Fluffy fun for the whole family!

Rating: 9/10 (20 May 2020)

Warning: the first paragraph of this review is admittedly very sentimental and irrelevant. For the more objective part of the review, please just skip to the next paragraph. Nothing gives me greater pleasure in life than rediscovering my old childhood favorites, only now nearly 30 years later and in the company of my own 10-year-old son, who's also developing an enthusiasm for bizarre cinema! I literally get tears in my eyes when I notice my offspring cheering over the same highlight-sequences in the same movies that I used to love so much myself. I felt this joy during "Escape from Witch Mountain" and "The Dark Crystal", but never experienced it so intensively as during "Gremlins".
"Gremlins" is ideally representative of the creative and highly original fantasy cinema of the early 80s. With Steven Spielberg as producer and, even more importantly, the eternal inner child embracing Joe Dante as director, the film is a gleeful mixture of delightful special effects, classic cinematic tributes, an engaging plot, colorful characters and just the right balance between slapstick and action. The narrative starts in Chinatown, a couple of days before Christmas. Eccentric inventor Randall Peltzer seeks a unique gift for his son, and finds an adorable little Mogwai they name Gizmo. The fluffy critter is awesome, but he comes with a few responsibilities. He cannot be exposed to bright light, should never be sprinkled with water and must never ever be fed after midnight. This turns out to be a lot more difficult than it sounds, and pretty soon the picturesque town of Kingston Falls is overrun with Gizmo's malignant and monstrous offspring. "Gremlins" contains far too many highlights to mention, including every word spoken by Dick Miller and every smallest shot of the unearthly cute Phoebe Cates, and it's even more amazing if you can watch it with the entire family... around Christmas.