little cult film

Rating: Null/10 (28 July 2004)

SPOILERS
Every once in a while a film is made which will become a cult classic. These films are often not the greatest of quality regarding production and they never appeal to everyone, but that's often their beauty. These films are little affairs which you can either watch alone or watch with a few friends and which a small group of you can have little in-jokes about. Whilst it was relatively successful when first released, "Gremlins" is now one of those movies.
When Billy Peltzer receives a christmas present from his dad, he's intrigued and overjoyed when it turns out to be a Mogwai called Gizmo. The Mogwai are an unknown species and the reason behind this is that after exposure to water and food after midnight, they metamorph into "Gremlins".
With some beautiful scenes in it, both this first encounter and the 1990 sequel are films worth watching. This original film is inparticular worthy of praise for it's links to classic films. One film staring Clark Gable is featured (which personally I confess to not being sure of the title for), as is Frank Capra's "It's A Wonderful Life". They liked Capra's film to such an extent that Kingston Falls where "Gremlins" is set appears to based in design exactly on Capra's Bedford Falls. This delicious nod to Capra is shown by Billy's mother watching the film whilst baking.
On a minor note, another nice little link to other films is the inventions show where Billy's father spends the majority of his time. Not just is Robbie The Robot featured as someones invention, but when the father is on the phone, if the background is watched, a man is shown using "The Time Machine" (1960) and disappearing through time. Chris Columbus (Writer), Joe Dante (Director) and Steven Spielberg (executive Producer) obviously have a love for classic movies as their tributes are scattered throughout this film.
The one point about the "Gremlins" films are that nobody would suggest the acting is brilliant. With young appearances from Phoebe Cates and Judge Reinhold, the first film is not short of known actors. Ultimately though, the stars were always going to be the creatures themselves. To expect otherwise is perhaps to expect decent acting performances in 1997's "Anaconda", a film which everyone watched for the snake and not for Jennifer Lopez's awful performance.
Finally, one point worth bringing up is just how brilliant the late Jerry Goldsmith was when making the "Gremlins" soundtrack. As well as creating all the Star Trek music from the films and series, and also doing "Alien", one or two cartoons and countless other amazing films, Goldsmith's beautiful little ditty for this film is catchy and lasts in the mind hours after the film has finished.
To summarise, "Gremlins" and it's sequel were never going to be life changing films which everyone adored. They are however, wonderful little films which groups might gather around and relax whilst watching. With tributes to countless different films, often it's fun just to sit and try to spot as many tributes as possible. The scene where White Stripe (head Gremlin) is playing poker and a Gremlin is next to him dressed in the same old woman outfit as E.T. in the film of the same name from 1982, is yet another example. Basically, they're just daft, cult films which some love and some hate. Personally I think they're brilliant.