There's a mischievous playfulness about the spirit of Gremlins, and that's its most endearing quality.
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"Gremlin: an impish little gnome reported by airmen as interfering with and disordering equipment (as motors, instruments, machine guns); broadly, an unaccountable disruptive influence." --Merriam-Webster's Unabridged Dictionary
When my wife and I and a close friend went to see "Gremlins" on opening night in 1984, it was with high hopes, thanks to Steven Spielberg's name as executive producer and Joe Dante's as director. Spielberg was riding high with "Jaws," "Close Encounters," "Raiders of the Lost Ark," and "E.T.," while Dante had recently done "Piranha" and "The Howling." Regrettably, all three of us left the theater disappointed; the film had been neither funny enough (satiric enough) nor scary enough to fully justify our time or our eager anticipation.
When the DVD arrived for review, I asked my wife if she wanted to watch it with me. She respectfully declined. This is not to say "Gremlins" is without its charms. The film went on to become a major success and has to this day a large and devoted following. If you are of the latter persuasion (and if you saw it as a kid, especially, you probably are a dedicated fan), consider the following comments the ramblings of an inveterate grump.
The film starts out promisingly enough, with singer, songwriter, actor Hoyt Axton playing Rand Peltzer, an eccentric inventor out for a stroll in Chinatown (location not given), looking to find a gift for his son. He comes across a tiny shop filled with curiosities run by a mysterious old gentleman referred to only as "Grandfather." He is played by Keye Luke, the actor lured out of retirement after playing Charlie Chan's Number One Son many decades before (which may be appropriate, considering there's an undercurrent of racism that's hard to deny in the present film, a subject that most viewers will overlook and that I won't dwell on). In the old guy's store, Peltzer finds a totally captivating little creature--a dear, furry, pint-sized critter called a mogwai. The old man is reluctant to sell it, but Peltzer buys it on the sly from the gentleman's grandson. Only three rules go with the unusual animal: (1) Keep him out of the light, especially sunlight; (2) keep him away from water; and (3) most important, never feed him after midnight.
The next part of the film parodies "It's a Wonderful Life," as Peltzer returns home to Kingston Falls, a modern copy of Bedford Falls. Indeed, the earlier movie is even playing on TV, in case you missed the analogy. This is just the beginning of a whole series of movie spoofs and film references in "Gremlins," some of which are humorous but most of which go nowhere and add up to little but self-congratulatory winks. Next, we meet Peltzer's son, Billy (Zach Galligan), a bank clerk, and Billy's friend, Kate (Phoebe Cates), both in their early twenties, both heroes in the story, and both thoroughly bland.
When Billy gets the mogwai, he names it Gizmo, a cute enough name for a cute enough pet. Well, cute enough for a hand puppet, which is what the creature appears to be, a hand puppet made to order for after-movie merchandising. This is more than a bit ironic because part of the film's message is supposed to be a mocking of middle-class America's commercialism, yet mogwai and mogwai-like plush dolls, model kits, key chains, trading cards, even a breakfast cereal with their picture on it were sold like mad after the film's release. Anyway, Gizmo is kind of a second-rate Yoda but without the life or depth of feeling of that precomputer creation and without the expressive detail of today's digital animations. He's all right in his way, but often he and his later fellows look too much like what they are--bouncing toys.
Then the film gets even more contrived. We meet Mrs. Deagle (Polly Holliday), a Margaret Hamilton/Wicked Witch of the West type, who threatens to kill Billy's dog; and Gerald (Judge Reinhold), a kiss-up junior vice-president at the bank. Next, we meet Pete (Corey Feldman), a kid whose father makes him dress up like a Christmas tree in order to sell trees on his father's lot. And we meet Mr. Corbin (Edward Andrews), the bank president, who's always fussing about time and order. And we meet Mr. Futterman (Dick Miller), a WWII vet who hates anything foreign, particularly German or Japanese. And we meet just about any other character that the writer, Chris Columbus ("Home Alone," "Mrs. Doubtfire," "Harry Potter"), thinks might be colorful and amusing.
So, how does Billy regard the mogwai, this totally new and adorably bizarre little fuzz ball that seems to be smarter than most of the human folk in the movie? He merely thinks it's sweet and harmless and puts it away for the night. Nobody figures this could maybe be the zoological find of the century?
Naturally, Billy inadvertently violates the rules and all hell breaks loose. The critter begins to multiply and the offspring eventually transform into a half dozen evil, mean-spirited, nasty-looking dark sides of Gizmo. So, what does Billy do? He takes one of them to the local middle school biology teacher (Glynn Turman), whom you'd think would immediately call a local university or the government or something. But, no, true to the old Hollywood films that this one is now and then lampooning, the teacher simply makes some tests on it, then goes away and leaves it alone. Before long the creatures are reproducing like trebbles on "Star Trek," and the whole town is being terrorized, overrun, by gremlins, in the manner of "The Blob."
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