Hulk Hogan: “Okay you guys, listen up! People pay good money to see this movie! When they go out to a theater they want cold sodas, hot popcorn, and no monsters in the projection booth! Do I have to come up there myself? Do you think the Gremsters can stand up to the Hulkster? Well, if I were you, I’d run the rest of Gremlins 2! Right now! Sorry folks, it won’t happen again!”
GREMLINS and GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH are screening This Saturday, December 15th, at the St. Andrews Cinema in St. Charles, MO (2025 Golfway St, St Charles, MO 63301). The doors open at 2:00pm and the first film starts at 2:30. Admission for both films is $5. GREMLINS will be introduced by Mark Dodson. Mark was the voice of Salicious Crumb in RETURN OF THE JEDI and Mogwai in GREMLINS. His other voice credits include DAY OF THE DEAD and STAR WARS THE FORCE AWAKENS. A Facebook invite for the event can be found HERE
GREMLINS (1984) is a fabulous flick, because it somehow manages to be both a sentimental good-natured modern-day fairytale, and an uproariously riotous comic horror film that stomps all over the nice wholesome image of Christmas and small-town America. The script by Chris Columbus is simply fantastic – all the characters are nicely drawn, the Three Rules Of Gremlins are brilliant, and there are whole scenes which are simply priceless – the evocative Chinatown opening, the Peckinpah-esque kitchen massacre sequence, Kate’s phenomenal “Why I Hate Christmas” speech, Mrs Deagle’s grisly demise and the Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs spectacle, to name but a few. This is one of those rare examples of a film where everything just gels together perfectly – Joe Dante’s gleefully insane direction, Jerry Goldsmith’s alternately soothing and teeth-grating score, wonderful camera-work by John Hora and eye-popping special effects puppetry by Chris Walas – Gizmo and Stripe are not just props in this movie, they are real characters who give performances with more depth than a lot of A-list actors I could name. The rest of the cast shine; Zach Galligan and Phoebe Cates (one of the cutest young actress of the eighties) are extremely appealing, Hoyt Axton is terrific as the hapless inventor dad, Miller hilarious as the xenophobic neighbour Mr Futterman, and Luke is unforgettable as the wise old grandfather. Look out also for an unbilled bit by Dante alumni Kenneth Tobey and executive producer Steven Spielberg in a rare cameo appearance.
With the sequel, Dante took everything that was great about Gremlins and cranked it all the way up to a zillion. The original movie was a dark xmas comedy horror with B-movie undertones. The sequel was so over-the-top it launched itself into the stratosphere and doesn’t come back down until the very, very end of the credits. It’s just wall-to-wall mayhem with so many in-jokes it’ll make your head explode. GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH even attempts to begin as a Looney Tunes cartoon.
These are brilliantly-made, wonderfully wicked horror comedies, equal parts intriguing, funny, gross, touching and scary, so don’t miss them when they play this Saturday at the St. Andrews.
