Gremlins 2: The New Batch

** out of ****

      A long time ago, back when cell phones were the size of small children and the Internet was just a baby, there was a movie. In fact, there were a lot of movies, but we don’t remember many of them do we? Gremlins 2:  The New Batch is now being re-released on Blu-Ray 22 years after it first came out. I must ask myself, should I care? A lot of movies are made with the intention of making a quick buck in theaters. Others are made to become classics that shine brightly for decades. Gremlins 2 was for the quick buck.

It stands with titles such as Max Payne, Role Models, and Stealth. You may have seen these films, but they have fallen to the sidelines. Once their initial buzz has subsided you realize they are just some fat girl you hooked up with because you were drunk. Once you wake up, all you are left with is a fading buzz and some bad memories. These theater fodder movies are good for some quick entertainment, but that’s it.

Sequels are especially guilty of this. Many sequels are shoddy interpretations of the first movie that leach off any remaining excitement. This is a great violation of the trust built between a Director, Producer, or whoever and their audience. They are simply milking every last dollar out of a series instead of respecting the story and producing truly great work. For example, did anyone even see Mulan II? It was a straight-to-DVD movie that was nothing but a quick buck for Disney. If you did see it, all it did was mutilated the great story of Mulan.

With all my gripes and complaints, I must admit that these movies are a necessity. Seeing an action packed movie that has almost no real story can be a good way to waste a few hours if you have a lot of stress going on. And sometimes Hollywood gets lucky with movies like Crank or The Expendables. These may not be hall-of-famers but they are good movies worthy of the ever-increasing cost of a theater ticket.

So going back to Gremlins 2: The New Batch, it may be worth the $14.99 price tag if you want to lose yourself in the world of funny creatures for a while. But do not expect Casablanca to come out of your screen. The movie is a child of the 90’s puppet monster craze and is just for show. The story is lacking, but the comedy makes up for it…Mostly. 2 out of 4

Published by Alex Salerno.(Contact me on twitter @Alex_Salerno)

Pictures from

Fatty-Fat Friday!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099700/