Unless you’re a mega-fan, your knowledge of “Gremlins 2: The New Batch” (1990) might come from the “Key & Peele” skit where they imagine a writers’ room coming up with the movie’s bizarre elements. Peele plays a sequel script doctor who immediately approves the smart talking gremlin, the googly eyed gremlin, the female gremlin, the electric gremlin, and so forth.
The typical bigger and louder sequel
As the skit notes in its punchline, all of this stuff is in director Joe Dante’s sequel. But to rewatch it (for the first time since the theater, in my case) is to notice that “G2” is your basic 1980s-90s sequel: It repeats the original plot but goes bigger.
A few wild things spring off of this basic plot, including an unnecessary Looney Tunes framing sequence and a fourth-wall-breaking Hulk Hogan. This stuff was more striking in 1990, I suppose. But the screenplay isn’t from a committee; it comes from one guy: Charles S. Haas. (“Gremlins” writer Chris Columbus was directing “Home Alone” at this time; not a bad choice.)
“Gremlins 2: The New Batch” (1990)
Directors: Joe Dante; Chuck Jones (animation sequences)
Writer: Charles S. Haas
Stars: Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Howie Mandel (voice)
Haas’ screenplay is quite straightforward. Gremlins run loose in the Clamp (think “Trump”) skyscraper in New York instead of in a small town, as in the 1984 picture. We see a wider variety of the creatures, thanks to a mad-science lab located in the building, which reminds me of Atlanta’s CNN building combined with the Twin Cities’ Mall of America.
It’s a vibrant place, ground zero for the dawning age of the powerful corporation that aims to please everyone with its products and services en route to ruling the world. I like John Glover’s decision to be rather likable as Daniel Clamp. Sure, when things go wrong Clamp thinks of “all those lives” as “all those potential lawsuits.” But he’s not smarmy or evil.
That could’ve made for an unlikable experience. Instead, “G2” is light, goofy and reasonably short (106 minutes). It’s not as funny as it could be, and it’s so lacking in character arcs or development that you might forget Billy (Zach Galligan) and Kate (Phoebe Cates) are back in this sequel. The young couple has moved to the Big Apple, and they’re both under the Clamp umbrella – he as an artist, she as a building tour guide.
A bevy of distractions
They’re overshadowed by all kinds of distracting gremlins and humans. Among the latter, we have the aforementioned Glover, along with Robert Prosky as a Grandpa Munster type who wants to be a TV reporter, Haviland Morris as an ambitious corporate climber, Christopher Lee as a mad scientist, and the returning Dick Miller as Murray Futterman, who realizes the gremlins were real all along.
Cates almost gets one great scene. In listing great warriors through history, Futterman mentions Lincoln. Kate launches into a sidebar about her horrible childhood experience with a stranger in a stovepipe hat on Lincoln’s Birthday. “G2” has a reputation as a “throw it at the wall” movie, but it pulls up short here. We’re left to imagine the story’s dark specifics, whereas in the original, Kate goes into detail about how her dad died by getting stuck in a chimney while playing Santa.
It’s neat that “G2” pokes fun at that bizarre monolog in “Gremlins” – and repeats Billy’s out-of-character lack of interest in Kate’s trauma – but it’s ultimately not memorable since we don’t get the full Lincoln’s Birthday story.
Gizmo (voiced by Howie Mandel) is also backgrounded more than I’d like, but he’s again adorable. He gets to shine when he makes like Rambo (“To win a war, you have to become war”) and takes out the spider gremlin.
Actually a rather cautious film
In a scene that hints at substance, Prosky’s Fred interviews the smart gremlin and asks him what the creatures desire from life. Despite being an articulate speaker, the smart gremlin has no coherent answer and he caps the interview by putting a cap in the annoying googly eyed gremlin.
That’s a memorable moment of random violence, but it doesn’t define “G2,” which isn’t particularly nihilistic overall. For example, Gizmo gets tortured with Velcro. That’s more cute than violent. The filmmakers are clearly aware kids will be in attendance, and seeing the lovable Mogwai in serious pain does not make for appealing big-ticket moviegoing.
“G2’s” special effects are good; I forgive the obvious composited sequence of the bat gremlin attacking Futterman. The film’s wildness comes more from the bevy of gremlin designs than from glorified violence. Even when the new Stripe type unloads a machine gun on Billy, we don’t sense there’s much chance of our hero being hit.
Because it repeats the original’s plot but lacks its novelty value, “Gremlins 2” is ultimately harmless and forgettable. That said, the “Key & Peele” skit is still pretty funny.