Best movie of this year hands down!

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

The thing I love in Gremlins is that they created everything by hand. The monsters look very humanly. I mean their movements and their responses to certain scenarios. It really gives the movie a good look.

This is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. Awkwardly funny sometimes? I guess, but I honestly thought it was a spoof movie. Maybe if you are an old grandpa you'll enjoy this. This was painful to watch at the nursing home where I volunteer and I would not recommend it whatsoever.

Gremlins has all the characteristics of a cheesy, campy B-horror movie from the 80's. In theory it shouldn't work but it just does. It perfectly balances the amount of humor to horror, never tipping the scales too much in either direction as this movie flies by, an enjoyable 90-some odd minutes.Everything about this plot is fun, from the quirky father who invents the odd contraptions in an attempt to support his family, to the innocent, angel-like young lead who works at a bank to support his family and his adorable sidekick of a dog, to the villainous bank owner and all her cats named after money (who plays far less of a role than I anticipated), it all works.The gremlins themselves are an impressive feat of animatronics for the time period. Gizmo is the adorable little hero that you hate yourself for finding so cute and the gremlins themselves are just scary enough to pose an actual threat to the characters in this movie. I love how quickly we go from Chinatown to these Gremlins tearing the town apart. This movie flies by at a good clip. Besides the scene of them and their antics inside the bar, I don't think there were any scenes I thought dragged on too long.This movie is also littered with fun little trivia facts. The inclusion of Howie Mandel as a voice actor, a young Corey Feldman in a bit role, the use of the Back to the Future set, all of this adds to the enjoyment you get out of watching this odd little horror film.If you're looking for something a little out of the norm to watch on Christmas day, look no further than this gem.

There is no better way to spend the Christmas season, then enjoying one of the greatest seasonal movies, the Gremlins. The movie really gets it when it comes to understanding the Christmas season. It takes you through how most people view Christmas as a happy time of year full of joy and happiness, but it also shows how the holiday season can be a very depressing time for others. No one hammers this home better in the movie then Phoebe Cates,.You know her from her role in Fast Times at Ridgemont, in the iconic scene where she jumps in the pool and ol Judge Reinhold gets his mind wondering and imagines her take off her top off (she takes it off in the film for real, but you knew that) but while Judge was busy dreamin, she catches him in "the act" in the bathroom. V embarrassing for Judge, who is also in Gremlins. Must have been pretty weird to have to work together again just 2 years after the "incident". Anyway, Phoebe, who's name in the movie is Kate, tells Billy Peltzer why she hates Christmas. She first hints at it earlier in the movie when she says "a lot of people get really depressed....While everybody else is opening up their presents, they're opening up their wrists." Pretty damn dark. But eventually she sheds more light as to why she hates Christmas. It turns out her genius dad tried to surprise his daughter on Christmas but dressing like Santa and climbing down the chimney and didn't even tell his wife he did that. Anyway, when he goes to attempt this ridiculous and probably not possible stunt, he falls down the chimney and instantly breaks his neck and dies, like an idiot. His body got stuck there and his family couldn't find him for days until his daughter smelled a terrible odor from the chimney. That's a dark story and you can understand why she has such a dark outlook on Christmas.While everyone knows this movie is mostly about Christmas and celebrating with family and friends, it does veer into a different direction with a subplot involving little furry creatures call Mogwai's. Con-man, sleazy salesman and all around terrible father Rand Peltzer stumbles upon Mogwai's in an underground chinatown shop. He refused to listen to the old wise man who lived there and made a backdoor deal with the young kid to purchase a Mogwai as a Christmas Present for his Adult Son. Also, Rand is an inventor of crappy products such as the Bathroom Buddy, trust me.. its a bad invention. He's know around town as a joke and a weasel and everyone knows his adult son supports his parents with his job as a bank teller.Upon purchasing this Mogwai, the young man warns Rand that to care for the Mogwai he must follow 3 simple rules: 1. They hate bright lights and you need to keep them out of the sunlight, it will kill them (fair and very straight forward rule) 2. Keep them away from water and 3. Don't ever feed them after midnight. It turns out that if they touch water, they multiply pretty cool but more trouble for the owner. If you feed them after midnight, they become these sweet creatures called Gremlins. I have a lot of questions on why "midnight" is a time they can't be fed and how these creatures are timezone centric. So obviously Billy Peltzer f's up when him and his pal Corey Feldman accidentally spill water on the Mogwai they call Gizmo, which immediately spawns off 5 more Mogwai. Now Mogwai are kind of whack, they are pretty much Bootleg Furby's, the popular children's toy from the Late 90s early 2000's. They add no real value and are more of a burden then anything. The 5 Mogwai's spurned from gizmo are kind of badasses. They plays a prank on the dog and hang him by the Christmas lights. They also chew threw the power chord on Billy's clock which stopped his clock at like 11:40pm. And Billy is a total weenie and didn't realize his clock his wrong and fed the 5 BA Mogwai's some fried chicken after midnight.This led to the Mogwai transforming into Gremlins which the movie tries to tell you they are "bad guys" but i'd disagree. They were however very ugly. These maniacs just wanted to drink booze, smoke cigs and shoot some guns, like most americans. There's a great montage when they are at the local pub holding Phoebe's character hostage as they all raged! Seemed like the type of bar I'd like to go to. The lead Gremlin, who they called Strip got loose after Billy's mom stabbed and microwaved his 4 other Gremlin friends. He went down to the local Y and jumped into the pool and multiplied the Gremlins by about 1,000. After a night out on the town causing some light mischief and some partying with their homies, they settled down for a screening of Snow White at the local theater. Billy, Gizmo and Kate (Phoebe) were jealous of how much fun the Gremlins were having and ambushed them by blowing up the theater and killing them all but Stripe. They eventually tortured spike by slowly melting him to death in sunlight. Extremely violent and unfair!.One Random thought, how come if the Mogwai/Gremlins touch water, they multiple but they can walk around in snow and not multiply? Also, I laughed every time Stripe shot a gun, So great!