F-0178

Title:

Gremlins 2: The New Batch
Gremlins 2 (USA, original script title)
Monolith (USA, fake working title)

Category:

S

Produced:

1990

Country:

USA

Released:

Film: Jun 1990 (USA)
DVD: Aug 2002; Sep 2003 (2-DVD)
VHS: Dec 1994; Aug 2002
Soundtrack: Aug 1993 (CD)

Director:

Joe Dante

Writer:

Charles S. Haas; Chris Columbus (characters)

Actors:

Zach Galligan (Billy Peltzer); Phoebe Cates (Kate Beringer); John Glover (Daniel Clamp); Robert Prosky (Grandpa Fred); Robert Picardo (Forster); Christopher Lee (Doctor Catheter); Haviland Morris (Marla Bloodstone); Dick Miller (Murray Futterman); Jackie Joseph (Sheila Futterman); Gedde Watanabe (Mr. Katsuji); Keye Luke (Mr. Wing); Kathleen Freeman (Microwave Marge); Don Stanton (Martin); Dan Stanton (Lewis); Shawn Nelson (Wally)

Description:

An army of malevolent little monsters take over a high-tech corporate skyscraper when a cute and intelligent exotic pet is exposed to water. The "Mogwai's" owner joins forces with the Trump-like head of the corporation to regain control. (Keith Loh)

A few years after the incident in Gremlins, Billy and Kate have movied to New York where they work for media mogul Daniel Clamp. Meanwhile, Gizmo's former owner has just died and he's been captured for the genetics part of the Clamp building. A little while later, a certain someone gets wet, creates a new Gremlin species, and learns to finally fight back after years of abuse. And while Gizmo and the surviving humans fight back, the Gremlins and their evil leader, the Brain Gremlin, are planning to escape when it gets dark. And if they do, New York will experience a new Hell. (Will)

Yesterday it was rural Kingston Falls. Today it's the Big Apple -- and lots of wild, anarchic comedy -- because a new batch of mischievous green meanies is on the loose. We told you. Remember the rules. You didn't listen. Now you'll have to face up to the hilarious consequences. (Robert Lynch)

Zach Galligan, the star of the first Gremlins, is back, along with Phoebe Cates, his girlfriend from the first film. They're both working in an ultramodern skyscraper owned by a Donald Trump clone (a hilarious John Glover). Galligan's furry little buddy is captured by a mad scientist, who not only helps it multiply, but invests the nasty, scaly offspring with intelligence and the ability to talk. (Watch for the one that has Tony Randall's voice.) What follows is imaginative mayhem that spoofs old movies, modern television, and the conveniences of postmodern technology. In some ways, the sequel is even more inventive and laughter-inducing than the original. (Marshall Fine, Amazon.com)

Billy Peltzer and Kate Beringer move to New York City and meet up with their Mogwai friend, Gizmo, when a series of accidents creates a new generation of diverse gremlins. Billy, Kate, and Gizmo must once again use all their experience to prevent another catastrophe.

he director, Joe Dante, and his team (which includes the screenwriter Charlie Haas and the effects supervisor Rick Baker) have made a multimillion-dollar, special-effects-crammed picture that has the loose, improvisatory feel of the great Warner Brothers cartoons of the forties and fifties. They're fearless and indefatigable gagsters, and the movie is smarter, wilder, and more unfettered than the original "Gremlins" (1984). There's an ideal setting for the gremlins' rampaging consumption: they've been let loose in a state-of-the-art Manhattan office building and mall called the Clamp Centre (after Daniel Clamp, the egotistical developer who built it). This towering steel-and-glass wedge is a monument to the runaway acquisitiveness of the eighties, and by the time the little monsters have chomped and guzzled (and sung and danced) their way through its cheerless offices and boutiques, Dante and his collaborators have trashed-or at least lobbed spitballs at-quite a few of the most unattractive aspects of life in these United States. In its adolescent way, the movie's almost subversive: a high-spirited combination of Looney Tunes principles and Dante's own manic pop-culture-in-a-blender sensibility. Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Dick Miller, and Jackie Joseph return from the first film. They're joined by John Glover, who plays Clamp as a doltish child; Haviland Morris, who is hilarious as an ambitious, fast-talking businesswoman named Marla; and the horror-movie veteran Christopher Lee, who plays Dr. Catheter, the director of a genetic-engineering laboratory. The animated pre-credit sequence, featuring Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny, was written and directed by Chuck Jones, who made some of the greatest Warners cartoons. (Terrence Rafferty, Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker)

Language:

English

TT:

106 min / 107 min (DVD, VHS) / 213 min (2-DVD, 2-VHS)

J.S. Bach's Music:

Toccata & Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565
E. Power Biggs (Organ)
Under License from CBS Special Products

Format:

Film: Color (Technicolor)
DVD: (Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC, Region 1) | (2-DVD, Closed-captioned, Color, Widescreen, NTSC, Region 1)
VHS: (Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC) | (Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC) | (PAL) | (Color, Subtitled, NTSC) | (2-VHS, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Full Screen)
Soundtrack: CD

Company:

Film: Amblin Entertainment, Warner Bros. Pictures
DVD: Warner Home Video
VHS: Warner Home Video
Soundtrack: Varese Sarabande [CD]

Comments:

2-DVD Set includes: Gremlins (Special Edition) / Gremlins 2 - The New Batch
2-VHS Set includes: Gremlins Video Collection: Gremlins & Gremlins 2, the New Batch

Watch selections:

Buy movie at:

DVD: Amazon.com | Amazon.com [2-DVD]
VHS: Amazon.com | Amazon.com | Amazon.com [PAL] | Amazon.com [Spanish] | Amazon.com [2-VHS]
Soundtrack: Amazon.com [CD]

Source/Links: IMDB
Contributor: Aryeh Oron (November 2007)