Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)

Six years after the runaway phenomenon that was Gremlins, director Joe Dante (The Howling, Innerspace) finally delivered a sequel....only this time, he brought the action to New York City where Billy (Zach Galligan) and Kate (Phoebe Cates) now live.  They both have jobs working at the famous Clamp Tower for the Clamp Corporation which is run by famous billionaire Daniel Clamp (John Glover).....and life is pretty dull overall.  Until one day, they're sent an old friend at the tower.....more than an old friend, it's Gizmo the adorable Mogwai from the first film! :) Will they follow "The RULES" this time? :o   

Host & Editor: Geoff Gershon

Editor: Ella Gershon

Producer: Marlene Gershon

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Transcript

GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH – 1990

Directed by Joe Dante

Starring Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, John Glover, Robert Prosky, Robert Picardo, Christopher Lee, Haviland Morris, Dick Miller, Jackie Joseph, Keye Luke, Gedde Wanatabe, Kathleen Freeman, and Tony Randall

Genre: Satirical Comedy (Audio clip)

Talk about an underappreciated sequel which has REALLY aged well.....to the point where it even inspired a brilliant Key & Peele skit no less. 😁 Director Joe Dante was coming off of the gonzo insanity of Innerspace a couple of years prior, a film which also underperformed because most audiences just didn't know what to make of even what genre they were watching. So of course he followed that up delivering what SHOULD have been a surefire smash sequel to his biggest hit....with a genre-defying anarchic comedy which pokes fun at the first movie....and not your typical comedy for the time period either. This was full-on SATIRE and not just the first movie including the subgenre it spawned in the '80's (Ghoulies, Troll, Critters) but corporate culture, urban sprawl, and yuppies too! :) 

The main driver for the satire is a corporate overlord who oversees the giant NYC skyscraper where most of the movies takes place and the company which employs the two returning stars of the first movie....Billy (Zach Galligan) and Kate (Phoebe Cates).....his name is Daniel Clamp (!), he's a rough approximation of the '80's personas of Ted Turner and Donald Trump, and he's played very tongue-in-cheek by John Glover. He runs a giant media/land development company with this "smart building" at the center of it featuring food courts, offices, broadcasting stations, and even a genetics laboratory run by the late, great Christopher Lee (as Dr. Catheter :o)....also having some droll fun with his horror persona. ;) 

Really everybody's having fun in this cast include Dante stalwarts Robert Picardo, Dick Miller (also returning from the first film.....even though his character supposedly died?? 🤔), and Henry Gibson. But none moreso than the eponymous Gremlins who are unknowingly unleashed relatively early in the film to start reeking havoc all over Clamp Tower....water, then food after midnight, rinse, repeat! There ends up being a veritable army of them and yet thanks to some genetic cocktails nabbed at "Splice of Life," several of them go on to take specific traits: there's an electrical gremlin, a spider gremlin, a veggie gremlin (kind of the grossest one if I'm being honest), a flying bat-gremlin, among many others....and they're all lead by a "brain" gremlin who wears spectacles and actually SPEAKS, sounding suspiciously like Tony Randall. 🥸

Almost all of this is played for laughs but thanks to the continued craft of creature effects wizard Rick Baker, they all look relatively convincing.....certainly even less like puppets than the previous incarnations from the 1984 original. At the center of all of these creatures (and inadvertently giving birth to them once he gets wet) is the returning Gizmo who is as adorable as ever. 🤗 The one aspect of the original 1984 film which I never quite bought into was the sentimentality - as cute as the Mogwais are, there are just WAY too many dangerous side effects to them which make even interacting with them unsustainable....I mean you can't even bathe these things! :o 

Gratefully, Joe Dante and crew pretty much eliminate that this time around.....even Gizmo is in on the joke as we see him train and gear up like Rambo. Honestly I never found this gag particularly funny but it's still pretty inspired to see how he crafts a bow and arrow weapon from a paper clip and a pencil. 😉 Yeah not every joke lands: there's a running gag involving an Asian tourist (poor Gedde Wantanabe) OBSESSED with taking pictures which felt dated even back in 1990....

But overall, there's just an anarchic spirit to the story which generally works....including several clever Simpsons-like throwaway bits we hear overhead from the PA in Clamp Tower, like the following:

"Tonight, on the Clamp Cable Classic Movie Channel, don't miss Casablanca, NOW in full color with a happier ending!" 

Beyond that, there are fun throwaway references to Batman, Marathon Man, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Phantom of the Opera, It's A Wonderful Life, you name it...

Best Needledrop (best song cue or score used throughout runtime of film): 

Look we’re clearly going for full-on silliness here and what could be MORE ridiculous than giving these rambunctious creatures a musical number.  I mean they ARE visiting the town for the first time and they’re excited!  So how about one inspired mass performance of the “Theme from New York New York” – just the first verse mind you – lead by Tony Randall late in the movie just as this entire group is preparing to LEAVE Clamp Tower? There ARE worse ways to go… (Audio clip) 

Wasted Talent (most under-utilized talent involved with film): 

If we’re being honest, the two main leads from the first film – Zach and Phoebe – they weren’t given THAT much depth in the first film and they’re given even LESS to do here.   And at least in the first film, they were called up to REACT to so many of the Gremlins hijinks….here with an extended supporting cast, even less so.  I WILL say this though….I think when I saw this in theaters back in ’90, I MIGHT have been the only one laughing to Kate’s horror story about Lincoln’s Birthday….fun callback gag to her gruesome Christmas monologue from the first movie…. (Audio clip)   

Trailer Moment (scene or moment that best describes this movie):

In essence, this movie is really just a series of goofy, barely-connected-by-the-plot….trailer moments.  So I’m going to go a SIMILAR route to my review for the original Gremlins….my definite FAVORITE sequence in that film was the ICONIC KITCHEN sequence.  So to get equally juvenile here, MY choice would be the FIRST encounter between Daniel Clamp and a gremlin.  It’s a short sequence but it’s funny AND it features this films GNARLIEST Gremlin Kill.  It occurs about half-way through….You see Mr. Clamp is clearly bored…..WAY up on the top level above the clouds and with the sounds of planes flying nearby.  So he decides to ask his secretary to write some memos…. (Audio clip) 

So after one gremlin plays a NASTY little prank on her, Clamp comes out of his private office to find a gremlin sitting in her spot…..wearing glasses, typing furiously, and gabbing on the phone….get it?  The gremlin then ATTACKS Clamp, grabbing him by his tie and a brief melee ensues between Clamp and Gremlin…..and how does Clamp defeat said creature?  Why with a PAPER SHREDDER of course!  And what results is a green, gloppy mess….ALL over Clamp no less.  Hey we’re not aiming for high art here…. (Audio clip) 

MVP (person or people most responsible for the success of this film):

There can ONLY be one choice for this category and it comes down to timing as well.  You have a journeyman genre director who was blessed with a HUGE smash hit early in his career….I mean previous episode Gremlins back in ’84 was a genuine pop culture phenomenon, not only making serious bank but TONS of merchandising and SO many rushed copy-cat projects in its wake from Ghoulies to Critters to Hobgoblins….to….Spookies even? That was a thing.  And since then, he had nothing particularly successful except for maybe The Burbs which WAS a minor hit.  So after years of the studio lobbying him to direct a sequel with him flat-out refusing EVERY-time, he finally acquiesced….with one condition: that he would have COMPLETE creative control over the project.  

So where he did decide to go?  With a budget that was THREE TIMES the amount of the first movie, he simply decided to go meta….with a ridiculous premise that was a marketing challenge for the studio AND ended up under-forming significantly at the box office.  And….has garnered a rabid cult following since then….and is now actually as fondly remembered as the original film.  It’s ALL him….every Dad joke, every gross-out gag, every knowing wink to old school genre LIKE having Christopher Lee in that role….and that’s why it works.  For crafting the FIRST meta-blockbuster, Joe Dante is the MVP. (Audio clip) 

Final Rating: 4.25 stars out of 5 

Happy 35th Anniversary to a genuinely cynical sequel which works WAY better than it has any right to.  Dante was truly on to something here…now bring on Gremlins 3 already!

Streaming on Prime Video

And that ends another FUN BUT IN NO SENSE CIVILIZED review!