romkey%mit-borax@sri-unix.UUCP (06/18/84)
From: romkey@mit-borax (John L. Romkey) I just saw Gremlins last night and really enjoyed it. I can understand why some people didn't like it: you have to be prepared to not take the movie to seriously. The only part of the movie I didn't like much was the ending, when the movie started taking itself too seriously (the moral of the story and everything). As for gore, a lot of people died, but the only gore was gremlin gore. Maybe you just have to be sufficiently warped to appreciate it, especially the Pelker Gremlin Peeler and Juicer, and the microwave oven scene. Something I really liked about the movie was all the hacks. Here's a list of the ones I can remember off the top of my head: 1. Billy is at the bar doing some cartooning. "Mr. Jones" is sitting next to him and tells Billy he's improving. Watch the credits at the end; Mr. Jones is Chuck Jones of cartoon fame. 2. Billy's father is at an inventors convention or something like that. Robby the Robot shows up for a while and you can hear him saying some of his lines from Forbidden Planet, the first movie he appeared in. 3. Again, the convention. The first time we see Billy's father calling home, there's a machine behind him with a big rotating circle on it and a man sitting in it. The next time we see him, the machine is gone and people are looking around obviously trying to figure out what happened. The machine was the Time Machine. 4. A gremlin breaks the phone lines while Billy's trying to warn his mother. The gremlin says that famous line "Phone home." 5. In the drugstore by the stereos there's a record display for a hypnotism record, by "Dr. Dante". Joe Dante directs the film. And there must be others. It was great having a something in a scene bother me and then realizing what was wrong with it and the joke which had been played. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the movie; any movie described as "CUTE" in ads is likely to turn me off, but the cuteness wasn't really sickly sweet most of the time. Ever Gizmo, gremlin #1, rolls his eyes when he's described as being cute. - John