swr@utastro.UUCP (05/21/84)
1) To those (like me) whose interest was piqued by the newspaper ad
(cute paws and eyes inside a hand-held box with a caption saying
"Cute, Clever, Mischievous, Intelligent, Dangerous");
Although the movie is uneven at points, it certainly fulfills
the newspaper ad's promise.
2) To those that saw the TV ad;
You may rest assured that even though the ears of the gremlins
appear identical to those of Yoda and the "heckler at Jabba the
Hutt's feet", the faces you see are brand new....(baby Ewoks
excepted?).
3) To fans of the Muppet Show;
Unfortunately, there is at least one scene (the movie house
scene) in this movie which strongly resembles a standard Muppet
scene on the TV show. Why Dante and Spielberg kept this visual
cliche in the movie despite its plot convenience escapes me.
4) To fans of The Blob (Steve McQueen's first movie);
I couldn't help but notice a few simularities in plot development
between the two movies: the ever-increasing menace, the small
town locale, the unbelieving police... just to name the obvious ones.
5) To those who like "insider" jokes left by the producer and the director;
This movie is chockfull of them.
6) To fans of Friday the 13th, ad infinatum;
Please go away. Thank you. (To the rest of you; As scary as this
film occasionally gets, it is by no means a "slasher" film.
However, the mixture of comedy and horror is EXCELLENT in some
sequences. THESE scenes were worth the price of admission.)otto@whuxle.UUCP (George V.E. Otto) (06/15/84)
Once you suspend your disbelief enough to accept the existence of these creatures*, this movie is light, tight, exciting, and tense. The scary scenes are nicely balanced by humor that creates a kind of magical aura surrounding the deeds shown. There seems to be a trend in films recently of having jokes and humor happening in the background while the action proceeds in the foreground. I noticed some of this in the Inventor's Convention scenes. (Equipment and dialog taken right out of other films!) Were there other background jokes in other parts of the movie? On the whole I would recommend this picture, although I could understand how it might give young ones nightmares. George Otto AT&T Bell Labs, Whippany ------------------------ ----------------- * These creatures should *never* be allowed contact with water, must be kept out of the light, and must *never* be fed after midnight! Hmmm... Sounds like the result of normal evolutionary forces to me. (:-)
wsl@eosp1.UUCP (Warren Lobel) (06/15/84)
I just saw GREMLINS last night and liked it very much. One gripe I have with it though is that ever since Star Wars a lot of the big budget films from Lucas and/or Spielberg seem to be made with the thought that lot of money will be made by marketing toys based on the movie. In this case little MOGWAI dolls. The two biggest example of this are the EWOK dolls from 'Return of the Jedi'. (As an aside I saw an interview with Lucas where he stated that in the original plot for RotJ the inhabitants of the Endor moon were supposed to be members of Chewbacca's race, i.e. WOOKIES. Lucas said that the inhabitants were made into EWOKS because he thought it would be more dramatic to show the little guys beat on the big, bad empire stormtroopers. However, I wouldn't be surprised if the actual reason turned out to be that EOWKS are the more marketable (and cuter) of the two creatures. (I mean how many little kids would want an 8-foot doll versus how many would want a 2-foot or smaller doll). More examples would be E.T. and the numerous 'action figures' from all three of the 'Star Wars' films. But I digress. SPOILER!!!! An interesting observation is that the GREMLIN that hatched at the school and killed Mr. Hanson was NEVER destroyed. It escaped when Billy tried to track it down. Obviously, it could have joined the others after Stripe spawned the mess but this was never explained in the movie. I read the novelization prior to seeing the movie so I knew what was supposed to happen. That is the 'school' Gremlin was killed by Billy, but as already stated this did not happen in the movie. If anybody can explain the on-screen fate of the 'school' gremlin I would really like to know. Also, recall that there were five Gremlins in Billy's house four of which were destroyed (only Stripe escaped). I know that 1 was minced in the blender, 1 was baked in the microwave and 1 was decapitated by Billy. But what was the fate of the fourth Gremlin?? If anybody knows the answers to the two questions posed here I would appreciate it a response via the Net (net.movies) or mail. Thanks in advance. (By the way the Gremlins novelization goes into great detail about the origin and nature of the MOGWAI and is good story to boot!) -- Warren Lobel
dave@utcsrgv.UUCP (Dave Sherman) (06/17/84)
I haven't seem GREMLINS yet, but if there was one (or more) that
was "never destroyed", that sounds like a perfect setup for a
sequel...
Dave Sherman
Toronto
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{allegra,cornell,decvax,ihnp4,linus,utzoo}!utcsrgv!daveron@brl-vgr.ARPA (Ron Natalie <ron>) (06/19/84)
House Gremlins: Stuck in Juicer. Microwaved. Stabbed by Billy's mother. Kicked into fireplace by Billy when it was attacking his mother. -Ron