GREMLINS 2
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1990 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: This is a film in which the
parenthetical gags and in-jokes mutiny and take over the film
like gremlins taking over a skyscraper. The plot was clearly
too weak to stop the gags and comes in a poor second.
Rating: high 0.
GREMLINS 2 is a hard film to pin down and review. It is hard to criticize the story because it's not seriously trying to tell its story. Maybe it is working only half-time to tell its story and the other half is divided up among making film references, making comments about business and politics, and playing practical jokes on the viewer. As rationales for sequels go, this one is about par for being crass and high concept. The little monsters are back and taking over Trump Tower. Of course, they cannot call it Trump Tower so it is Clamp Center, owned by Daniel Clamp, an amalgam of Donald Trump and Ted Turner. The world needed a film with the gremlins vandalizing a skyscraper about as much as it needed a toothbrush with disk brakes.
But while it seemed in GREMLINS that the gags were getting in the way of the story-telling, in GREMLINS 2 the story does a much better job of staying out of the way of the gags. Just as the gremlins take over the building, the gags take over the film. That is fine, I suppose, because while I cannot recommend the story, I did appreciate many of the gags. I rather hope that this film is marketed on videocassette with a complete list of the films parodied and the well-known people appearing during the course of GREMLINS 2. Then the movie can be played like a word search puzzle.
The plot has likable young couple Billy Peltzer (played by Zack Gilligan) and Kate Beringer (played by Phoebe Cates) living together (in sin!) in New York and both working for Clamp (played by John Glover). All three work in the same building with a team of genetic scientists led by Dr. Catheter (played by Christopher Lee!). Billy finds out that the genetic scientists are playing around with his favorite Gremlin and we are off. Rounding out the cast we have Robert Prosky playing Al Lewis playing Grandpa playing havoc with Clamp's cable broadcast station. Having Prosky playing Al Lewis is like having Robert Duvall play Soupy Sales. The whole concept of the "Gremlins" films is that nasty accidents happen. But just to show that happy accidents happen also, at least for Dante, GREMLINS has the Trump character discovering he likes a young woman working for him. Her name is Marla. Director Joe Dante insists that *all* filming was complete well before anyone ever heard of Marla Maples but, of course, the choice of that name fits very nicely with the theme of promising contrivances going wrong.
Of course, much of the film is spent in little plays and blackout sketches that parody society and that star the very recently created Gremlin Repertory Troup. They act out scenes from films that logic tells you the creatures could have no way of knowing about. This apparently bothers nobody in the audience. It is supposed to be funny, not make sense. Actually somewhat funnier are the jabs at Ted Turner and his attitude toward classic film, including a great line about CASABLANCA.
However, because I am still hung up on films having plots and this one is a pretty mediocre plot, I can give this film no better than a high zero on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
att!mtgzx!leeper
leeper@mtgzx.att.com
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