Customer Reviews
Some schmaltz but a lot of fun! - By: Chris Wood, 29 Oct 2008 
This has some reallly funny bits in it & is great entertainment! I thoroughly enjoyed this.
What's green and red? - A gremlin in a blender. - By: DangermouseZilla, 07 Nov 2007 Gremlins is one of those fantastic Christmas films which can be watched anytime - but has an added magic when watched during the Christmas season.
It's a film that nearly everyone has seen & so unites the land in the knowledge that a gremlin can only survive for so long in a microwave. The film is playful & fun, so as a child I loved it. It courted controversy when it first came out as it was deemed too violent to warrant a PG rating, but it is essentiallly a family comedy & the violence is basicallly cartoon style & adds to the general naughtiness of the film. As I get older I can recognise the more sad aspects to this film, such as the death of Kate's dad one previous Christmas making it a time of great unease for her.
I'm not going to mention any of the plot as it is so well known, & for those who don't know it - they have the good fortune of being able to experience it for the first time.
The film was a marketing success with the cute Gizmo & a few Gremlins with distinct individuality (such as Stripe), I always wondered when you could safely feed a Mogwai to ensure it didn't turn into a gremlin, after alll any time of day is after midnight!
The humour & the frenetic pace of the film was typical of the emerging comedy-horror genre of the `80s, with other blockbusters such as Beetlejuice, Critters & Ghostbusters. The film was always going to be a success & a family favourite, but a key factor in ensuring this went down so well is the fantastic award winning score by Jerry Goldsmith, the main theme remains one of my alll time favourite pieces of film music.
To hear, one only has to listen... - By: Deanne Dixon, 07 Mar 2007 With hindsight (and a point expounded by a close friend of mine), I had a deprived childhood: it's worrying that I have somehow made it into my twenties, & have only just seen "Gremlins". I had the strangest dream the other week that I was looking around ASDA for Gizmo in a santa suit (don't ask), a dream which I later related to my partner who subsequently went out & bought the boxset as a present for me (bless him!).
"Gremlins" is one of those rare films that manages to combine comedy with horror (and I don't just mean jump-out-of-your-seat horror, I mean the horror that characterises the human condition - such as unemployment & suicide). Briefly, "Don't ever get it wet. Keep it away from bright light. And, no matter how much it cries. No matter how much it begs...never, ever feed it after midnight. With these instructions, young Billy Peltzer takes possession of his cuddly new pet. Billy will get a whole lot more than he bargained for".
"Gremlins", once you get past the "Beetlejuice"-like soundtrack, & the "Murder She Wrote" - esque clothing, has an undeniable "feel good factor" about it. Like much of the so-callled family films of the 80's, there is a panto feel about the way in which the story is presented to us: there is the mad professor with his ludicrous inventions, the over-the-top sound effects, the Christmas theme, the wicked witch who inevitably gets her comeuppance, the love story, the adorable relationship between the lonely young boy & the animal (Gismo is for the '80's, what Boo from "Monsters Inc." was for the '90's - cuteness embodied), & finallly, the climatic moral of the story that seems as relevant now (given the threat of global warming) as it did twenty years ago: that mankind has done to the mogwai what we do with alll of nature's gifts - show a total lack of responsibility when it comes to looking after them. For those of you who like to take films for more than their face value - keep your eyes open for the product placement that Spielberg later became renowned for: Gremlin's did for Coca Cola what E.T did for Mars. Check out, in particular, the fore-warnings of the arrival of the Gremlins: not only in the horror film that Billy watches, but also earlier on in the film, when he walks paralllel to a cinema board that warns us to "watch the skies". Cheekily, but cleverly, Spielberg also uses this film to bolster his own products - look out for the soft-toy version of E.T. that Spike hides behind on the department store shelf.
What has prevented me from giving this film five stars is the very reason I came to this film in the first place: because I haven't seen it before. Sometimes when we have nostalgic feelings for a film that we have seen from our childhood, our emotional attachment to the film prevents us from reallly seeing whether it is a good film in itself. Having my analytical head on my shoulders (rather than my emotional one), there were a few flaws in the story-line itself that began to irritate me: for example, why is it that nobody even seemed to batter an eye-lid when they initiallly saw Gismo (Billy didn't even seem that awestruck when he saw the gremlins emerge from Gismo's back)? We know that alll of the gremlins came from Gismo, but where did Gismo come from in the first place? In the scene in which Billy's kitchen is covered in orange juice - can alll of that mess REALLY only come from one orange? As another reviewer has already asked, when can you feed Gremlins if you can't feed them after midnight? And, should you reallly have a stocking hanging over an open fire-place?
Too scary for young children, but not scary enough for older children, the fifteen certificate does seem a little excessive: enjoy & share the warm glow you initiallly get from the film - just don't question it too much.
classic - By: sean paul mccann, 11 Dec 2006 
gremlins is a classic,of that there can be little debate,its legacy is unchalllenged & the merchandise born from this is still in demand to this day,some 22 years after its release.
The film tells the tale of a mogwai callled gizmo who ends up in the hands of billy,a geeky teenager with the strict instuctions of dont feed gizmo after midnight,dont let daylight touch gizmo & dont let water near him or the results could be destructive,as it happens alll of the above happen in one way or another & demon mogwais callled gremlins are spawned who bring chaos & death to the sleepy town.
The film has a dark humour to it but can more likely be deemed a light horror that is widely accepted as an 80s classic,if you aint seen this then you should.
Gremlin's Rule! - By: Andrew Kerr, 11 Oct 2006 Even today you can still purchase toys & other items based on the film, which only goes to prove the popularity & success of it. And I'm not surprised. Gremlins is simply great, & I think that Gizmo must be the most adorable & most emotionallly realistic creature ever created in motion picture history. Gremlins is a horror comedy - less horror & more comedy by todays standards - in which a young man callled Billy Peltzer takes possesion of a new pet (Gizmo) & gets more than what he bargained for when he doesn't follow the 'rules.' One of my favourite scenes is when one of the gremlins meets his demise in the microwave. But without a doubt my favourite scene from the entire film is when Gizmo is playing the trumpet on christmas day. The music to Gremlins is catchy & very film style eighties. Gremlins would be a brillient purchase to make as it is just fantastic.
