Gremlins 2: The New Batch - re:View

well Mike I see that we're both wearing green in honor of this very special day yes you have an official gremlins sweater I wore the closest thing I had a Green Bay Packers shirt it's Green has a G it's as close as you're gonna get oh I was wearing this because I love Christmas oh this is a coincidence is that what we're talking about today gremlins gremlins - the new batch well real quick if anyone's wondering our thoughts on gremlins one and they don't know we did an entire commentary track for it a couple years ago will link that somewhere and we do talk a lot about girl moans - ah no gremlins one commentary tracks yes we do there might be some repetition here but trying to avoid that the most important part of our gremlins commentary track is when we pitch gremlins three yeah and we should we should actually start off with that cuz I had a couple of new thoughts no okay gremlins three well the basic idea we recorded that commentary track the day that Trump got elected president did we we did that's like the first thing we mentioned it was the day that it was announced that he was president huh and obviously in gremlins too there's the Daniel clamp character which is partially based on Donald Trump from that era very much so well but it's also Ted Turner he's like an amalgam of dumper Trump and Ted Turner he's a real estate the Ted Turner part it comes with the the colorization of old black and white me yeah running a TV network but there is the Marla character who was based on Marla maples no second wife but the point being in our gremlins three pitch we said that Daniel clamp is now President of the United States yes and the gremlins take over the White House was our idea I think it was the the country I think we're going big oh okay I just remember we're gonna show them like like in the Senate's yelling it oh sure sure sure it starts at the White House and it spreads from there okay Billy Peltzer is the official like maybe he's the official president portrait painter or he's in charge of some some Department that has to do with art sure he's moved up in the ranks your small town New York City Scott a skyscraper country sure so it starts in the White House and it spreads from there I picture gremlins all jumping in to the reflecting pond and the National Mall oh yeah snuffing out the the eternal flame at the Kennedy Memorial you could do an Abraham Lincoln joke with Phoebe Cates don't mention Lincoln something terrible happen to me Lincoln's birthday oh yeah but but what I was thinking of this morning in terms of gremlins three I thought gremlins one simple small-town gremlins two automated skyscrapers the first smart building yeah before before smart thing yes it was that clean then I don't know but it was like wow NASA said smart and she does finger quotes Turner the clamp Center is the most advanced smart building in America with the latest in security communications and climate control and then I thought gremlins into technology gremlins have have I've taken over people's Twitter accounts and then I pictured just gremlins just walking down the street looking at their phones they don't really cause a ruckus like like in in physical reality they just do on the internet now they're so it's a reflection of reality yes yes they are they are the quintessential internet troll okay just sit on computers all day and just like harass people into your bank accounts into your Twitter accounts yeah they hack your Twitter account and say gay slurs right yeah yes very similar to now I guess yeah okay well speaking of gremlins anarchy gremlins - grumbles the entire movie the movie was made by gremlins I'm glad I rewatched this film I've watched it I want to say I've watched it more than the original and and really I am I am a person that did not like this at first that's why it's surprising to hear you've seen it so many times it's weird yeah the first one is of course the flawless perfect a movie it perfect in its imperfection that there's there's various like subplots that just vanish from the movie Judge Reinhold is just gone his little subplot was deleted that's alright it's fine the effects are little janky in parts yeah and there which led to joe dante not wanting to do a sequel mmm he did the first one and the gremlins never worked it was like they were figuring out the technology as they made the movies there was all these problems and that's the backstory is he's like alright I'm done with [ __ ] gremlins and then the studio went off and tried to put together their own gremlins too they couldn't come up with any ideas that they thought would work so that like 5 years later they went back to Joe Dante and said maybe you had something to do with why it was successful do whatever you want which leads to possibly the weirdest sequel to like a big blockbuster movie ever made yes and we'll start with that because I wasn't anticipating this movie as a kid I was so excited for it and I would always read Roger Ebert's movie reviews every Friday the Chicago sun-times and I remember distinctly I opened it up to the arts and entertainment section the Chicago sun-times and I was like Ebert either it's gonna talk about gremlins too and I remember that I remember the article and this is before he saw the movie before I saw the movie and the picture that they used was Billy Peltzer in the dentist's chair with the crazy gremlin trophy is no daffy ray all have names that's true and and that's a two and a half stars how can this be disappointing that it was so low yeah yeah it was average two and F stars is like average but I mean for Ebert it's like yeah yeah but if four stars of course is the best for you freakin but you look this up and I remembered it correctly see what half stars you alright and what was the most shocking thing you discovered the most shocking thing that I discovered in rereading his review is that he said it's basically just more of the same which it most definitely well it isn't it isn't because on a very surface level this movie does exactly what especially at the time a lot of sequels were which is it's basically the same story just bigger mistakes yeah there's a location another thing I don't know why this is so big in the 80s and 90s but sequels they would always go to New York they would go to the big city which I compile the list of movies that do this well off the bat I can think of home alone - lost in New York home alone - lost in New York baby baby - pig in the city there's also Friday the 13th 8:00 Jason Takes Manhattan Muppets Take Manhattan everybody was taking Manhattan that's right Crocodile Dundee - short circuit - but yeah so on paper it's the same basic structure as the first movie Billy gets the Mogwai the [ __ ] gets wet gives birth to I don't know why whenever gizmo births other mug wise they're always evil even though he isn't it always happens then you know the escalation of the Mogwai is torture gizmo Mogwai is turn into gremlins the gremlins multiply and then they have to kill them yeah exact same structure the difference being that the plot in this movie does not matter whatsoever because this is a movie that Joe Dante didn't want to make they told him to do whatever he wanted so he used the opportunity to one just make a gag a minute Looney Tunes live-action Looney Tunes movie then also mocks everything about the first film mm-hmm and there's there's a very short list of movies that kind of do that where they have this sort of meta quality or like our critical of the movie that came before Empire Strikes Back it was one no of course yeah no no no reservations about making fun of Star Wars are you thinking of the last Jedi oh yes sorry that went full Looney tune now that's that's the ones that I can think of like I was gonna mention the last Jedi or like Blair which to which acknowledges that the first Blair rich Blair which movie was a movie okay so any other ones I can think of her like horrible failures whereas gremlins - is is wonderful in its own right but there are still really great gremlin scenes in this and I thought sure I think that's what was like he didn't go full out of control goofy and he rode the line very carefully yeah well this doesn't go off the rails in terms of the narrow there's still that story as a basic framework to hold everything on unlike we also talked about like Freddy got fingered where it's Tom Green didn't want to make a movie he made a movie and it's it's there is sort of a story but it falls off a lot this one story is fine it's the first movie again basically structure wise so but it yeah it's an excuse to hang all this other stuff on and also be satirical of not only the first movie but kind of trends that we're going on at the time I think so I know they're pesticide-free there's a little sequence that takes place at like a frozen yogurts so yeah and just the idea of like the smart technology which right that I don't even know if it's satire that was just ahead of its time he predicted the future the archery Channel well that's the other thing is to like when that movie came out it's a clamp you know in the same building with all these the first few floors or like a mall and then there's like a cable TV station up top and at the time the movie was made it was like laughable that there would be all these different channels for all these very specific things but that's not satire anymore that's just what exists those are some great gags so the archery channel the guy comes out he's just like Robin Hood for no reason he snaps his bow let's see how all those little details all those little Joe Dante like just quick quick there's visual gags there's so many gags the the one of the big scenes is the introduction of the the genetics lab oh yeah and that's like I I wouldn't say gag a minute J I'd say gag every five seconds that's their initial introduction splice of life designer jeans when you walk in well then the mad scientist is played by Christopher Lee dr. catheter this just came for you Oh splendid this must be my malaria doctor catheter catheter I've already got rabies you know and then he's like he's like I was the cloning work coming along really well dr. Lewis there's so many so many wonderful little gags and the twins their names are Martin Lewis which is Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis so it's like everything is just so many we're not gonna list them all in fact we were originally gonna do a commentary track for the movie but then read listening to the Joe Dante commentary track he covers all that stuff so right we would just be repeating everything Joe Dante said and so just watch the gremlins to blu-ray with the commentary track again I got so much information in the first 10 seconds so I rewatched the film then from the beginning without commentary track to kind of get my own thoughts on it yeah as opposed to you know just regurgitating what Joe Dante and producer and Zack Galligan star the films that get like a star of gremlins and gremlins - and wax work - he's in the wax work movies yeah I like them in those I remember he's kind of the straight man he's just sort of what strings the plot along in this movie has a lot of great supporting characters lots of great comedic characters like the first one I guess you have like dick Miller but everyone else is kind of normal right right you know the dad I guess is the whacky inventor or whatever but this movie you've got my favorite is the the al Lewis like horror late-night horror TV show host of a monster yeah clearly based on grandpa monster I look just how pure Billy and Kate are it's just so like I don't know even when when he goes off on the date with Marla you know no he's like a little kid he doesn't know what's happening right right there's a Canadian themed restaurant yes he's clearly being seduced or attempted to be seduced by Marla because she's just power-hungry yeah and of course she gravitates to clamp at the end which is perfect art for her character yeah but yeah these phoebe cates is just like naive and he comes home with the lipstick on his mouth and you know if we're gonna get if we get through this alive Billy you're in big trouble but they walk from Times Square to where clamp Tower is in reality I've been to that building when I was in New York for work I went there specifically to see clamp Tower and it's not anywhere near Times Square so that's a little movie trickery yeah we owned several grumblings items sure now's as good a time as any to everything we showed these in a video in the past we're very proud of our gremlin arms okay we have these these are not articulated arms so whatever they were used in the movie is probably just a background yeah during a Kaos scene you know yeah things happened which they they had plenty of them I mean that's we'll talk about the creatures in this movie because it's it's insane yeah these are not hero shot arms or anything like that and we also own gremlin ball this is for when the gremlins elaborated on from the first movie you don't really see like they get wet and then does more pop out but in this movie you see yeah they form little like boils on their backs and then you can see it's I need a little gremlin inside the boil when they cut to the extreme close-up it's clearly an oversized it's an act giant yeah but for the full regular size gremlins they have these little guys on their backs yeah this was probably one of the a hundred thousand that were just on you know little ones just in the baking stage yeah then they had yeah clearly probably ones that were like this big that were articulate no movie magic same with gizmo - yeah extreme close-ups of gizmo so they could get more articulation they built an oversized head and the first movie the effects are done by Chris Willis I think when this one came around he was directing it was unavailable I want to say he was directing like the fly to that hit film so they brought in Rick Baker and it's funny because the whole reason that Joe Dante was hesitant about doing a gremlins 2 was like how much of a hassle it was working with the gremlins in the first movie and then he does this one and he's like [ __ ] it let's have that was in times more gremlins but Rick Baker's a pro he knows what he's doing clearly and these are definitely they're more articulate there's more of them there's more variety of course because of the the gene splicing laboratory and that was a Rick Baker stipulation was he didn't want to do somebody else's design and they're like go nuts just yeah do whatever the [ __ ] he won we'll have a vegetable gremlin I always thought the gremlins their differences because the first one they're all just like there's subtle differences in them but they're all basically the same they're just like crazy yeah um and and that's of course from the genetics lab but the initial three Mogwai that for Mogwai that come out of gizmo are all ones black black and white ones orange and I always attributed that to the fact that the water from the water fountain hit Billy's painting travel down the painting and hit gizmo like the the paint's mixing in with the water affected Holly yes because all those colors are in the painting I have never thought about that that's what I always these things were always in my head um when you see the water though and like high-definition and blu-ray it's just clear water and also my theory is disrupted because in the first film the water that knocks on gizmo is in a cup of finally cultures paintbrush that's true so that just throws that theory out the window thought of it you need answers but I was thought hey that was clever the paint mixed in or the water mixed in with the paint went down you know this never even thought about and then that's you got those oranges they need a green one though because Marla made a cyst on the trees we need a three so they needed a green gremlin - really really punch that up it'll be better with the trees are they gonna plant trees there no you're going to draw them I got so many ideas Jay there's lisabean gremlins three gremlins in the white house can we call it gremlins three gremlin world portals a knock on Jurassic world oh yeah let's lose those elm trees though bill people see Elm they think Dutch disease absolutely Danton dun-dun-dun there's just there's so much to cover in this movie there's too much that's right we're not going to talk about every specific reference because it's just because Shane but as far as we were talking earlier about supporting characters there's clamp of course who on paper in script form is clearly meant to be an antagonists but then the cast john glover who was recently seen in Shazam and he just has this like boyish like excited about everything that gives the character a different kind of dimension I don't think he was meant to be an antagonist the antagonists in the film is Robert Picardo of course we all know from Innerspace he played the cowboy that's another space yeah women love me but do you know that and nothing else it's sex with his boots on Robert Picardo recently tweeted I that's what I was gonna mention yeah picture of him wearing though the lady gremlin t-shirt still still keeping gremlins too alive yeah good for Robert Picardo yeah and the funny thing is we we interviewed Robert Picardo oh yeah way back in the day we asked him about working with Joe Dante we asked him about working with Joe Dante and more specifically I asked him about working with Zach Galligan because this is an old half of the bag so he a lot of you might not remember it but Robert Picardo of course gremlins too he plays Forester the security chief and you know a big role in the film but he's the antagonist minor character Billy pelts are of course is the star played by Zack Galligan and then years later Star Trek Voyager Robert Picardo is of course the holographic doctor and Zack Galligan is in an episode who's that one of Starfleet's finest tickets to Voyager and he has like one line really that's it where am I so it's just a little seed I was like hey that's the gremlins guy why and then Robert Picardo is there yeah so I want to ask Robert Picardo it's like when you were do you even remember like like when you run into somebody like that like Robert Picardo worked with so many people so many projects I was like oh yeah we were in gremlins 2 I was like you chitchat with with these people like a remember gremlins has a great time yeah well the slime everywhere get back to work Picardo we're starting the next tape talking about gremlins I was like you ever do that and then he's like he's like oh sure and they start talking about Phoebe Cates his Broadway play you just went off the rails talk about Zack Galligan and talk about Star Trek Voyager talk about the things I want you to talk about talk about things I want you to talk about I don't want to hear about Phoebe Cates Broadway play but in gremlins 2 you worked with Zack elegan and later on in Star Trek Voyager Zack Galligan had a a small part in that yes he did a guest star was nice to see him again so how also did gremlins - with Phoebe Cates and I also did Chekhov's three sisters there you go well this film is also a sixteen Candles reunion as well because Marla and this is played by the the [ __ ] rival of Molly Ringwald in sixteen Candles and the the stereotype Asian tourists is Getty Watanabe whose most famous roles are long Duk dong and sixteen Candles the donger need food and he's also the karate instructor in UHF so his three most famous roles are these like ridiculous Asian stereotypes and the funny thing about that is that that actor is from like I want to say Utah and he sounds like a guy from Utah oh he doesn't have any sort of like accents it's just kind of funny it's great though because he has his little arc in this movie he's you know it's super and work a camera I am a kid yes that's the famous line so he becomes the camera operator for the al Lewis like what's he called miss grandpa Fred I think Korea from Oprah who-who is this this flock II late-night horror host but desperately wants to be a news anchor and so as the story goes along he's trapped in the in the building with all the gremlins so he starts you know he uses Getty Watanabe is his camera operator to to broadcast his story to the world and so it's a wonderful little arc everybody's got an hour everybody's got an arc even in this ridiculous movie that is just an excuse for gags and and gremlins mayhem everybody has their there are little things going on even even mrs. Futterman yeah the futtermans are back he thought they died in the first movie yes they got ran over by a [ __ ] my or steamroller or whatever it was it was his like a cat right yeah yeah like a construction equipment or something like that looks like a snowplow yeah that's a very flutter minh was a like a snow plow driver right [Music] working-class guy but Joe Dante can't make a movie without Dick Miller so he's just back RIPD Zack Miller they've come to visit Billy Peltzer all the way in New York City for some reason just so they could be in the movie not even related to him you've watched the full commentary I have okay cuz I wanted to I wanted to mention something and I don't know if it's dressed in the contrary there's a scene and it's not the first scene when it's it's always the Warner Brothers backlot that's that that Street for City Street I want to say it's either one of those scenes I think's with Billy when when he's either coming out of the police station anytime about the mines no not the mime talk about a more subtle detail there is a golden retriever that's overgrown that's that's on the street eating garbage oh and and I wanted to say is that a reference to the ultimate fate of Billy pilasters dog what was his dog's name Barney Barney yeah I was like is that where is that a joke and inside jokes that where Barney ended up like the family got rid of them ones really left I never any dog before yeah yeah yeah and the dog is eating garbage like it's a it's a it's a stray yeah but it's it's it's the same kind of dog and it looks overgrown interesting the Peltzer it's just got rid of Barney and he just happens to show up outside of their apartment outside of the jail whatever seen this he's a stray he's wandering the country maybe he's looking for Billy and that was his one chance so I don't know if it wasn't addressed in the crest of the Calvin Terry only wine I never even noticed that only one man can answer that question and that's Joe Dante and it's not like it was a real street yeah it's a closed back Lots and and there and a dog isn't just on the back lot set on camera it's intentionally placed there by a person that works with movie animals right but let's let's back are you this you as a youth did you enjoy gremlins - oh yeah you're more of a you're more of an anarchist than me I'm more of a structure guy I'm going to tear it all down and your sequel just make fun of everything no as a kid I liked it just because I I mean the famous scene in the first gremlins when they're partying in the bar and there's all sorts of goofy little gag it's like I loved that scene as a kid more than anything Emma sticks out from the rest of the movie in the original film because the rest of it is so much darker see I like the darker stuff I like the monster lore sure yeah I mean I like that stuff too but the sequel to me when I first saw it it felt like an elaboration on that bar scene or as like oh that's just the whole movie yeah it says goofy I didn't necessarily get the meta stuff until I was older and so I liked the movie as a kid just as like this goofy comedy and then when I got older is like oh they're they're making fun of the merchandising yeah yeah they're they're they're referencing the fact that the rules don't make any sense which is a great scene in this movie or they're all doing the the internet nitpicky thing and picking apart the fact that nothing about the lore of the gremlins makes any sons in the first movie that works as just like a fairy tale kind of yeah folk tale this is the rules to the creature and see that's that's a great scene because that scene is actually frightening and it's it's it's tone is serious and it's like oh my gosh this threat is big and it's frightening and and then it switches gears to comical scenes yeah like the despite or gremlins scene is horrifying Australia and then there's like there's wacky like the the the cooking segment stuff and microwave with Marge is the show she's like getting drunk on air while filming - a [ __ ] I use a lot and she's yes she's drunk and she makes terrible things like bean dip baloney rolling yeah and then at the end she's like she's like telling mrs. Futterman how to like use like Cheez Whiz on stuff mr. Futterman so uninterested yeah yeah the movie is so funny it's so jam-packed with with cleverness and gags and memorable things and I think I would say it's it now as a grownup it's equivalent so the first one as far as how much you like it yeah in quality yeah just just like you just have to go into it knowing it's a very different type of movie yes I mean it's not just meta in terms of like referencing the first movie and like how the rules don't make sense or wherever and seen the merchandise like at the end when clamp is like look at him and I see dolls with suction cups but also referencing the films made by Warner Brothers and so there's numerous references to other Warner Brothers properties the bat gremlin when he flies out of the building there's a bat Batman symbol a gremlin at one point gets the Warner Brothers tattoo that is just just all these like completely fourth-wall breaking gags yes I wanted to bring up the fourth wall first key moment is very early on when the three bad three or four bad MOG wise appear and they try to they try they throw gizmo in the air air duct air vent and they pull off the vent and the one bangs into the other one and we have the cartoon ball and sound followed by a bird's tripping [Music] that's the first clue never had non-diegetic sound effects in the first one that were cartoon based as far as I recall maybe there's the part with the where the gremlin has a little puppet on its hand and they hit it with a mallet there might be one there maybe you're right but but nothing like with comical like bird chirping sound effects Ernie then the second part is when Leonard Maltin shows up and they that's when the fourth wall breaks he's Leonard Martin Moulton is reviewing the first gremlins because he in reality he gave it a bad review yes so the fact that he has a sense of humor about being in this one is funny but and that gremlins attack him for giving the film a bad review him holding up that gremlins VHS cassette breaks that fourth wall immediately and it's all all bets are off from there on out and then of course we have the famous film print melting scene well I wanted to mention that is that even a fourth wall breaking what is that a fifth wall it's like the ball breaking but that's yeah it's like an old William Castle gag it's a gag on the audience where are you yeah like William Castle would have you know fake skeletons you know fly across the audience or you know smell-o-vision and stuff like that and I remember seeing this in the theater and I remember vividly that moment in the film where the film breaks and people in the theater being like oh [ __ ] he pulled it he pulled a joke on the audience and that's something but you can't get away with very often in movies the Blues Brothers guy what's his name the guy stick he's taking the smoke break oh yeah Henry Gibson he doesn't have a line in the movie he's just medical benefits cut he gets fired for yeah taking a smoke break that's that of course that's scene of course is it just just to have Henry Gibson in there and Robert Picardo fire it's setting up the fact that they have security cameras everywhere and they catch Billy Peltzer shutting off the water yeah and of course we be kate's as a tour guide so she knows where the mechanics are to shut off the water to the building yeah isn't it great I love one scripts set everything up yeah everything even amidst all the chaos they're still setting everything up even the paper shredders set up Jay yeah that's where they were like okay we have the the gross scene in the first movie with the microwave we gotta do something like that at exactly page 45 and the script they do in that scene they do a gag that they do a number of times in the movie which is when there's a wide shot of a gremlin like on somebody the actor has like a fake hands and he's actually puppeteering Oh so you see once you notice it you can't unnotice it because it's at the hand just like it looks like a rubber hand I vote I always notice and that there's a big master shot of the gremlin chaos in the lobby and there's no there's one gremlin that's just like stuck to the wall oh yeah and it's a 6 enter frame I think there's a couple parts there's nothing else around but that's what I love about all the practical puppets it's just there's so many of them which is why we're able to just buy random parts because they're just somebody in existence but the the the way they set up the spider gremlin turning into the spider it's lots of and I noticed this this is something just relatively recently I've noticed in a lot of Joe Dante's movies it's the cinematography and the use of shadows John horah I think is the cinematographer he did this movie to the original movie he did like the howleen and the burbs he loves he loves shadows and he loves shadows cast of venetian blinds I don't know if you noticed that in this movie there's a lot of that some really great work in the in the howling as well but yeah when the Mohawk turns into the spider gremlin we just see its shadow so it's like you just see the legs coming out and it's like they'd probably be really easy to do if you're just filming a shadow because you don't have to see it like actually coming out of its body also in those deleted scenes I just re-watched those they make a mention of there's like lots of comical voiceover in the movie like like robot voice coming from speakers in the building right now this building is on fire yes on fire in the deleted scenes that voice says they're talking about how great clamp is and says clamp would make a great president just sayin row it gremlins three gremlins three president clamp let's do some memos you [Music] cinema scene number two oh no we have the world's first smart building automation innovation talking elevators Robert Picardo has has a I'll take a little wine yeah it weighs over their name badge and name badge which has like a bar code blue loop and it comes up Peltzer clearly everything's computerized automated yet when phoebe cates ends her shift she still uses a pencil and paper and a classic time clock oh that would have been a good moment to do some sort of gags it was another technology gag it doesn't work of course yeah it stuck as out of place to me I mean it's a it's a it's probably a visual thing like the audience doesn't know she's done with her shift yeah they think maybe she's on break and if she goes up and does you'd have to build a prop she puts her thumb and a thumbprint your your shift is now over and then they'd have to build that another let's just throw a time clock in there people will understand that in 1990 yeah they'll get the time clock she's done with her shift she doesn't have to do anything else got it usual and of course the Picardo name badge swipe just shows how insignificant Peltzer is and the big scheme of things he's just a cog yeah and he's just a number enough things so visual so they're both visuals yeah that's all but it's a cinema cinema it's a fault of the film as a kid the fact that it was this big smart building but all the technology was like broken all the time nothing ever worked as a kid I thought that was just like the movies version of the inventor dad from the first one I didn't as a kid I didn't understand the idea I didn't understand like the history of what a gremlin was yes any idea that it's something that's it was a world war two right gets into your plane and tinkerers with it and [ __ ] up your plane this is the mechanical problem mechanical Pro so that's the idea the first movie is like you have the inventor dad and that's sort of thematic aliy goes along with the gremlins [ __ ] up tractors and they're on the street light street lights and everything and then so the second movie that's sort of the that movies reference to that the theme of that yeah and that's something I didn't get as a kid I thought it was just them kind of repeating the same type of jokes from the first one of the technology that doesn't work right right and and that's a weird thumb attic thing that doesn't quite make sense that stuff doesn't work before the gremlins are even involved yes because he got in the first film Peltzer as a Volkswagen Beetle mm-hmm that doesn't start yeah he should have had a gremlin yeah maybe too on-the-nose but his car doesn't start the dad's inventions don't work there's a lot of things that don't work prior to the arrival of the gremlins Australia the clamp smart building should have worked flawlessly because because the door malfunctions in the beginning then without any door though the flashlights don't work there's so many things that don't work see that's why that's why this movie is is is a little frustrating to me because it's such a good premise and it's even though it repeats that all the same beats as the first film and I wanted to ask you a question about this but it's it's it is the perfect sequel and and in a way if it had just continued on as a sequel like just just dark you know Garland's are back they take over a you know a skyscraper would it have been as magical oh no I mean you could do a version of this exact story without all like the meta gags and without going so far with the Looney Tunes stuff yeah and you would have a pretty standard sequel yeah and I think that's what makes it special and what makes it stand out is all the the extra stuff that went into it I mean the movie starts with a Looney Tunes cartoon mm-hmm yeah I wanted to I wanted to make special mention of the toolbox moment in the bathroom like like there's there's all those like you said the beats that gremlin gets in the shredder yeah it is equivalent timewise to the gremlin and the blender yeah in the first one of course you have the famous scene when they opened the box oh yeah gizmo's mercy and he's come up yeah see in this one we've seen him and close-up for like 20 minutes and then we recreate that we'll reveal scene yeah in the bathroom no we've seen him on camera that's true and it's sort of like almost almost an intentional wink yeah to the structure yeah I don't know it's it's it's interesting we talked about the Canadian restaurant Marla's Marla's trying to seduce Billy Peltzer to move her way up the corporate ladder because Billy was just complimented by the big man mr. clamp himself that's all it takes she's all over him yes of course she's unsuccessful and then the Canadian waiter says a little horn hey how about some horn how about how about some horn yeah which is of course a sexual joke me as he brings chocolate mousse which is a moose head made of chocolate but he does say another Molson eh okay do you want another Molson eh no thanks really I'm fine I don't know sir and as a kid I didn't know what he said because I didn't know what beer was I know I thought he said another mole son like you want another mole and I didn't know what he meant but now I know it's Molson all samosa nice can beer Canadian beer famous Canadian beer there only beer but and he's wearing like a Mountie outfit this is a wonderful location yeah they could have just done it at a generic exactly New York restaurant but they have a gag right and it's just a wonderful scene but Marlo's drinking wine Billy's drinking Molson who's drinking the Jolt Cola oh that would be Marla I'm gonna say that's Marla just based on your personality why I'm chased by jolt I'd say I need answers can we talk about maybe the best scene in the film ooh I don't know which one you're gonna say there's so many there's a lot of great scenes it's one of my favorites that now I laugh hysterically at but when I was younger I was like what the fireman's are looking at the Cathedral of Saint Eva Marie yeah and then the bat gremlin escapes right and sick farm in of course is PTSD from gremlins that's his arc in the movie is that he realizes that he was right to be paranoid right that is and he gets his revenge when one blow snot on him picks it up yeah and throws it that elevator shafts so the bat gremlin escapes and for no reason at all Tech's dick Miller just coincidentally goes right find his dick Miller out of thousands of people this I think Dick Miller and the puppet are on a green screen dick Miller is a dick Miller is but he's looking in the wrong spot yeah hurts he doesn't know what's happening so the bad gremlins attacking dick Miller and he's like kind of stumbling down the street and I always thought it was just like a bad special effect not not the bat but just the people like just like a bad scene and I was like why is everyone just like walking they just film people walking and they forgot the special effect was there and then I was like oh no that's brilliant the fact that nobody's paying attention just New Yorkers right they go they just don't care and the fact that there is a winged lizard monster attacked dick Miller in broad daylight and New Yorkers are just one guy doesn't even look up yeah he just passed him and then and then he and I throws it into the wet concrete flies up and creates a gargoyle and it's just like all those little pieces yeah how that ends up as a gargoyle yes it's it's so smart yeah yeah it's it's he could have just stopped on its head smashed it yes but but they turn it into a gag right my only reservation with it is the fourth wall breaking the Leonard Maltin seen the film reel breaking and I think maybe the Batman logo so you're saying you don't those are things that that I think are I think take it just OCI I love all that all the the mocking of the first movie and the the everything that made the first movie successful but even that's you know free free to make fun of but like like one clamp says like oh that that gives most very cute I see I see a doll with suction cup hands I don't like that that's winking without completely breaking the fourth wall it's funny I look at him you know what I see what Setzer dolls with suction cups staring out car windows a big float in the Macy's Day Parade is anybody ever talk to you about merchandising exactly that or enough that to me is the line the fact that a gremlin had a on with a gizmo with a you know no sign through it yeah like where how do they make that I get hung up on little things like that yeah and I get it it's fun it's Looney Toon logics Looney Tunes logic and it's okay but then you have that mixed with some really great gremlin scenes that are really scary and well done the elevator scene I think the perfect gremlin tone to me is when when Phoebe Cates is stuck in the elevator oh yeah she says I found alarm [Laughter] [Music] what about any time where they put the gremlins in like the situation that a person would be in like when they're like they're some stocks so like that's that's yeah weren't vote we're advising all clients to put their money in canned goods and shotgun yeah yes when gremlins imitate people I think I think I laughed out loud when the secretary eats the sandwich with the mousetrap in it she exits scene yeah and then the gremlin takes over the secretary do you see he's going G H he's just like like nationís fingers on the keyboard gremlins could speak English when it's convenient yeah and it's like funny right [Music] they shouldn't be printing t-shirts that's that's where you draw the line okay the thing is though if you if you want to continue a franchise this is probably not the right way to go about doing it I think Joe Don say he didn't want to make the sequel he got to do whatever he wanted probably knowing it would it would end the franchise and it has until relatively recently there's talks of that cartoon or whatever and I'm sure there'll be a TV show or a movie what I've said for years the way to do it in a new movie is have them be physical puppets and just use computer effects to digitally erase the puppeteers have them full body that's that's how you do it because that's a big part of the charm of the movie is not just that they're monsters running around it's the actual craft or like the puppetry - right because you'll have a scene where there'll be a thousand gremlins and all they'll be like like running up a hallway jumping off the walls and bouncing around yeah I'll do that and that that loses a lot of that it'd be like you know having a muppet movie where they're all CG like the puppets is the whole thing this is an interesting point because I always remember gremlins original gremlin says Steven Spielberg yeah Spielberg's name was always on it oh yeah I don't remember that in this I remember the three credits Spielberg Kennedy and Marshall yeah but the first one isn't it it's like Steven Spielberg present yes yes yes Gilberg is is I know you always think like Steven Spielberg made that movie yeah but I didn't know how stupid and then this one I don't recall yeah I don't think so if it's just like a building or producer cuz he's like he's white you're gonna make it a Warner Brothers movie I'm gonna trick anybody into thinking this is one of my movies not this time yeah it sticks out like a sore thumb for that era of like sequels and franchises and stuff and just movies in general like I don't think we'll ever get a sequel like this again no no studio would allow this to happen I recently re-watched the howleen which I hadn't seen in a long time that's the movie that got Joe Dante the job directing gremlins [Music] and that is for the most part just a straight-up horror film it's a werewolf movie and gremlins is a pretty dark horror movie in parts then it gots has some silly parts and then after that Joe Dante mostly did kind of lighter goofier stuff and so I'd be curious to see I always wish he had done more like serious horror movies like my Colleen and gremlins but but he made gremlins too which is equally great just in a different kind of way it's where you can do that where you make a sequel that deviates so far from the tone of the first movie but still works in its own right it didn't work for everybody no no it's a very very divisive movie because that's the tricky thing with sequels as so many people they just want that feeling again of the first movie and that's understandable and I think in certain like you couldn't do anything we keep bringing up the last Jedi but that's the reason why a lot of people dislike that movie because you can't you can't dismantle something like that the gremlins when it's like about the spirit of Anarchy and destruction and [ __ ] things up like it's the perfect vehicle to do something like that with a sequel yes it's it's almost poetic because yeah it's it's meta in a way that he is Joe Dante is the gremlin of his own production here yeah and that's the genius part of it I mean yeah you can either you could either make a sequel most sequels are substandard of from the first one with rare exceptions Empire Strikes Back where it elevates the material you can have attempted to elevate the material most times that that fails that has a that is a low success rate yeah what a wonderful wonderful wonderful loveable mess I think it's I think it's now up there it's great and and a movie like it will never be made again it's just like a fine wine yeah please don't make gremlins 3 just don't don't do it don't do it don't reboot it it'll happen don't reboot it it'll happen so we'll see you in 2023 for our half in the bag episode on gremlins because it'll just be called gremlins [Music] Oh God all the paint is flaking off oh Jesus Christ this memorable movie prop and we were destroying them oh it's oh Jesus this movie history's just crumbling away at my fingertips

Channel: RedLetterMedia

Views: 1,904,851

Keywords: redlettermedia, red letter media, red, letter, media, plinkett, half in the bag, mike stoklasa, jay bauman, rich evans, gremlins, gremlins 2

Id: A-RoBdHHkcQ

Length: 49min 37sec (2977 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 18 2019