Face-Off: Gremlins vs. Gremlins 2

Standing in New York City, the Clamp Center skyscraper is a state-of-the-art smart building that serves as headquarters for the Clamp Cable Network and houses all sorts of businesses, from restaurants to an architecture firm and even a gene-splicing laboratory. It also ends up housing a virtual army of Gremlins over the course of this film. This setting provides a lot of different environments for the monsters to cause trouble in, but the streets of a town are more interesting to me than the inside of this building.

Zach Galligan is back as Billy, who has grown up, gotten slightly smarter, and works as an architect for billionaire land developer Daniel Clamp. Clamp is quite a putz and is at first presented as a potential villain, but as it turns out he’s not such a bad guy. Phoebe Cates also returns as Kate, who isn’t given much to do beyond make the idiotic mistake of getting Gizmo mixed up with another Mogwai who is clearly not Gizmo. Side characters include a scientist played by Christopher Lee, a horror host played by Robert Prosky, Robert Picardo as a Clamp lackey, and Dick Miller reprising the role of Gremlin-hating Kingston Falls resident Murray Futterman, who gets to have a rematch with the little creeps. Haviland Morris stands out as Billy’s boss, who briefly presents a threat to his relationship with Kate. Again, I don’t really connect with these characters, but they get the job done.

Gizmo is as adorable as ever, but unfortunately seems to have reduced screen time in the sequel. He is given some fun things to do, like training so he can go Rambo on the Gremlins rampaging through Clamp Center. If only there were more Gizmo-Rambo moments. The designs of the Gremlins are even more impressive this time around, especially the ones who get into the gene-splicing lab, resulting in a bat-Gremlin, a brainy Gremlin, a spider-Gremlin, a female Gremlin, a vegetable-faced Gremlin, and even a Gremlin made of electricity. They definitely didn’t just do the same thing all over again.

There was no holding back on this one. There was an obvious Looney Tunes influence on the first movie, and Dante went all the way into “live action Looney Tunes” for GREMLINS 2. There is no real seriousness to be found in this movie, everything is played for laughs and pretty much every scene is utterly ridiculous. This is a bonus for many fans, but I much prefer the attempt made by the first movie to balance the darkness and the light. This sequel is really a parody of its predecessor, which the filmmakers thought was sillier than I did.

With a laughable nightscape painted on cloth, Clamp tricks the Gremlins into thinking it’s night, luring them into the lobby of Clamp Center. The idea is to drop the cloth and flood the lobby with sunlight, but when that falls apart water and the electricity Gremlin, who has been trapped in a phone line, are put to use. It’s an extremely goofy ending for a totally goofball movie. It works, but I’d take the ending of the first GREMLINS over it any day.