Brendonyu668’s review published on Letterboxd:
I am surprised that I have never seen this film earlier!
Joe Dante did a terrific job directing this film. The script is generally solid. The character introductions are great as it gives an understanding of the characters and the settings. I don't know about you, but when I was a kid, I always imagined something accompanying with me, whether that be a movie character or some cartoon character that I watched on TV. So it hits hard on me. Gizmo is so cute and adorable. Until one of the rules is broken and everything went into chaos.
There are some interesting comments about foreigners. It sort of reminds me of Die Hard and I guess that context exists after the Vietnam War. However, we still see this stuff to this day unfortunately. I liked the romantic aspects. And somehow, did this movie actually predicted Goodfellas? Because the tavern scene just reminds me of the Spider scene in Goodfellas and many bars scenes featured in that film too. It is a very dark and violent movie that I don't recommend for kids at all.
Zach Galligan is fantastic. Howie Mandel made some interesting noises. I don't have any issues with the cast. The editing is heavily flawed - the movie has a really slow development, until the second half of the film, when the pacing is perfect. The action scenes do surprise me plenty of times. My favourite is the explosion of the movie theatre - Heigh-Ho Kaboom! There are many moments that made me nervous of any awful events happening.
The music integrates classic Christmas songs with a menacing synthesiser score (that takes back memories to John Carpenter's films) and orchestral score. Pretty clever. The practical effects have aged so well - sure, there are limitations technically, however, it surprised me with the movements of cute Gremlins and sinister wrecking Gremlins. The sound edit is decent. The production design gives a warm and peaceful town (in fact, it is supposed to mimic It's a Wonderful Life sets).
Like The Nightmare Before Christmas, it is a movie that suits both Halloween and Christmas. I highly recommend you to experience this film from October to December.
For more of my other classic film reviews, click HERE.
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