Wickedly funny classic

Rating: 7/10 (18 November 2006)

Gremlins is the classic creature-feature with the lovable cutie Gizmo and his offsprings who set the small town of Kingston Falls completely ablaze when their owner Billy fails on one of the 3 crucial rules; feeding them after midnight.
Everybody knows Gremlins and it's a complete classic. Gizmo was a household name in the 80's and most kids had numerous toys and teddy's of him. Snow White got somewhat revived as it was the creatures' favorite film and that's just funny. Many hilarious moments are here as the Gremlins start chewing up the little town and wrecking more havoc than George W. Bush could with all his arsenal (Mrs. Deegle's fate is, as said before, a classic).
Gremlins was so good when I was a kid but you notice some other things as well when you see it as an adult. The level of violence is surprisingly brutal and the little critters are very, very nasty. This is nasty humor all the way. And my god is Zach Galligan a horrible actor. I thought David Duchovny was the most expressionless actor around but I was wrong. There are also some very downbeat moments thrown in here which could so easily have been edited out (a point which Gremlins 2 actually made fun of).
Overall the film completely deserves the classic stamp though. Gizmo is priceless, the critters even more priceless and it's wickedly funny with many hidden gems (ever noticed that time machine at the convention!). And it's surprisingly well crafted with good special effects that don't look bad at all today.