Gremins 2: The New Batch (1990)

 "I've got rabies, and I'm supposed to get the flu this week."

Oh, I love this film. It is- and I know this is a weird thing to say for a Hollywood sequel-a different level of wit, enjoyment and fun from ther original. fourth wall? you're dead?

Yes, this is a sequel. We have Billy and Kate, moved to New York. We have some very real, surreal and, I suspect, very dated satire of Wall Street and the absurdities of thre reagan era. Reagan was no Trump, but, well, he was stupid. It's all excellent stuff. Poor Mowlgli.

But that barely scratches the surface. The first breath in the fourth wall comes from the mime artists being escorted out of the police van. Then we have, yeah, the Hulk Hogan interview. The fourth wall dies at this point, even after the review of the first movie which has hilarious consequences. It's sad to see the great Christopher Lee in a character part, but he's superb.

The knowing wit is hilarious throghout. This cannot, sutely, have been written by committee. Halleluljah. And I can't even begin to touch on the satire. This is the Reagan era. Corporate culture was insane.

There's so much to talk about. The old man- Kato in the old Green Hornet movie serials- dues. Poor Gizmo is bullied. So is Billy, unappreciated at work. The whole satire on 80s corporate excess is exquisite. At one point the lift asks for a car to be removed beause it's cheap and old.

I adore this film. If you don.'t ,then I shall challenge you to a duel. Sith Re Leicrster cheese. Be warned.

Gremlins (1984)

“Now I have another reason to hate Christmas!"

I’m 41 and I’d never seen this film until now. Yes, I know. And, er, I still haven’t seen The Goonies, which Mrs Llamastrangler tightly rebuked me for last night. Sometimes I’m not a very good ‘80s kid.

At least I’ve seen it now, though, and obviously it’s awesome. The Mogwai and Gremins look ok and are delightfully animatronic and stop motion, the script is fun and the cast (made up almost entirely of character actors rather than stars) is rather good. I do rather wish Spielberg hadn’t used his name to promote films he didn’t direct, but this at least feels like his “brand”. It’s a fun little tale and passes quickly and enjoyably, although for me what really lingers in the mind is poor Kate’s horrible childhood Christmas tragedy. Because this films is a classic Christmas movie, just like Die Hard.

Mind you, this whole thing of “wise old stereotypical Chinaman in his little shop with his vague Eastern Wisdom” would probably raise more eyebrows today than it did in 1984. The whole casual attitude towards getting a pet for Christmas is also perhaps a little dodgy. Drink driving is treated as a little joke. And yes, things do get a bit silly towards the end, with the Gremins smoking and drinking and enjoying Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. But the film is fun enough and plays things real enough to get away with it.

What’s really weird, though, is this is 1985, my childhood, and that can be eerie st times. The kid Pete looks and dresses much like I did, and everything was “neat”- never cool. This film, then, is very, very neat.