Joe Dante's magnificently manic monster movie.

Rating: 10/10 (3 September 2007)

Director Joe Dante proudly wears his influences on his sleeve in this excellent Spielberg-produced demented comedy/horror about mischievous creatures that run riot in the sleepy town of Kingston Falls.
Referencing all of his favourite films and cartoons, including The Wizard of Oz (the film's villain is Oz's Mrs. Gulch in all but name), Looney Tunes (check out the sound effects Dante uses), Disney (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs features heavily in the story), and Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Joe has a blast allowing his toothy critters to (very amusingly) wreak havoc in typically Spielbergian small-town America.
Hoyt Axton plays Rand Peltzer, a less than successful inventor who buys his son Billy (Zach Galligan) a most unusual Christmas gift: a creature called a mogwai (which he names Gizmo). This impossibly cute bundle of fur comes with a strict set of rules which are inevitably broken. The result is a horde of vicious foot high monsters that set out to cause trouble wherever they can.
With the help of Gizmo, and gorgeous workmate Kate (the always stunning Phoebe Cates), Billy sets out to destroy the gremlins.
Although perhaps a bit too scary in places for more sensitive youngsters (the kitchen attack scene, in particular is quite frightening), Gremlins is great fun for monster movie addicts of all ages. My kidsaged four and sixlove this film (although I admit that I have been gradually conditioning them: one of the toys they have had from birth is a bendy Gremlin!). It really is hard to resist the movie's non-stop manic and zany comedy (the Gremlins are a hoot as they break-dance, get drunk, play poker, and sing Christmas carols!).
Sure, some moments are perhaps a little too daft (personally, I don't understand that rule about not feeding a mogwai after midnight, and I can't fully accept the scene where Gizmo drives a fully functioning Barbie car) but excellent animatronics courtesy of Chris Walas, a nifty script from Chris Columbus, loads of in-jokes for fans of fantasy films (look out for blink-and-you'll-miss-them appearances from Gremlins producer Steven Spielberg and animator Chuck Jones, an appearance from Forbidden Planet's Robbie the Robot, a stuffed ET toy sat between a cuddly Sylvester and Bugs Bunny, and the Time Machine from the 60s George Pal movie) all go to make Gremlins an unmissable treat.
And its got Phoebe Cates in it too! Which means it gets the full 10/10.