Xenophobia

Rating: Null/10 (27 July 2003)

The hidden subtext of the Gremlins being a nuisance from World War Two and now being in everything shipped into America is both a true statement of US xenophobia and typical right-wing baloney (coming from a battle-scarred WW2 vet no less). This is most likely a Spielberg influence rubbing off into the script.
Joe Dante is an underachiever. He never has made anything better and has only made things worse for himself by repeating the formula of this movie over and over. Character depth is nonexistant, leaving us with either stereotypes or cardboard prop-ups. You can tell she's an evil old lady because she has wrinkles and talks in a grim voice all the time. No Hannibal Lecter subtly here.
Jerry Goldsmith does kiddy music here and, while it is different to hear him go from Patton and The Omen to this, it still leaves a nagging feeling that he'd been smoking too many joints with Danny Elfman. The first half of the film suffers from poor editing, but the second half marginally makes up for it.
Overall, required viewing for children of the 80s. It's amazing how something so horrifically gruesome could be passed off as a PG movie back then. Yes, I count decapitations and microwave explosions to be gruesome. You laugh, but you don't know why other than that it's different. 3 out of 5 stars. You could do worse and see Small Soldiers.