin getting doused with acid and making himself over into The Phanton Of The Opera, and Dante even bringing back and throwing Mr. and Mrs. Futterman (Dick Miller and Jackie Joseph) into the mix, with Futterman still seeking revenge on the little bastards for running him down with his own snowplow in the first movie. This does make the movie quite uneven in strong contrast to the comparably even tone that the first film had maintained in its most outrageous moments, but bits like having noted movie critic Leonard Maltin getting attacked and beaten up for trashing the first movie (āI was joking!! Itās a 10!!! Itās a 10!!!!ā) is almost worth the hilarious price of admission and having the Trump / Clamp paradox in place now almost comes across as being near brilliant audacity in this day and age that outright refuses to allow this film to age. Galligan admittedly comes off as only passable at best (kind of like a placeholder hero who here takes sole responsibility with his own carelessness for what happens even as the blame would appear to be assigned to Leeās pseudo mad scientist and his gene splicing experiments) and Cates can only do so much with the purely comedic style of the film, but this still remains one of the better and more underrated sequels around that was only written off because of an absurdly bad release strategy when really it not only strives to be quite different from its original classic film, but is quite funny most of the time in how it hits much more often than it missesā¦
8/10