Nice effects though.

Captivating movie !

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Better then Gremlins 1 . Super funny. My favourite part is when the gremlin could talk.

Cleaner image than the first movie. The creature effects go to the next level too. Great use of all the speakers except the bass speaker which was a little soft. This takes everything to the next level. There is more comedy, more crazy gremlins and that's your lot. Much less serious than the first and I prefer it that way.

1989 was a terrific year for sequels as four of them made it in the box-office Top 10, and three of them would actually have sequels. So I guess when Joe Dante was making the second opus of his 1984 hit "Gremlins", the results of "Ghostbusters 2", "Lethal Weapon 2", "Back to the Future part II"… and on the top of them "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" probably made him believe his "Gremlins 2: The New Batch", would be a sure lock for a great return of investment. It was not.Maybe 1990 wasn't such a good year for sequels after all… still, my jaw dropped when I read that the film only grossed 40 millions of dollars out of a slightly superior budget. I don't think it's a result even the most skeptical critics expected; something happened there, let's call it a disastrous and unfortunate accident, nothing that really speaks bad statements about the film's quality. It wouldn't have meant much either had the film made it in the Top 10, I don't think "Ghostbusters 2" was anyway superior to "Gremlins 2" but it must have met with the fans' expectations, they had their quartet, Billy Murray's wisecracks, a worthy villain and a larger-than-life last-minute savior… so it was worth the ticket and the popcorn box. So what exactly lacked in "Gremlins 2"? What didn't lack was the leading pair, Zach Galligan and Phoebe Cates, the cute Gizmo, his evil descendants, including the Mohawk, and the unforgettable three rules that everyone forget. Was there a lack of originality? Not at all, the film does try to play in a different field than the first, starting with the setting. We're not in the Capra-esque Christmas small town but in New-York giant corporate skyscraper, governed by a Donald Trump-like character named Klamp, it's a terrific setting as it defiantly pretends to create a microcosm of the urban post-modern world in a rather confined environment… so that it ultimately becomes the Gremlins' ecosystem. Billy and his newlywed wife work together in the building, he's a shy and obedient executive and she's a competent hostess who tries to fit in New York and people's rude manners.The heroes are given more depth and character than in the first film but so are the Gremlins who're not just a generic group of monsters. You have the chief, the goofy one with bulging eyes, one with two visible front teeth, some others will be submitted to genetic transformations including gender-changes, one becomes a spider-hybrid, and another turns into electricity… no holds were barred, and we could as well have a Gremlin turning into an apple pie or a rubber duck. Too much fun kill the fun, and it's a pity because one special Gremlin was enough, you know which one I mean: the intellectual sophisticated Gremlin (voiced by Tony Randall) who could finally raise the Gremlins' voices in a more interesting manner than their usually hyena-like giggling that quickly get tiresome. It's a pity that such a scene-stealing character blooms very late in the film, he's one of the things we remember and one of the aspects that subtly hints the sequel's satirical intent.Indeed, "Gremlins 2" is not like any sequel. For one thing, it's pretty much aware of its status as a sequel and doesn't try to be a "Gremlins" in a building as "Die Hard 2" was "Die Hard" in an airport. The film mocks its own material by toning down the gruesome violence of the Gremlins and emphasizing the jokes and humorous effects. But whether for the Bugs Bunny vs. Daffy opening and some weird comic moments involving a trap door, there is something desperately obvious in the way the filmmakers tell us this is a comedy and at the end, the good gags are quite lost in the midst of these frantic attempts to take distance from the original. Ultimately, what happens with "Gremlins 2" is that it takes too much distance from the first film in the wrong time and not enough in the right time.Just when you expect the film to go a little further in its satirical approach, when you think the brainy Gremlin, after such a puzzling speech about the notion of civilization, will lead the Gremlins to something more transcending than the usual mayhem or chaos, well, then the film gets back to the whole 'kill them' issue and becomes a standard action movie. The problem is that the efforts to make the Gremlins look so unique and different didn't have, to me, the right pay-off. I actually felt sorry to see them being killed in an equally blind way, the evil savage ones just like the goofy ones, I would have just loved to see the brain Gremlin survive, because he actually had something more human than the others. Why let the 'action' devices kill the 'satire' ones? "Gremlins 2" is undeniably original, and had better intentions than many more successful sequels, it was also served by a nice supporting cast, many prestigious cameos, from the Looney Tunes to Hulk Hogan, from Christopher Lee to Leonard Matlin, but its self-referential approach must have disrupted a majority of teenage fans who probably didn't get all the references to classic films like "The Wizard of Oz" or "Marathon Man". I mentioned that the first movie also suffered from a kind of schizophrenia as it was trying to be a horror-B movie and a 'family' Christmas story, but those were twists in the formats while "Gremlins 2" tries to be two different things tone-wise, and it didn't quite succeed although it had some great potential.Three years later, another movie would suffer the same fate, and would be a box-office flop due to a similar misunderstanding, "Last Action Hero". These things happen and I guess some movies doesn't get the recognition they deserve. Bad luck.

First, my little back of obligatory backstory. I was 9 years old when the original GREMLINS was released. Probably smack dab in the middle of the perfect target audience for a fun little horror film full of gleeful gore and maniacal monsters. Due to many factors, a sequel to the mega-hit was not produced for some time afterwards. By the time this was released, I was then 15 and looking for something a little more from my entertainment. The sequel was, then, quickly relegated to a little corner of my memory.Years have elapsed. I have submersed myself in horror films and still, to this day, have an undying love of the original. I can see, now, all of the fun little horror tidbits that Dante hid in his movie for the more adult viewers, while spicing just enough family fun to keep the whole family interested.This movie, though, is lacking any of the charm and craft that made the original so good. What Dante and all involved seem to have forgotten is that the gremlins and mogwai became stars, but what made the original so successful was good writing, a good script and a good plot.This sequel seems hellbent on packing as many different gremlin creations and bad jokes as possible in its' runtime. There is almost no story developed here, at all, and the story that is doesn't make sense half of the time. The plot moves along just enough to propel the viewer from one gag to another, most of which are not funny by child or adult standards, that become a tireless, repetitive bore by the end. Naturally, most of these gags also serve to introduce us to a bevy of new characters, with their own personalities. Yes, it smells a little too much of marketing and the need to create new mogwai/gremlins as if they figured they missed out on something with only having Gizmo and Stripe as recognizable creations in the original. Most of these new creations are even more annoying than the gags.Even the human characters have become cardboard cutouts this time around. Billy and his girlfriend are barely there, just fodder for another gag, or when the plot is needed to move along to the next step. The corporate heads are interesting ideas that become convoluted and, mostly, generic. Even the great Christopher Lee is wasted here in a role that anyone could have filled, as a minor scientist who serves only to introduce the experiments that will, in turn, produce the gallery of gremlin hybrids.Many point out the fun easter eggs in this movie and how much this shows Dante's love of 50s sci fi. Yes, it is fun for a drive-in horror junkie like myself to find those hidden gems and appreciate all the little nods to films of past years that Dante worked in, but that doesn't even come close to saving this movie from being a mess.About halfway through this, my wife and I looked at each other and quickly realized exactly why we had both pushed this to the depths of our subconscious. If you removed the GREMLINS franchise name from this movie, you'd have nothing but a second-rate imitation, which is all this really is in the end.