R Rating Ep20 - Gremlins 1 & 2

[00:00:00] Speaker A: From pilot paranoia on planes to the quaint county of Kingston Falls, and finally taking a bite out of the Big Apple, the mischievous, murderous, multiplying monsters known as Gremlins plan on keeping the party popping until sunrise poops on their pernicious pandemonium. [00:00:28] Speaker B: So Gremlins came out in 1984, and Gremlins 2 came out in 1990. Both of these are movies that I have seen very recently, or didn't see until recently, I guess I should say. I saw Gremlins 1 for the first time about five years ago. I saw parts of Gremlins 2 on TBS when I was a kid. Remember it being very funny, but the first time I actually saw it, beginning to end, was last night. Will, what's your experience with these. With these movies? [00:00:53] Speaker A: That's wild, man. Yeah, I saw them relatively early in life. The first one, you know, came out when I was born, so, you know, I hadn't seen it, but my parents let me watch pretty much anything growing up, so I probably saw it when I was, like, six or seven. I probably saw Gremlins right around the time Gremlins 2 came out, probably in my estimation. So definitely grew up watching these movies. And I'm. I'm interested to see what your take is, not seeing these movies until now. [00:01:24] Speaker C: So I saw this somewhere along the way, and then I saw the sequel somewhere along the way. I don't really remember, but I remember thinking, those are pretty good. And my kids asked about, like, I said the word Gremlins or something, and they're like, what's a Gremlin? And I was like, there's a movie that'll explain this all to you. And I think you might be old enough to watch it. And so we started rolling into it, and, yeah, they kind of made the cut. And so we just watched it a couple of weeks ago and. And went all the way through. And so they're kind of fresh in my head, so I didn't bother rewatching them, like, immediately this week or anything, but that's about it. [00:02:00] Speaker B: Okay, sounds good. Wow. I want to dive so deep into these instantly, but I don't know if that's gonna go well. [00:02:08] Speaker C: Jump right into it. Let's get into the meat and bones. Will, you mentioned something about Pilot popping off something. Yeah. So are you referring to the Twilight Zone? [00:02:20] Speaker A: Well, in the first movie, the. The neighbor talks about Gremlins on airplanes in World War II, and that's kind of where Gremlins kind of started. That's where they kind of appeared, I guess. [00:02:34] Speaker C: Okay. [00:02:34] Speaker A: Is in the raf pilots would complain or talk about gremlins messing with their mechanics and making the planes not work properly and causing all kinds of problems to the point where they would actually make little lucky charm gremlin dolls to go on the planes with them to give them good luck from gremlin attacks. Which I thought it was like a very cool. That's like where I. I believe Gremlins kind of oriented. And then my first interaction with Gremlins was the Twilight movie where they remade an episode of the Twilight Zone with William Shatner where there's a gremlin on the plane and nobody believes him. He gets like hauled off in a stray jacket and then they see like damage on the airplane that it was, you know, almost about to come out of the sky because of. And so, yeah, I just, I think it's an interesting history. And then. And then this movie kind of came along and really popularized Gremlins. [00:03:39] Speaker B: That's really interesting because I remember the pilot or the next door neighbor saying something about that. And I was kind of taking it just in like the movie context of like, oh, you know, anytime something goes wrong, it might be gremlins. They even say at the end of the first movie, like, you know, if before you go to bed, if the power goes out, you might want to check your house. You might have a gremlin. [00:03:55] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:03:55] Speaker B: And I was kind of taking it as that. It wasn't until Brian literally just mentioned the Twilight Zone that I remembered that episode with the gremlin hanging off the wing of the plane. I was like, oh, interesting. I wonder. Yeah. If they were trying to make a connection there. I mean, obviously subtly, because I didn't pick up on it, unfortunately. But that's. That's kind of clever. Is that exactly where you went, Brian, or. Not until Will said the pilot thing. Did you kind of connect those dots? [00:04:16] Speaker C: Well, I didn't know Will included it in his intro. And I thought that's what he was referring to in that. In that statement. And so that I just wanted to make sure that's where we were at because I remember the Twilight Zone episode, which. A fantastic episode, I believe. Doesn't Dan Aykroyd play a role in that little movie? And there's like another scene where that, like all comes around again, I don't remember. The Twilight Zone's a movie in and of itself. And we can talk about that another time. But yeah, the gremlin on the plane of the wing and the history of pilots in the war saying there's Gremlins and stuff. I, I, I heard, had heard things too. And like he says Murray in the, I think his name's Murray the neighbor, it says, you know, he's, he's rambling about that at some point about the Gremlins from the war. [00:05:04] Speaker A: Shout out to Roald Dahl, who actually popularized Gremlins because he kind of wrote stories and did like story picture books that he sold to Disney. Disney was going to do a whole movie on it. It turned out to be just like a short cartoon segment because of budgetary things. But yeah, that's how it, like the whole knowledge of Gremlins kind of spread throughout the world is because of Roald Doll. And I've mentioned Roald Doll in the past with the Halloween tree and things like that. So good stuff, good stuff. [00:05:33] Speaker B: Now as far as this movie goes, it's hard for me to come at this 20, 30 years later and know, like, is this when it came out, Will? You're usually a depth of knowledge of these kind of things. Was this supposed to be a horror movie, a comedy movie? Or was this kind of like the Evil Dead, where it was bridging that gap and kind of supposed to live in both worlds? Because it kind of didn't land on either one of those sides of the fence for me. Like, I could tell it was trying to be a little horror, trying to be a little funny, but it didn't quite hit either of those marks. So do you know what they were trying for? [00:06:04] Speaker A: Yeah. So Chris Columbus, the director of Home Alone, this was his first script that he wanted to use to get into Hollywood. He never expected this movie to be made, but he wrote it as a straight up horror movie. And then Steve Steven Spielberg got a hold of it, really enjoyed the story and the idea of it, but wanted to make it much more family friendly. And so the script went through a lot of changes when it was being produced where they wanted it to be more of a horror comedy. And so that making it a family more oriented movie pushed it into the comedy realm. And so that's why definitely has elements of both in the movie. [00:06:48] Speaker B: Fair enough. And Brian, you watched this with your kids very recently. Were they scared by this or was it kind of silly for them? Because, like, as much as the animatronics, I think actually hold up relatively well if your kids are used to seeing like Jurassic park level graphics, maybe a gremlin doesn't quite scare them in the same way. [00:07:05] Speaker C: So the Gremlins actually look pretty good in the first movie. I would argue there is A huge improvement on them in the second movie as far as their. The look of them. But the first one did for the time, man, I thought it was fantastic effects. [00:07:21] Speaker B: Oh, I agree for the time. I mean now you're. Nowadays your kids are probably used to way better. So that's. Yeah. [00:07:26] Speaker C: But I also forced my kids to watch a lot of old movies and so they kind of understand that things are going to look differently. And you know, they think Roblox looks good. So what the hell do they know? This movie, this movie did scare them a little. There were some scenes that were like, like when they're melting and stu and there's bubbly goo everywhere and there's some people that get attacked and it's kind of rough. They shoot an old lady out the window and she crash lands in the street and is clearly dead. [00:07:55] Speaker B: You know, that's pretty comedic though. I wouldn't would that. [00:07:58] Speaker C: I thought it was funny. But my 3 year old was like, papa, this movie's not going to be. Mom's not going to be happy about us watch this movie, you know. So yeah, it, it was a little bit rough for the real youngins, I would say 10 to 13, you're probably going to be okay. My 8 year old was kind of a little on the edge of it because it does get a little bit rough. But otherwise, yeah, it's very comedic. I can totally tell how it could have been a horror movie or it could have been straight up comedy. And I could see where they transitioned from one to the other and there's traces of both now. So. [00:08:36] Speaker A: Yeah. So that said, in 84, this is when it came out as well as. [00:08:40] Speaker B: You'Re just about to go where I was gonna go. Yeah. Is the one you're looking for Temple of Doom? [00:08:44] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:08:44] Speaker A: Indiana Jones. And both of those movies are what. [00:08:47] Speaker C: Pushed. [00:08:50] Speaker A: For PG13 to be created because people felt that this shouldn't have been a rated R movie, but it was definitely not a PG movie. And so that's, that's what pushed for a PG 13. And look at, look at Gremlins 2 came along. PG 13, baby. [00:09:08] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. I was about to go to that exact location with that one because when it first came out, Jaws from my understanding was a PG movie. And it's like, that's interesting. But PG13 didn't exist at the time. So that makes sense. [00:09:20] Speaker C: And of course they've made adjustments to the rating scale as time goes by. Yeah. Did you think which did you think one was scarier, two was scarier. Was there a Difference were they aside from the actual ratings of the movies, do you think that either one could be watched by the exact same age groups, etc. Etc. Like, what do you think? [00:09:41] Speaker B: I think one is scarier. I want to say two is maybe more risque, but I don't know. I can't think of any part in it maybe other than like the female gremlin that really pushes it in that direction. [00:09:54] Speaker A: She is risque. [00:09:56] Speaker B: She is risque. [00:09:57] Speaker C: I, I see. I agree completely with what you're saying. That's. That's kind of how I felt too. Yeah. [00:10:01] Speaker B: Yeah. The first one, again, I would not say these are scary and my kids have watched way scarier. Like, they didn't watch either one of these with me, and I was okay with that. But I can't imagine, like, maybe my youngest, like my 7 year old might have found the first one a little scary, but I think my twins would have laughed it off. They're. They're 12 and they've seen worse. And the second one, I don't like. Maybe the Spider in the Shadows, but even once you see the spider, he just looks kind of silly and ridiculous. Like, he doesn't. The, the second one definitely felt like they knew more what they were making and leaned really heavily into the comedy. Whereas the first one, they were like, well, is it going to be this? There's going to be this. And I kind of wish they just picked Elaine and ran with it. Even if they did like the aliens thing or the Terminator thing where they switched genres before the between movies, I would have been more okay with that than just kind of like humming and hawing and then leaning. Leaning heavily into one of the other after that. [00:10:55] Speaker A: There is, there is kind of a major reason why two is the way it is, and that's the director, Joe Dante. Joe Dante didn't want to do a sequel, and he was very adamant that there's no more story to tell in the Gremlins. They. They told the story they wanted to tell in the first movie and then for like six years, the studio was like trying to get this movie going and off the ground and kept falling apart. And then Joe Dante, they asked him again and he's like, okay, well, if you let me do whatever I want, I'll do it. And they were like, absolutely. You have full creative control. And so he's like, I'm making like an anti sequel, just like doubling down. Not unlike Home Alone, but like Home Alone was like, this is amped up to 11 gremlins 2. He just amped it up to 100. Being like, this is why there was no reason for a sequel. We're going to make the same movie and just go ballistically over the top and just. [00:11:56] Speaker C: They literally out a cover of Gremlins 1 and start mocking it like in the movie. [00:12:02] Speaker A: Well, that. Although as an actual reviewer, that's an actual movie reviewer in the sequel, the first movie, and gave it a pretty poor score. So they actually hired him for the second movie to do the same review and then kill him as a joke. Right. Like, everything is so breaking the fourth wall. It's just, it's such a parody of itself that I, I kind of find it hilariously fantastic. [00:12:32] Speaker B: Now, do you enjoy the fact that it's a pair? It's breaking the fourth wall constantly and is just like you just said, it's fantastic. So I guess that kind of answered my question. But I was thinking about this question while you were still talking. [00:12:40] Speaker A: Yeah, no, that's fair. [00:12:41] Speaker B: Because there is a lot of breaking the fourth wall and just ridiculousness that happens. Like, this is. This is like the first one's kind of horror kind of comedy. This is pure slapstick, ridiculous comedy. Some of it really worked for me. Some of it really didn't. [00:12:56] Speaker A: I think they went all in, right? And so, yeah, some of it's going to, you know, fall off and, and not. Not hit. And maybe in the time it was released, some things might have hit better than now, you know, and that's okay. And when you're like going all in, not everything's going to hit and that's okay. I think it's just like the overall experience, whether you enjoy that or not, I think that's what it comes down to. [00:13:24] Speaker B: Comedy is a very hard thing to. Sorry. Comedy doesn't age well very often. Like, there are some. But a lot of them have like that four year window where they're really funny and then either comedy changes or the references change or something and this movie feels. Gremlins 2, I should say definitely feels like it. It hits that mark where it's like, it was probably hilarious in 1990, but watching it for the first time in 2024, it didn't. Didn't really work for me. Even though I could tell the kind of jokes they were going for. There was a lot of pop culture references. They were just like, okay, I get it. What about for your kids, Brian? Did they see Gremlins too? And did they enjoy it? Did they get some of the, the references, some of the jokes, like, I think everybody knows who Hulklemania is. [00:14:03] Speaker C: But no, they did not get any of the references. They really didn't like the sequel very much. They didn't even appreciate some of the reasons that I did like the sequel, which was I thought the effects and the look of the gremlins was so far improved in the seque. And I liked the characterizations. And I kept telling him, I'm like, hey, just. Just wait till you see the one with glasses. Just. Just wait till you hear the song, you know? You know? And. And so they got there and they watched it, and they're like, okay, so he's a talking gremlin. And I'm like, yeah. But, like, they kept wondering, like, where's Spike gonna be from the first one, the leader, Right. They kept which ones? Which one's Spike? And I'm like, no, Spike melted. He's dead. If there's a leader, I guess it's going to be the smart talking one, which I thought was hilarious and interesting and. And a fun spin on it. But they didn't get anything. The female gremlin is practic. I mean, it's pretty much offensive at this point. The humor has changed so much. It just doesn't. It doesn't fly anymore at all. This movie definitely didn't hold up over. [00:15:10] Speaker B: Time, but the smart Gremlin scene, I just want to touch on it super briefly. Every time he talked. I really wanted him to be voiced by the actor. I don't know who it is. Who did Beast in the X Men animated series. [00:15:22] Speaker A: Kelsey. [00:15:23] Speaker B: No, not Kelsey. [00:15:24] Speaker A: Grammar Animated. Okay. [00:15:26] Speaker B: He just looked so much like Beast. The giant ears, everything, the glasses. Like, I just wanted his voice to sound like that. It never did. That really bothered me. Not to point where it, like, ruined the character or anything, but it's just like, you should sound like Hank McCoy. [00:15:39] Speaker A: That's fine. [00:15:39] Speaker B: Sorry, I just had to throw that out there. [00:15:40] Speaker C: I liked the character the way he was. I didn't want him to be any different. I. I felt his dialogue options were amazing. And it was just. I wanted more of him. I wanted him to come in sooner because I remembered the movie and that was a thing that I remembered. And then rewatching it with my kids, I was like, man, he doesn't drop in until, like, the last third of the movie, honestly. And he's actually a small role in it. And I remembered him being much more prominent from before. But, yeah, I thought that was great. I thought the look of them was great. I liked that they did science experiments and made all these new versions. I like that gizmo played a stronger character and like Rambos out for a minute there, even if it's just a minute. Whatever. It was kind of cute. But nothing in the sequel was necessary. And the. And the technology of the building at this did not age well. Right. Like, the technology. My cell phone does more than that entire building could do. And that entire. [00:16:37] Speaker A: Yeah, but it was your cell phone. [00:16:39] Speaker B: As funny as that building, though, because that was actually legit. One of my favorite parts. It's just the background, like, announcer voice every now and then just killed me. [00:16:46] Speaker A: There's a fire. This is real. You guys should pack your things and go. It's like so, so stupid, but so hilarious. Like fire, the untamed element, oldest of. [00:16:58] Speaker B: Man'S mysteries, Giver of warmth, Destroyer of forests. [00:17:01] Speaker A: Right now this building is on fire. [00:17:04] Speaker B: What? Yes, the building is on fire. Leave the building. Enact the age old drama of self preservation. Fire. [00:17:11] Speaker A: I just liked how bad or how good it was. Like commenting on technology and how, you know, it's a give and take with technology. And like, obviously things are going too far with some technology. I would say we could equate it right now with AI. Right? AI is the hot new thing right now. And if this movie was made today, that's what it would be pushing the message about AI being like, ridiculous. [00:17:39] Speaker C: Well, and of course, we need something to go wrong. We need the gremlins to be making things fail. And so this building, this high tech marvel of the future is failing horribly everywhere. Because the gremlins. [00:17:53] Speaker B: Do you think? Because the technology was failing before the gremlins showed up. So I legitimately made that connection a little earlier when you were talking about the, you know, World War II planes and such. Would it have been better if the technology worked properly until the gremlins showed up? And then the technology started failing because you see things like, again in the second one, like the spinning door doesn't work long before the Gremlins show. [00:18:15] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, it never works. [00:18:18] Speaker C: That almost felt like foreshadowing to me. You know, it, it, it was. I like it the way it was. I didn't think it really changed much. And if anything, it was. It was like a subtle foreshadowing. Hey, things are going to start failing in here. [00:18:31] Speaker B: I almost wondered if it was the fact that, like, Billy was cursed because, like, he's around his dad all the time. His dad's inventions never worked. He starts working in this building, the building starts not working. Like, I was wondering if that was a direction we were going, if that's. [00:18:42] Speaker C: Why I never made that connection. But that's. That's a good one. Yeah. [00:18:45] Speaker B: Yeah. Because it was like he walks right past that. That revolving door, and it stops working and spits the guy out, like, instantly. And I was just like, interesting. I didn't think that would be something that carried over from the first one. And here we are, and it's right beside Billy. I'm like, okay, maybe there's something there. I don't know. [00:19:00] Speaker A: So let's go back to the first one a little bit more. What did you guys think of, like, the inventor, dad? Crazy quirky gadgets and things like that? What did you guys think of that throughout the first movie? [00:19:12] Speaker C: You go first, Dan. I want to hear your reply. [00:19:14] Speaker B: Oh, I thought it was cringiest. [00:19:20] Speaker A: A little over the top. Like, too much. [00:19:22] Speaker B: Well, like, okay, so it starts off with the. The Chinese guy's basement. And he's, like, instantly trying to be like, hey, you've got a lot of cool knickknacks here that are clearly ancient. Do you want to buy this invention that's brand new and barely works? It's just like, shut up. Like, this is not the place to be selling your wares. And he's, like, trying to be like. And look, it does this, too. And this. And. Oh, and it sprayed all over my shirt. Oh, but ignore that. It's easy to clean. I'm just like, come on. And then it made a little bit more sense when he was talking to the guy in the grocery, the convenience store, I think it was. And he's like, hey, you know that ashtray is broken. You might want to use this thing. He's like, okay. He actually recognized that the guy had a problem, and he had a solution for it. That's what inventions should do. So it was kind of like, okay, this makes sense. And he did make that sale. So you're like, okay. So he actually is relatively good at his job because the first time you see him, I don't know what you're supposed to think, but my. My first thought is just, this dude is a failure. Like, this. This is not a successful person. He's selling broken ass, useless, crappy, doesn't understand the marketplace. He's trying to sell it to somebody who clearly doesn't want it. Like, none of that worked. Then you see him later on in the movie. You're like, oh, okay. No, he does. He can pick up on needs and try and fill that gap. But, like, if this was my dad, I would just be embarrassed to go anywhere with him. Because, you know, he's the type of person who's going to talk to, like, a teenage girl and be like, hey, do you need a robotic back scratcher? Because I've got one. It's just like, dad, shut up. No, go away. Stop. Like, it's just all bad. [00:20:53] Speaker C: His family was supportive of him. His wife supported him, even though she clearly hated using his gadgets. Oh, yeah. Continues to try to use them all the time. Hides the fact that everything's failing around him, and he's still supportive of him. And they do have this loving environment home where Billy doesn't seem that embarrassed of his father. Really good relationship. [00:21:15] Speaker A: Quite the opposite. I would be home alone. Everybody hated each other in this movie. Everybody's super loving and caring, which was nice to see. [00:21:23] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:21:25] Speaker B: To the point where he bought his son a pet. Which is like, the catalyst of the movie is he buys his son this mog way. He's been looking for something for his kid, and he's like, oh, this is perfect. I don't know why he thinks this thing is perfect. I also have no idea why nobody at any time sees this gremlin. And it's like, that's weird. Like, what is that? They're all just like, oh, is this a puppy? Like, no. What are you talking about? [00:21:48] Speaker A: Let's be fair, though. Like, Mogwai Gizmo is like the OG Baby Yoda. Like, that thing is cute. [00:21:54] Speaker B: It's cute for sure. But, like, is this what just things were like before people had Internet? They just accepted that they didn't know what half the shit in the world looked like and be like, I don't know, is it from Africa? What is this thing? Because, like, nowadays I feel like people would look at that and be like, I've never seen that before. And I've seen everything. [00:22:09] Speaker A: It's also funny. Mogwai is like catanese for demon. Which is also. Also good to know. [00:22:15] Speaker B: I debated that as a trivia question. I'm like, that doesn't come up in the movie, though, so. [00:22:18] Speaker A: No, it doesn't. But it's super funny. [00:22:20] Speaker B: I love that you brought it up. They're like, damn it, I could have had that. [00:22:23] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:22:24] Speaker B: So he buys this thing for his kid, takes it home, and at this point, you haven't met his son yet, so you're just kind of thinking like, yeah, okay, makes sense. You meet his son, and he's got, like, the most loyal dog in the world. Like, this kid is not looking for another pet. And he's like, here, I Got you something. Here you go. And you're just like, that wasn't necessary. Like, why were you looking for that for so long? Like, his kid didn't need this. And the rest of the movie, the dog just looks like, oh, and looks sad every time. And then they're just like, take the dog off to a farm. Like, all right, well, you're not needed anymore. It's just, like, kind of feel bad for the dog. Like, poor Barney. [00:22:59] Speaker A: Yeah, Barney is super cute. [00:23:00] Speaker B: Yeah. What was your take, Brian? [00:23:03] Speaker C: Yeah, I didn't like the let's buy this pet for my son thing. It didn't work for me. It didn't fit. It didn't fit right at all. It didn't make sense why he was in the Chinaman's shop. Like, none of that fit right. [00:23:17] Speaker B: And. [00:23:18] Speaker C: And I don't even know why his dad was this quirky inventor character. Like, there was just some weird things about the intro and the father, his. His profession. None of that felt necessary, and I don't know what it was there for. He could have just been a traveling salesman. He could have just simply been a traveling salesman. He didn't have to be this weird inventor guy. [00:23:41] Speaker B: Sorry. Sorry. The only thing that makes sense to me in that. Which I, again, I didn't put together because during the movie I was like, ah, this is weird. Is if every of his inventions. If all of his inventions worked perfectly, then the gremlins showed up, then they started falling apart. Even if the gremlins aren't messing with. [00:23:55] Speaker C: Them, that would have been something. [00:23:56] Speaker B: Okay, that kind of makes sense. But you're right. As we're presented to it, it just felt really weird and out of place. Just like a sight gag every now and then, like, oh, look, the blender doesn't work. [00:24:06] Speaker C: Shadowing. They never used the inventions against him other than the mother threw one in a blender. But it could have been. It could have been a regular blender. It didn't need to be an invention, you know, so it was unnecessary. Although my mother watched it with me this last time with me and the kids, and she thought the inventions were cute, and she got some laughs out of it, and it was entertaining. And so that brought a smile to my mother's face. So I'm gonna give him points for it anyways. Didn't need it, but it made somebody happy. And if we're making people happy with movies, then it's a good thing. [00:24:41] Speaker A: That's true. That's true. Yeah. I also feel. I also feel like the invention, whole side Story is a little bit weird, but it feels very Chris Columbus to me. Chris Columbus did Home Alone, and you get Kevin's gadgets all over the place. He did the Goonies, and, you know, Data, or whatever his name is has all these kooky gadgets. I think it's just a Chris Columbus thing. He loves all these funny little gadget things, so he puts it in a lot of his movies. So I think it's more of a writer story plot than maybe overarching through point to this specific movie. [00:25:18] Speaker B: Now, correct me if I'm wrong, though. Chris Columbus wrote this. Joe Dante directed it, but Home Alone, he directed. John Hughes wrote and he directed. [00:25:27] Speaker A: Correct. But I mean, as the director, you probably have a lot of say on what the actual mechanisms are that are going to go into the. Into. [00:25:35] Speaker B: The writer gets you to the house, and then he can kind of decide what goes in. [00:25:38] Speaker A: Yeah, especially. Especially in the movie. [00:25:40] Speaker C: Or the director saw that script and loved it and said, I want to direct this movie, you know, also, you know, whatever. But either way, they came together. [00:25:48] Speaker B: Put my crap in. This sounds good. [00:25:49] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:25:51] Speaker A: Either way, it was. I don't mind it. I don't know. Maybe again, it's a nostalgia thing. Like, when I was little, I was like, cool. This guy invents cool things. And it's hilarious because they're all breaking down and never work and they're shooting orange juice all over the house. And that's funny. But like, yeah. Watching it now, you're like, okay, how did this guy ever make a living at all? [00:26:12] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:26:14] Speaker C: So I've got a question. I want to make sure we're final on this one. We've all got Christmas trees in the backdrop of our scenes here. And I want to know, number one, is it a Christmas movie? And number two, is it a Christmas movie? I say one, yes. I say two. No. What do you guys feel, if anything? I felt like one was a Christmas movie and two was like a New Year's movie or something. I don't know. [00:26:40] Speaker B: So I want to touch on two real quick. Before we get to one, is there anything Christmas in number two? [00:26:45] Speaker C: No. No, I didn't see anything Christmas at all. [00:26:47] Speaker B: Yeah, I didn't see anything. I don't think they mentioned Christmas. That's why I was like, I'm surprised this is. Even for one, there's a conversation for two. Like, I don't even think it took place in December. Like, they're in New York. If it was in New York in December, especially in 1990, there should be Snow. [00:27:03] Speaker C: They're out in like T shirts and jeans. It wasn't. Yeah, they weren't that cold. So you're right. [00:27:07] Speaker B: Yeah. Okay, so for number one, I would love to hear your answers first because I'm not quite sure where I land on this answer. Oh yeah. What do you think? [00:27:14] Speaker A: I believe number two is absolutely not a Christmas movie, but I believe it just gets coupled with Gremlins one. I believe, like if you're gonna watch Gremlins, you're probably just gonna watch Gremlins 2 because otherwise you're never gonna watch Gremlins 2. So I think a lot of people have deemed this a Christmas movie because it takes place at Christmas, Christmas gift, yada, yada yada. It kind of revolves around the season. There is the crazy Kate monologue about her father passing and it's super dark and weirdly comedic somehow. And they totally go overboard and, and joke about it in the second movie even. So, I, I feel that maybe Gremlins is not like your typical Christmas movie, but has kind of become a Christmas movie over time. And Gremlins 2 is just kind of a tag along that people like to watch because why not watch them both in a short succession? [00:28:14] Speaker B: Makes sense. What about you, Brian? [00:28:17] Speaker C: I agree. I. I think the first one has lots of Christmas themes. We do have the Kate monologue of her father dying in the chimney pretending to be Santa Claus, which is so like she, it's. It's dark, man. That story's real bad. And yet they, they approach it light heartedly almost. It's kind of weird, but it is definitely a Christmas tale. Almost like an anti Christmas tale. The way they approach it, like she's trying to avoid Christmas. He thinks Christmas is great because he has this wonderful family and doesn't quite understand her perspective. And then of course, all hell's breaking loose on Christmas because of the Gremlins. So even though there's this battle of is Christmas a good time or a bad time? You're. You're trying to have a positive outcome. She thinks it's going to be bad, he thinks it's going to be good. And you have to watch the movie to decide whether you think that was a good outcome for Christmas or not. [00:29:20] Speaker B: Yeah, I am torn. Two. No. Just hard. No. But for number one, there's so much Christmas imagery in this movie that I really. It's hard to say that it's not. And obviously it takes place at Christmas time. The mogwai is originally bought as a Christmas gift, although it's given to him early the story about the dad at Christmas, the girlfriend who doesn't like Christmas time. Like, it's brought up enough that it's definitely like a background character, but it doesn't. And I realize I'm gonna get pushed back on this. It doesn't feel like any of the plot has anything to do with Christmas. Even the point where, yes, he buys Mogwe as a present for his kid, but I don't, I don't think he says he buys it as a Christmas present for his kid. I think he's just been looking for something for his kid and he gives it to him early. And not like, oh, it's Christmas Eve early. Like it might be December 3rd. Like, we're not really sure what the timeline is. Or I, I was not clear on what the timeline is. Somebody who's seen this movie far more often than I might might step in and change that. So it definitely takes place at Christmas time. There's definitely Christmas things going on in the background. For sure. It, I don't know, it just didn't quite resonate with me. Like, it's a Christmas movie. In the same way that we joke that, like, Die Hard is a Christmas movie, but, like, as an actual Christmas movie, I don't know that I put up. It's more of a Christmas movie than Die Hard, than Lethal Weapon is, I'll give it that. But I don't know if it's like actual legit Christmas movie. [00:30:42] Speaker C: I think if you're looking for a movie to watch around Christmas time that doesn't choke the ever loving Christmas life out of you by smothering you with Christmas stuff, this is like a movie you can watch. Like a Die Hard movie where you could go, you know, I think of this movie around Christmas time, but I can watch it and be entertained. And it's not a Charlie Brown or A Christmas Story or something that's, you know, going to make it 24 hours on TBS. [00:31:13] Speaker B: I can watch Die Hard in July. I can watch Gremlins in July. I don't know that I'm ever putting A Christmas Carol on in July. [00:31:22] Speaker A: No, I agree. I feel this movie falls into the same category as Die Hard. Whereas it revolves around Christmas, there's a lot of Christmas elements. But you could transpose this story at a different time of year and it would still work. You could do that with both movies. You could watch both movies at a different time and still enjoy them. But I feel like society overall has deemed them as a Christmas classic of some kind. And they are watched by Society at Christmas. And who am I to fight society? It's never worked up until this point. So. [00:32:00] Speaker B: Just gonna let that sit for a minute. All right, what did you think about. So we talked about the animatronics in this. I know I go dart deeper in music generally than you two do, but what do you think about the acting in these movies? Specifically in number one, let's say did. I feel like the main cast did. Okay. I feel like the gremlins were really bouncing back and forth between kind of cute and funny and just super goddamn annoying with all the little noises they made. And I feel like most of the. I'm calling the background cast was just turned up to 11. Even in the first movie where they were just really going for it. You're just like, okay, I see what you're trying to do here, but like. Mrs. I don't know. Mrs. I want to kill your dog. [00:32:46] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:32:47] Speaker B: Just jumped in the scene at like a 12 and you're just like, like, let's try that again at like a nine. But okay, sure. [00:32:52] Speaker A: She's the scrooge of the. Of the movie for sure. [00:32:55] Speaker C: Right. [00:32:55] Speaker B: Well, like, I got really. Oh, what's it called? Wonderful Life things. You know what I mean? Like, she felt like it's been too long. I'm sorry, the guy in the wheelchair. Mister. [00:33:05] Speaker A: Mister, yeah, yeah, the banker guy or whatever. [00:33:07] Speaker B: Yeah, him. Like, that's the kind of impression I was getting. Maybe because they were in a bank, maybe because she's very upset, but like, that's kind of what I was getting from her character. Like they were kind of going for a mildly younger, more angry. [00:33:20] Speaker C: Well, there's this weird thing in cinema when they need to kill a character to showcase horror or violence or tragedy that could befall your main actors. But they don't want you to feel bad about the person that got killed. So they make a character that you don't like or even hate and they kill that character. And then you're like, haha, that old lady got shot out of the window and went face first into the pavement. That's horrible. That's. That's terrible. But she was a terrible person. So apparently it's okay. I don't know why we do this in movies. It happens a lot. It's not something that always gets pulled off very well, but they needed to showcase that these gremlins will murder you if given the opportunity. And they didn't want to kill off a character that was beloved to us because we felt bad when we thought Murray and his wife Were killed, right? [00:34:13] Speaker B: Oh, they were killed. [00:34:14] Speaker C: Okay. [00:34:14] Speaker B: No, that was a retcon. That was terrible. They were. They died. They died in the first movie for sure. That was what actors. Can we get back? Oh, they're willing to come back. Fine. They lived. Sure. Why not? [00:34:26] Speaker A: 100. Anything for the sequel that shouldn't have ever happened. [00:34:30] Speaker C: Well, come on. Murray's wife takes home the Emmy for sure. That was the best acting. [00:34:38] Speaker B: They did kill off the science teacher before they killed off the miserable old woman, though. Yeah. [00:34:44] Speaker A: He was kind of a main character, though, right? [00:34:46] Speaker B: He was kind of. [00:34:47] Speaker A: Well, I'd sing. So he's doing these weird, random tests on this animal. He's like, come here, little fella. [00:34:53] Speaker B: Why did they take mogwai to him if it's not to do things like blood tests? And look at him like he's a. [00:34:59] Speaker A: Freaking high school science teacher, man. Like, he doesn't have the. He doesn't have the skill. Skill to be doing that kind of stuff. No chance. He's a weirdo. [00:35:09] Speaker C: I did think that, you know, he had it coming because he stabbed the. The mogwai, took his blood, and of course, in the end, he had the needle stuck in his. In his rump there. That one was. That one was like, I didn't not like this character enough to be, this is okay that he got murdered kind of thing. Like, the old lady, she had it coming, right? This guy was like. He was doing what he was supposed to. He wasn't necessarily mean to the mogwai. He was just running animal tests on him. [00:35:38] Speaker A: He knew the rules and left food right in front of the cage. Like, this guy was incompetent. Let's. [00:35:44] Speaker C: Right, okay. Was there a big, like, animal? So did the main character movement going on back in 83, 84 when this. When this came out? Was that a big issue back then? [00:35:54] Speaker A: Main character was duped by devious mogwai who change. Who cut the cord on the. On the clock after midnight in error. It wasn't that he was incompetent. [00:36:07] Speaker C: He was. Yeah, he was fooled. He was tricked into it. It wasn't his fault. [00:36:09] Speaker A: He was tricked by the. The devious mogwai. [00:36:12] Speaker C: Yes. [00:36:13] Speaker B: You could argue that getting tricked by a small, dumb animal is still kind of a level of incompetence. But. Okay, sure. [00:36:19] Speaker A: But this. This other dude literally left his sandwich right in arm's reach of the creature. Right. Like, it's incompetence level. Anyway, moving on. Moving on. [00:36:29] Speaker C: Hey, let's talk about the transition between furry gremlins to scaly Gremlins and the pods that they come out with and the effects of that in the room and then in the sequel in two when it happens as well. [00:36:42] Speaker A: Can I, can I pause that? Just because we were talking about acting a little bit and I just want to. I just want to do my Canada call out segment. [00:36:51] Speaker C: Oh, here we go. [00:36:52] Speaker B: Here we go. I should have a graphic for that. [00:36:55] Speaker A: Canada call out. Here's your Canada segment, everybody. [00:36:59] Speaker C: One for every franchise. Guys, tune in. [00:37:02] Speaker B: We have to talk about Canada and Blue lightning, go. [00:37:05] Speaker A: For those of you who don't know, Howie Mandel voiced the Mogwai gizmo and he is a well known famous Canadian actor, comedian, game show host mostly nowadays, but he did all the voice work for the Mogwai and that's not entirely true. They hired a young lady to sing the Mogwai song. But aside from that, he did all the voice work for the Mogwai gizmo specifically. And he actually did all of the dubbing for foreign languages as well, doing like pronunciations phonetically to get all the voice for Gizmo into the foreign areas for this movie, which actually helped it in the long run because they could put specific jokes for those countries into the, into the movie because of that. Yeah. [00:37:55] Speaker B: So everything the Gremlins of the Mogwai did was just like ad libbed and just kind of like rehashing what somebody had just said. So it's really easy to do that. [00:38:03] Speaker C: Didn't Gizmo have like five lines in this movie? He was like a glorified Groot man. [00:38:08] Speaker A: Yeah, he made a lot of fun. [00:38:09] Speaker B: Little nice, but yeah, we gotta take. [00:38:11] Speaker A: What we can get, bud. [00:38:12] Speaker C: And then, and then I thought you. [00:38:14] Speaker B: Were gonna talk about Shea Winnipeg. That's where I thought you were going. [00:38:17] Speaker A: No, I also was. What's Shea Winnipeg? [00:38:20] Speaker B: The Canadian restaurant, The high class. [00:38:23] Speaker A: I couldn't remember the name of it, but I was gonna go there. In the Gremlins 2. They actually go to a Canadian themed restaurant, which was glorious. I. I took copious notes while they were there. It's like a 30 second scene. [00:38:36] Speaker B: Sir, this is a favorite Canadian dessert, the chocolate mousse. Can I cut you an antler? Oh, no, thank you. But they got this right. They got this right. They got this right. [00:38:48] Speaker A: They state that they clean fish at the table, which is hilarious to even think about. Canada's favorite dessert, the chocolate mousse is just a hilarious. A literal moose hilarious chocolate mousse at the table, which is nothing. That's no Canadian restaurant I've ever heard. Of has done that. But it's super funny. The waiters in the Mountie uniforms. Amazing. Asking for another Molson A. And for those real die hard Canadians out there, you could have heard if you can read my Mind by Gordon Lightfoot playing who is a famous Canadian singer songwriter. It was amazing that they put that into the movie. [00:39:32] Speaker C: And now we have another segment for our show, the Canadian by these two guys. [00:39:42] Speaker A: Oh, man. Now, as a Canadian, that. That Canadian themed restaurant was a hoot. [00:39:48] Speaker B: I honestly, I forgot how Mandel was Canadian. I just assumed you were going for Shay Winnipeg, so. [00:39:52] Speaker A: Yeah, no, both. Both things. Yeah. Anyway, all right, back to your question. The metamorphosis. Yes. [00:39:59] Speaker C: The egg pods or whatever we want to call them, did they. [00:40:02] Speaker B: Were they eggs or were they the gremlins growing? Because I thought at one point they kind of just like unfurled like they. They were that cocoon thing that we were looking at. [00:40:11] Speaker A: Yeah. I feel like it was kind of somewhat of a cocoon, like, structure because there was like a lot of excess over it and then they kind of like grew out of it kind of. [00:40:20] Speaker C: Thing similar to like when a caterpillar transitions to a butterfly. Isn't that a. There's a chrysalis. A chrysalis, yeah, chrysalis. [00:40:28] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. So I enjoyed it. I enjoyed. I enjoyed a lot of the practical effects in these movies. And I love the. The egg sacks or whatever they were, the cocoon sacks and then coming out. I loved when they got the gremlins wet and you could see them, like, bubbling off the back. I feel like they're going through, like, pain. But they also love it because they know they're multiplying and, like, getting stronger because of it. I thought all of it looked really cool. And I think the animatronics that they used were very expensive at the time. So I. I think they. I think they forked a lot of money over to make it look as good as it looked. [00:41:09] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:41:09] Speaker C: Another swimming pool. Swimming was amazing. And I. When they're eating the chicken that first night, when they're eating the chicken, that was so disgusting. Watching them eat the chicken. [00:41:21] Speaker B: It looked. [00:41:21] Speaker C: Oh, man, it grossed me out when they were eating the chicken. But yeah, all the rest of the effects I enjoyed a lot. Especially the pool scene with the bubbling lights and how it spread out and. And through. Like, if you watch that pool scene when they jump in the water and it starts bubbling and spreading through the pool, like, that's actually. I don't know how they did that. It looked really cool. And and it was really kind of an intense scene. It wasn't just, hey, let's put some lights and some dry ice in this pool. It was way more than that. And it was a cool scene, A scene to watch. [00:41:52] Speaker B: Yeah, I agree. That was a very, very well done scene. The actual. Yeah, you were saying the, the, the gremlins, when they got wet, not the mogwai so much, they kind of just turned into little fluff balls and flew away. But when the gremlins got wet and you could actually see like in the second one specifically, like when they zoom in and you can see the little gremlins growing on the big gremlins back in real time. And they're just. I don't know if I was getting the like happiness. I was just kind of getting the pain on the big gremlins. Like, it, it legitimately hurts them to do this. But like, that was a cool effect. That was really, really well done. [00:42:24] Speaker A: I also kind of just liked you mentioned like the mogwai, when they multiply, it's just like fuzzy little kind of cute. I, I like the contrast between the two. Like the gremlins is like really visceral and looks very painful. And mogwise looks kind of painful for, you know, as well. But like they're just little like little lumps of fur that like little puff out and it's kind of adorable. Whereas like the gremlins egg sacks are like really disgusting. And I just really like the contrast between the two. I always just wondered like, why is Gizmo like the only. [00:42:59] Speaker C: Not psychotic one? [00:43:01] Speaker A: Yeah, like level headed mogwai. You know, it was always a weird, like, he's the outlier, he's the odd duck in this like gremlin world. Right? [00:43:11] Speaker B: So, so that's interesting. That transitioned perfectly to what I wanted to ask or one of the questions ahead. [00:43:16] Speaker A: That's why I'm here. [00:43:17] Speaker B: Which is if mogwai's multiply into mogwai's and gremlins multiply into gremlins, and with the exception of Gizmo, none of them seem to care. Like, Gizmo seems to not want to change into a gremlin and everybody else is like, let's get to gremlin mode as fast as possible. How do you ever get more mogwise? Like, why aren't they extinct? Why isn't it just gremlins running around? There's no way to turn them back. [00:43:40] Speaker C: Surprised your parents haven't had a talk with you about the birds in the bee. You see, when a, when When a mogwai meets another mogwai and they like each other, then they spend the night with one another, Dan. And that's not what happens. And two to seven months later, you get little baby gizmos. [00:44:01] Speaker B: No, you're wrong. You're just. We saw it in the movie twice. That's. The water gets on them and they turn into little gizmos instantly. They're asexual. So I don't know why there's a female at all. Just to be weird. [00:44:11] Speaker A: Probably some genetic fluid of some kind. [00:44:14] Speaker B: In the second one, there's so many questions to the theory and the logic behind these movies. And I love that in the second one, there's actually a scene of all the people just, like, ripping apart the logic. [00:44:23] Speaker A: Yeah, right. [00:44:24] Speaker B: I was just like, thank you. Thank you. You recognize that this is ludicrous and you're kind of just running with it anyways, but nonetheless, there's so many things where it's like, okay, but all of the mogwais want to turn into gremlins, so why are there any that are still mogwai? Like, that doesn't. [00:44:39] Speaker A: I'll give you the real answer here, and that is, sorry, sorry, sorry. Yeah, no, no worries. The real answer is Steven Spielberg marketability. Steven Spielberg said, oh, you know, original script shows that there is no Spike. There is only mogwai, AKA Gizmo, who turns into Spike in the script and wants to kill everything. Now Steven Spielberg's like, no, we need somebody that the audience wants to root for. So let's have good old innocent Gizmo stay there, and then Spike will pop out of him and be the bad gremlin side. And so that's why in the script, it happens. And that's why it feels weird, because it is weird. It's not how it was originally intended. And that's what happens when you cut up and rejig scripts for. For marketability and lovability of little beautiful gizmos. [00:45:36] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:45:36] Speaker B: Because I fully understand that from perspective. Sorry, go ahead, Brian. [00:45:41] Speaker C: Billy's kind of adult. I. I, like, he couldn't carry it. He wouldn't be the character that I'm like, oh, I want him to survive. Like, I want Kate to survive more than anything. She's like a realist, and she's kind of a badass. She's like the Sigourney Weaver of this movie. Other than she does kind of fall behind Billy all the time. And I'm like, come on. She's more in the second one. [00:46:02] Speaker A: But, yeah, the second One, she's pretty useless. [00:46:04] Speaker C: I, I would kind of rather see the Steven Spielberg version where Gizmo turns into Spike and goes amok. [00:46:11] Speaker A: No, that's the Chris Columbus version. [00:46:13] Speaker C: Chris. Okay, thank you. And, and I'd rather see that one and have Kate, like, explain to Billy, christmas sucks and you got to lay down the law on these gremlins. Let's go take care of business. And Billy, in his sheltered life with perfect papa and everything gets a wake up call. That would have been pretty cool, I think. I, I think he's kind of a goof. And she, she carries him. Even in the sequel, he is I such an idiot. And she could do way better than him. [00:46:46] Speaker B: Okay, I'm not gonna deny that she could do better than him, but I don't think her, she, Kate, is anywhere close to the Sigourney Weaver Ripley character. I mean, when we're talking about a Ripley character. No, she's not. Let's be honest. She's not written. [00:47:01] Speaker C: She could have been. [00:47:02] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. If she was written completely different, she might have been. But no, the character we got was not. You want to know the Ripley? The mom is Ripley. The mom takes out three of these things in 30 seconds without looking back. Nobody in either movie kills a single one of these as quickly as she takes three of them out. She's a boss. That's your Ripley. [00:47:22] Speaker A: She's got all. [00:47:23] Speaker B: Keep his family together. I'm going to, like, love this man who's an idiot. Somehow we're going to pay the rent. I'm going to do all this stuff while he's traveling on the road, and I'm going to take care of business at home. [00:47:32] Speaker A: Yeah, I agree with that. And again, in the original script, she gets beheaded by a gremlin and her son comes home to finding her head rolling down the stairs. [00:47:43] Speaker B: Jesus. [00:47:43] Speaker A: Yeah, very, very much a darker movie originally. So, yeah, I like the change on the mom because the mom was so badass and she's like, you can see her pent up, like, man, my husband's a failure. But I have chosen to be with him. I love him, you know, until death do us. [00:48:00] Speaker C: Finally, the blender works for something. [00:48:02] Speaker A: Now I get I have a reason to just unload all of this pent up aggression I have over the years. And she just obliterates those gremlins and it's, it's, it's beautiful. [00:48:13] Speaker B: My husband's a failure. My son's an idiot. I'm gonna take care of business. Oh, that's too funny. [00:48:23] Speaker A: Yeah, super funny. [00:48:25] Speaker B: All right. Because I do like it. Talking about it. What do you guys think of the music or this or the sound effects in this? Did you pay too much attention to this? Because I actually like. This might have been one of the highlights of the movies for me. I know that sounds a little bit weird, but they did such a good job of blending these Christmas classics, making them sound like haunted, creepy versions of themselves. So you get the Christmas aspect to it. You recognize the song, but there's this subtle, dark undertone to a lot of them, specifically in the first movie. The second one does it a little bit as well that I think suited this movie so perfectly. [00:48:59] Speaker C: I like the gremlins singing, the little. And it gets stuck in your head. To this day, I'll never forget that tune. It's a masterpiece. I also like the. The song that they do in the sequel, the big Showpiece song. You know, they're swinging from the ceiling and they got flip cards that are going off and all that stuff. The New York, New York thing, that was cool. So that. That was pretty good. The. Some of the sound effects were kind of weird. Okay. When the mogwai are popping off the back and the little fur balls are bouncing, or there's an actual little kind of noise from those when they go out and you're like, really? They're gonna pop like that? Like, oh, okay. They're just gonna make this really cute. And then the contrast of when they're bubbling off and you hear that slurping sound and everything. Of course, the spike at the end getting melted by sunlight in the bird bath. So he's multiplying but melting at the same time. And lots of, you know. You know, sound coming in there. Also the visual effect. And you have the volume turned up to 100 like we had in the sequel, representing something similar. You have them all wet and being electrocuted and just lots of. Lots of things going on. Kind of a ruckus of sound at some points. And I think maybe that's what they wanted in the sequel was all the chaos that's going on. It was a little bit much at times, but they did some pretty cool things with the sound effects. And overall, I think it was pretty good. [00:50:30] Speaker B: That's fair. I actually liked what you're talking about. We kind of touched on this with the alien review. Alien1, I believe it was, where the. The birthing scene where they're all coming out of their pods was so peaceful and serene, versus when the alien was born, coming out of the chest. It was like dark and violent. I kind of got some of the things. Now, obviously, Mogwai looked like he was in pain whenever he was giving birth, but as you, I'm not going to try the sound effect. You did a fantastic job there. A little popping noise when they're coming off, they're bouncing around. It's kind of, like, silly and funny, and then when the gremlins are doing. It's kind of evil and horrific. I, I, the sound effects on that didn't bother me because I assumed that's exactly what they were going for. [00:51:06] Speaker A: Yeah, somewhat over the top kind of silly fun. I agree. And I agree. I think the composition, the composer, Jerry Goldsmith. Goldsmith, I believe, very well known composer. The Omen, A lot of, like, darker movies, Rambo. He's composed tons, tons, tons, tons. And so I feel like he did a great job in this, doing some original scoring and, and, and melding into the Christmas music as well. Much like Home Alone was well done with Williams. [00:51:43] Speaker B: Okay, so one less, one less thing I want to talk on, for me at least, is I want to mention John Glover, who is Daniel Clamp in the second movie. He gave me serious Hank Scorpio vibes from the Simpsons, if you know what that is. And I loved every second of it. Sir, I need to know where I can get some business. Hammocks. [00:52:04] Speaker A: Hammocks. My goodness, what an idea. [00:52:06] Speaker C: Why didn't I think of that? [00:52:08] Speaker A: Hammocks. [00:52:09] Speaker B: Like, I was not sure where we were going with him at first because, like, he could only appear on TVs, and, like, nobody'd ever seen him in real life. So I was expecting, like, he's a robot, or, like, who's that Max Headstrom guy? Like, he's not real. And then he turned out to be just a totally normal dude. He's not even, like a germaphobe or anything. It was just one of those, like, it felt like a weird bait and switch. But once he showed up, I thought he was pretty fantastic in all the scenes that he were in. I really liked his character. And again, like, I loved Hank Scorpio, if you know who that is from Simpsons. [00:52:38] Speaker C: I, I liked him, too. I liked that this wasn't this, hey, he's a rich, evil corporation guy. I'm so sick of that trope that we keep getting recently. So this was fantastic that he comes in, he wants to help. He wants to be a good guy, and for all the right reasons, too. He's just kind of an idiot. Even though he, like, invented this great big business or whatever, he. You kind of get the feeling like he just found his way into this corporation and got lucky or something. But I really liked his character. It was refreshing. And he's trying really hard, and he's. He makes you laugh. You know, he comes in running with the goon squad at the end and the hood, hood, hood, hood, as they come in there and slips and falls and. I mean, there was a lot going on with his character, and I really liked it. It was. It was a fun character. You want me to go first this time? [00:53:30] Speaker B: Yeah, please. [00:53:31] Speaker C: Okay. So. So basically, I liked Gremlins 1 a lot more than Gremlins 2. As we went through and talked about this, of course, my scores adjusted minutely. But here's the strange thing. It lost some points somewhere and gained some points somewhere, and my original score still stands. And so for Gremlins 1, it actually landed at a 71 for me, which is pretty good. I enjoyed the movie. I liked the plot of it. I didn't like some of the plot mechanics seemed unnecessary, but yet were also kind of entertaining. So I didn't dock it too hard there. Acting wasn't amazing, but it wasn't so bad that it took me out of it. I kind of felt like we had some quirky characters for a reason or they overdid it for a reason, and that's fine. You know, all this stuff is just kind of okay. I thought the effects were great for the time. Good enough for now. I can appreciate older movies for how they. How they came out. I wasn't as big on the scoring as you guys. It was just okay. They did have some good songs, but overall it wasn't anything that really made things great for me. I think this movie, Gremlins 1, holds up pretty well, and I have a great time watching the film for its ridiculousness. It is kind of hard to balance that with young kids because they didn't quite nail it. Whether they wanted a comedy or a horror. They tried to transition from the horror to the comedy, and they left a few too many traces of that in there for me to enjoy it with kids of any ages. But overall, I just enjoy the movie. It's a classic, and I think it's worth a look for anybody. Gremlins 2, just watch it if you really liked Gremlins 1 and you want to see a bit more of that. The most important thing of Gremlins 2 is that the. The effects were such a huge improvement over the first one. Of course, it's several years later and they had a bigger budget, I believe, and they, the Gremlins, like the Gremlins are bigger in the sequel. They're just straight up like six inches taller. They have much better cosmetics of their practical effects and they showcase a lot more new tricks and things and really make it look slick. It's, it's a good looking Gremlin and effects that they had in there. In almost every other category, the sequel plummets. The plot is atrocious. I mean, the movie was made to be a joke. It was supposed to make fun of the original one. Literally does make fun of the original one. And so in every way, shape and form, this movie is not what its predecessor was. And so I lose a lot of things on it. I do enjoy it. The fun factor is still there for me because I enjoy the first one. And so I liked watching the second one and seeing them make fun of the first one and all that. And the effects were great. But in almost every other category, the heart just wasn't in it. It was just there to make fun of itself itself. And so it loses a lot of points and comes in at a 50 for me. And most of that is carried by effects and just simply some of the fun sequences in there. Watching a spider gremlin, watching the talking gremlin do the song and dance and. And seeing some of those really good looking animatronics and practical effects being played out. [00:57:05] Speaker B: Okay. So for Gremlins, I didn't grow up with this movie. This is one that I came to much later in life. And I remember watching this maybe like 5 years or so ago on a night shift. And I kind of chalked it up to I was probably just tired. Watched it a couple of days ago, Started watching it with my wife. She tapped out really quickly out. She was like, no, this isn't for me. I'm going to bed. And I was like, sounds good. I'm gonna go to bed too. Came back to it the next day. Probably didn't help splitting it up like that. But it was just one of those movies where like, I had a really hard time getting through this one. Wasn't really sure if it was supposed to be a comedy. Wasn't really sure. Supposed to be a horror. Really didn't nail it on either of those categories for me. A lot of the acting was okay at best. A lot of the background acting was bad or over the top. The music I thought was really good. I really did like the way they weave the Christmas music in with a little bit creepier sounds. I like the Gremlins theme song like the actual. It's not coming to me at the moment. Brian did a little while ago. Yeah, that, like, that I think, is actually a pretty cool song. The sound effects really back and forth between, like, oh, they're kind of cute. And I like that too. Oh, my God, please shut up. For the eight Gremlins, they just got really overwhelming and annoying at certain points. As far as the actual look of the gremlins, I think it hold up held up really, really well. I think the mogwai and the gremlins you have to take with a grain of salt. It's 1984. They didn't have CGI, but they looked pretty decent for what they were. They had do everything with animatronics and they did a good job. And it still looks somewhat realistic today. Right. Like, you can tell that there's some puppetry, some animatronics going on, but there's some CG from like the early 90s that holds up way worse than this does. So I'm gonna give them a pass on that. The cinematography all looks pretty okay as far as the actual plot goes. I. I thought the plot was pretty weak. The fact that you're talking about they have to make fun. They can make fun of it in Gremlins 2 kind of proves how bad it is. I'm surprised we made it this far without talking about the whole eating after midnight, getting wet. Like, the rules they give you for the mogwai are really dumb and they break them constantly. Like, can I eat after midnight? Okay, what about time zones? How do they know what time it is? How does their biology work? How do you work with something like. Like daylight savings time. Did they adhere to daylight savings time? All of this is nonsense. And they address it in the second movie because they recognize it's nonsense sense. Like, the plot doesn't make a lick of sense. Usually I can kind of just disconnect and go with it, but when it's the fundamental part of the movie and you're just like, I can do nothing but poke holes in this, it didn't really work for me. And overall my enjoyment was just super low. I just didn't care for this first movie and I don't know if I'm gonna go back to it. So unfortunately, and I. I terrified. The first movie only got a 49 for me, so it is higher than the Highlanders, but it's not. It's definitely not a pass as far as the second one. I'm gonna go the opposite route with Brian. I didn't love it. But it at least knew what it was and was going for it. It really leaned into the slapstick comedy. And while definitely not all of it worked for me, and breaking the fourth wall constantly really didn't work for me. There were enough parts in it that I did think were clever and were funny. Like the announcer over the PA system I thought was quite great. The actor John. John Glover, I thought, did a really good job. The two main actors, Phoebe Katz and Zach. Zach Galligan, both seem to step up their acting. The actual models all looked better. Like they kind of took everything that kind of worked in the first one and ran with it. Not all of it worked. It only increased the score a little bit. But if I had to watch one of these movies again, I'd probably watch Gremlins 2 before I'd watch Gremlins 1. Now. The problem with Gremlins 2 is it kind of predicted tick tock society like 30 years before, where there's basically just an entire movie of taking these little pets, dressing them up as humans and being like, look what they can do. And it's really dumb. And it kind of works on Tick Tock because it's like 10 seconds long. But here, where it's like an hour and a half of you just watching these pets dress like humans and do stupid things, it gets old fast. Why do we have, like, they're asexual. Why do we have to have a female? Why? Like, that doesn't really make sense to me. Why is there a flasher in both movies? It's just these weird little things. You're just like, I don't understand what we're trying to do here. The second one scored right up a little bit. It was a little bit more entertaining, but overall it's still only a 55 for me. These are not my movies. And I don't know if that's because I grew up in the wrong time or I didn't see them at the right time. My age, I'm not sure. But watching as an adult. No thanks. [01:01:43] Speaker A: No, thanks. [01:01:44] Speaker B: Sorry, I don't know what you say. What do you got, Will? [01:01:48] Speaker A: Okay, well, as usual, Will has to come and give these movies a proper rating for what they are. And what, what is Gremlins? Really, everybody, what is Gremlins? Gremlins is a. A movie where people try to create a genre, a family forward horror comedy. How many, how many of those are out there in the world in 1984? How many are out there now? You know, it's few and far between, so it's it's hard to judge this genre against anything else because it's. It's. It's one of a kind, really. And yes. Is it ridiculous and out there and outlandish? 100%. And as a grown man, can I. Can I understand? Can I. Can I let my cold, hard brain comprehend that a living organism on Earth can't. Can survive without water at all? And then, you know, halfway through the movie, the gremlins are drinking beer and they're not multiplying, which is 99 water. I don't know. It doesn't have to make sense. The rules are laid out. They break the rules, chaos ensues. And it's for a laugh and a. A quick scare and. And that's okay. When you go into this movie, I think you just have to be like, okay, they're setting up these crazy rules. You're gonna get a crazy movie, and that's okay. Overall, the writing, I agree, wasn't the greatest. The plot wasn't the greatest. And that's because of this weird genre shift of trying to make it family friendly from a straight horror movie. And I think that shows. But the direction, I think, is super sound. I think they. They did a lot to push this into a PG movie for families to enjoy young and old. I think if you went with your family in 84, I think the parents would have a good time and the kids would have a good time. Yeah. Overall, the acting's not the best. Does it hold up? I think so. I think it's a classic for a reason. There's still, like, parts of the original Gremlins that holds up today. The animatronics still look good. Again, one of the rules is no direct sunlight. That thing was created solely because the electro animatronics look better in the dark than they do in bright light. And that's why in Gremlins 2, the lighting is so much better, because the animatronics have. Have gotten better over the seven years that it took to make the sequel. So there's that, you know, and whatever. If you like it, you like it. If you. If you like the jokes, good on you. If you don't, good on you. Overall, I think this movie holds up pretty well. I think their direction was great. The writing, yeah, not so good. The acting, not so good. The genre is kind of in a league of its own, so I think it's. I think it holds up in that category as well. Overall, I give Gremlins a 75 out of 100. Now, the new batch, I Might have a little bit of a bias for this, because I know the backstory. The director was like, there's no need for a sequel. [01:05:02] Speaker C: What are you doing? [01:05:03] Speaker A: You're just trying to make a buck. And this is a commentary on that. And so I love it for that. I love how the director chose to make this movie a pretty much rip of the first and just take it over the moon and back. Just do the most outrageous things to the point of the Gremlins. Stop the movie in the theater you're watching it in because they want to watch Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. And it takes Hulk Hogan yelling at the Gremlins to get the movie back on track. Where are you going to see that in any other movie? And not only that, in the VHS release, they changed that edit to the Gremlins taking over and changing the. The TV channel to different channels on tv. And. And then they have to get it back on the rails by some John Wayne impersonator or something yelling at the Gremlins. So they actually went out of their way to make two different edits for the theater and for tv. I think that's just going above and beyond for a movie that the director himself says should have never been made. And I think that's commendable. Overall, though, it doesn't hold up as well because it is just wrought with pop culture gags that obviously don't live up to the now. And the writing, I believe, is actually better because it's is a parody of itself and it calls out all the poor writing plot holes from the first one. The acting is about the same, although we didn't mention. And I can't believe this didn't come up like the great Christopher Lee is in this movie and is amazing. But anyway, I digress. It slips a little in the ratings. It's still a fun movie. If you love Gremlins, you're Gonna enjoy Gremlins 2 for what it is. And that is a parody of itself. Overall, I give it a 71 out of 100. It does dip because it is an unnecessary sequel, but I love it anyway because it's an unnecessary sequel that just knows it is that and runs with it. That's it. That's all I got. [01:07:24] Speaker B: All right, so that brings our overall score to this one. I gave it a 52. Brian gave it a 60. Will give it a 72 for an overall score of 61, making it not our lowest, but pretty darn low, unfortunately. Does that fit kind of where you guys thought it would or you're hoping it'd be a little bit higher than that. Do you think it'd be a lot higher than that. What do you guys think at home? Are you sad with our rankings? I'm sure I'm disappointing a lot of people right now, so, I mean, that's. [01:07:50] Speaker A: Kind of your shtick, though, in this, right? [01:07:54] Speaker B: Disappointing people kind of. Not just in this. Let's be honest, just life. [01:08:01] Speaker A: I mean, I was appreh. No, I would. I would say I was not surprised in your scoring, Dan. Absolutely. And I don't feel that anyone your age, our age, who has never seen this movie to just walk into it would rate this very high because it is very of the time, I believe. I don't think you're wrong in that. And this one, like, more than others, Even in the 80s, like, I feel like the Goonies kind of has more of a universal message and that adventure and, you know, kids can go through that. Whereas this one, I feel the second specifically, is very much pop culture of the time. If you don't hit it, then it's not going to hit the same. [01:08:47] Speaker B: All right, that's our review on Gremlins 1 and 2. We'll leave a comment down below. If you think our score was way too high, way too low, or we got it about right. It we're going to be going back. We're going to take a week off for Christmas and we're going to go back to the Alien franchise and finish off the last movie, the Mad Max franchise, before moving on. After that, leave a comment down below. If you have a franchise you'd like to see us do on the show or something that you'd love to see. Other than that, until next time, I hope you're safe. I hope you're well. Have a good night.