I was only six years old when Gremlins 2: The New Batch reached theatres back in 1990, but I still remember how hyped I was to see it. I was already a fan of the first Gremlins, and this sequel looked awesome to me because it wasn't just the return of the regular gremlins we saw in the film released six years earlier, this one also promised to be packed with mutations, gremlins that had been spliced with other creatures: a spider gremlin, a bat gremlin, a vegetable gremlin, an electric gremlin. There would even be a female gremlin and a super intelligent, speaking gremlin! Unfortunately, the movie was released at a time when I wasn't able to make it to the theatre, but I did get a Gremlins 2 tie-in coloring book!
I also remember when I finally saw the movie, when it was released on VHS. I was feeling sick to my stomach the night we rented Gremlins 2 from a local video store, drinking 7Up (possibly Cherry 7Up) to try to soothe my guts. It didn't work, and some of the gross, slimy sights the movie put on display didn't help. My first viewing of this film was interrupted by vomit.
Gremlins director Joe Dante was back at the helm for Gremlins 2: The New Batch, and Steven Spielberg was still on board as executive producer, but the first film's screenwriter Chris Columbus did not return to craft the story. Instead, Dante worked with writer Charlie Haas to turn Gremlins 2 into something completely insane. Something Dante has called "one of the more unconventional studio pictures, ever". He hadn't wanted to make Gremlins 2, but when Warner Bros. found it too difficult to make a sequel without him, they returned to him in desperation - and offered him complete creative control, along with a budget three times the one he had to work with on the previous film. Dante took that creative control and ran with it, deciding to make the sequel a satire of the original while drawing a lot of inspiration from Looney Tunes cartoons. It even starts off with a Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck skit!
The story begins with the death of Mr. Wing (Keye Luke), the owner of the Chinatown antique store that the adorable little Mogwai known as Gizmo was acquired from (and later returned to) in the first movie. Mr. Wing's death paves the way for Daniel Clamp (John Glover), developer of the biggest buildings in New York City, to demolish the antique store and start the construction of his new Chinatown Center. As the store is bulldozed, Gizmo escapes from the destruction, only to be captured by scientists who work at the Splice o' Life genetic research lab, which is one of the many places set up in the Clamp Premiere Regency Center, the most advanced "smart building" in America.
By pure coincidence, the first film's Billy Peltzer (Zach Galligan) and Kate Beringer (Phoebe Cates) have given up their jobs at the bank in their small hometown of Kingston Falls and moved to New York City to take jobs at the Clamp building. Billy draws concept art for construction projects, while Kate works as a tour guide inside the tourist attraction building. This building is where most of the action in this film takes place, as it's not long before Gizmo has gotten water on him (not Billy's fault this time), which causes more Mogwai to pop out of his body, and these other Mogwai are jerks who instantly start picking on Gizmo. They eat after midnight (the film really makes fun of that particular Mogwai rule; what if a Mogwai crosses time zones?), become gremlins, continue multiplying, and then get their hands on the stuff in Splice o' Life, causing their various mutations.
Soon enough, gremlins of all sorts are wreaking havoc throughout the Clamp building.
Gremlins 2 has a ridiculous sense of humor that is way over-the-top. The gremlins cause so much trouble, they even break the fourth wall - and break the film. In the theatrical version, there's a moment in which the gremlins cause the film being projected in the theatre to burn and snap, and they refuse to resume the movie until an angry audience member, Hulk Hogan in the midst of Hulkamania, demands that they get things rolling again. In the version released on VHS, it seems like the gremlins break the VCR and go flipping through the TV stations, until John Wayne (voiced by Chad Everett) guns them down and gets things back under control.
This movie is basically a 106 minute version of the "gremlins in the bar" sequence from its predecessor, but it takes the comedy even further. It's very clear every minute of the way that Dante was not taking this seriously at all, which I'm sure didn't sit well with some Gremlins fans. As a six year old, I just went with it, and I've gained deeper appreciation for the madness Dante brought to Gremlins 2 as years have gone on. I still prefer the smaller, more grounded approach of the first movie, but the sequel is entertaining.
Some great actors get mixed up in the gremlins shenanigans in this one, starting with the aforementioned Glover as Clamp, who is basically an amalgamation of Donald Trump and Ted Turner. Not only is he into New York real estate, he also runs his own television network that airs colorized versions of black and white movies. You'd think this sort of character would be a villain, but Clamp actually turns out to be a decent guy when things fall apart in his building. Indeed, Dante and Haas did originally envision Clamp as a "more devilish" character, but Glover turned in such an upbeat, likeable performance that the presentation of the character changed.
Other standouts include Robert Picardo as Clamp's right hand man Forster, who is less likeable than his boss; Haviland Morris as Billy's ambitious co-worker Marla Bloodstone; Robert Prosky as horror host Grandpa Fred, whose show is filmed in the Clamp building; Kathleen Freeman as cooking show host Microwave Marge; and the legendary Christopher Lee as Doctor Catheter from Splice o' Life. And Dante couldn't leave the wonderful character actor Dick Miller out of his movie, so Miller's character Murray Futterman and his wife Sheila (Jackie Joseph) are revealed to have survived that snow plow scene in the first movie and are visiting New York City just in time to encounter more gremlins. There are also appearances by Gedde Watanabe, Rick Ducommun, Belinda Balaski, Paul Bartel, Kenneth Tobey, Raymond Cruz, John Astin, and Henry Gibson, among others. Film critic Leonard Maltin, who gave the first movie a negative review, shows up to bash Gremlins some more - and gets interrupted by gremlins. Yes, this movie acknowledges that the first Gremlins was just a movie, despite also being set in the same reality as that movie.
Returning stars Galligan and Cates do well in their roles again, and Cates was even given a moment that parodies a dramatic scene Dante successfully fought to keep in the first Gremlins: her speech about her dad dying while trying to slide down the chimney in a Santa Claus costume. Here she reveals that she had a traumatic experience on Abraham Lincoln's birthday.
Of course, the real star of this whole thing is Gizmo, and they did some fun stuff with him in this movie. Inspired by seeing Rambo: First Blood Part II on TV, he takes Rambo's advice "To survive a war, you gotta become war" and turns himself into a cute, furry, mini-Rambo to battle the gremlins, complete with a red headband and a bow made out of paperclips and a rubber band.
Gremlins 2 is so nuts, it's shocking it was ever made in the first place. It's even more shocking that another, less nuts sequel hasn't been made at any point in the last thirty years. Apparently it's impossible to make a Gremlins movie without having Dante at the helm, and it's understandable that Dante wouldn't feel like he had anything more to give to the franchise after this insanity.
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