HALLOWEEN REVIEW OF THE DAY: Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)

Gremlins 2: The New Batch is well obviously the sequel to the 1984 film. However unlike its predecessor, this one does not take itself too seriously, and it knows it. In this movie the Gremlins return only this time causing chaos, havoc, mayhem, and mischief in a New York City building. Though it got a PG-13 rating, because well, it finally existed at that time, this film happens to have a more lighter, comedic, and campy tone than the first. The first was kind of comedic and campy too but not too a full extent. The first had some scenes where the audience had to take seriously because of the much more darker tone and the crucial status of the situation the characters were facing. This one works more as a satire to the original taking the goofy moments from the first just going all out into making something funny. And I'm not going to lie, it sort of works. I think with a concept and delivery the Gremlins films have, it certainly does work as a plain comedy and wanting to see slapstick and cartoonish mayhem go on. When watching this particular movie I often find myself rooting for the Gremlins to cause chaos within the building they are in just to get back at the people that work there, who all believe that old is crap and the new is cool. How dare they want to show a colored Casablanca on their TV channel! Also we get introduced to a lot of new, cool, and creative designs and mutations for the Gremlins such as a Bat-Gremlin, a Spider-Gremlin, a smart and intellectual Gremlin, a kooky Gremlin, a doofus Gremlin, and actually a female Gremlin. Plus the main protagonists are not as interesting as they were in the first movie, that and I pretty much did not care about them anymore. Except Gizmo, he has some cute scenes. He's still enjoyable as well as adorable. So you must be saying that this guy likes a movie that generally has a bunch of psycopathic and chaotic little hell raisers just breaking stuff and laughing. Well I do like the movie, I don't particularly think it's great either. The first Gremlins still stands superior because it did not just show Gremlins wrecking stuff, it had a creative story, likeable characters, interesting back stories, an atmosphere that was well balanced with both light and dark, good and revolutionary puppetry for the Gremlins (though the puppetry is good in this one too), and on top had good comedy. The comedy in this one is okay, but that's the problem with this movie. It has a heavy reliance of comedy and just focuses on that aspect. Not to say I hate films that only stick with the comedy those can be enjoyable as well, but I would have greatly appreciate it more if this one actually gave us a more well-paced and well-written story, which is always the most important element of a film. I say this because while I may enjoy most of the movie, I feel that others might get tired of the same old shtick and want to have the feeling that they have a purpose of watching the movie. So it's a guilty pleasure to say the least and I fully admit that it is not a great film. At least it focused on being just a comedy, and it didn't too bad of a job at that, but there still could have been more. But I enjoy it anyway. Grade: AP+