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Holistic Guidance - Gremlins
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List Price: $14.98
Our Price: $9.49
Your Save: $ 5.49 ( 37% )
Availability: Usually ships in 7 to 13 days
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Starring: Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Hoyt Axton, John Louie, Keye Luke
Directed By: Joe Dante
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Warner Brothers
EAN: 9780790760933
Format: Anamorphic
ISBN: 0790760932
Label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Warner Home Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2001-08-21
Running Time: 106
Studio: Warner Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: 1984-06-08
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Editorial Reviews:
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A man buys a Mogwai as a Christmas present for his son. The young boy is told to keep the pet away from water, out of the light and never to feed it after midnight. Inadvertently, the creature is dampened and almost instantly, produces half a dozen furry replicas of itself --which continue to multiply and turn the small town upside-down.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Don't feed them after midnight
Comment: Don't expose them to sunlight. Don't let them get wet. And under no circumstances feed them after midnight.
Those are the rules for the now-legendary mogwai, adorable little fuzzballs who transform if you break the last rule. And "Gremlins" is a gloriously unconventional Christmas movie -- a postcard-pretty view of suburban middle-America, splattered with gore, nasty little gremlins and a truly wicked sense of humour (expressed often in movie send-ups).
Randall (Hoyt Axton) spots a tiny adorable creature -- a mogwai -- in a small Chinatown shop, and wants to buy it as a Christmas present for his son. The owner refuses, but his grandson secretly sells it to Randall.
Randall's son Billy (Zach Galligan) is delighted by the fuzzy lightphobic mogwai, whom he names Gizmo. But it soon becomes clear that Gizmo is full of surprises: when water is accidentally splashed on him, he spontaneously generates a litter of NEW mogwai. The ringleader "Stripe" tricks Billy into feeding them after midnight, transforming them into scaly, dangerous "gremlins.
And after a gremlin tumbles into a pool, Billy realizes that the town is about to be swarmed with them -- attacking vicious old Mrs. Deagle, ramming snowplows, murdering kindly teachers, and trashing a tavern with Billy's love interest Kate (Phoebe Cates). As the town descends into gremlinized chaos, the two humans (and Gizmo) must find a way to wipe out the horde... and if they miss only one, it'll start all over again.
Personally I find most Christmas movies a little too sappy and sentimental. So for people who feel that way, a Yuletide horror/comedy is simply ideal -- it's sort of a mad hybrid of early Peter Jackson splattergore, Frank Capra snow-sprinkled Christmastime, and a bunch of sly movie homages and send-ups ("Forbidden Planet," "Wizard of Oz" and "Snow White" amongst others).
But the real fun is in watching the movie's balance between nasty and cuddly -- Joe Dante happily veers between sweet moments and grotesquely funny violence (such as Billy's mom messily killing gremlins with a variety of kitchen implements), with the best example being the malevolent Mrs. Deagle being flung out an upstairs window by fa-la-la-la-LAing gremlins. Completely sick, and gutsplittingly funn.
And Dante sprinkles it with more G-rated comedy that borders on cartoonish without quite crossing, such as the kid in the Christmas tree costume ("Don't ask!") and the gremlins destroying a local pub when they aren't watching Disney movies (is this a message about Disney?). It all climaxes in some literally explosive showdowns with the gremlins -- and particularly with Stripe, their ghastly little leader.
Galligan and Cates are thoroughly solid as the teenage heroes, especially when Cates gives her heartbreaking speech about the horrible experience that made her hate Christmas. In fact, all the actors do a solid job -- the evil old landlady who serves as a sort of Wicked Witch of the West/Scrooge hybrid, the cranky old veteran, the crackpot inventor and the wise old Chinese guy.
But the showstopper is Gizmo -- tiny, round, fuzzy and wide-eyed, with a babyish squeaky voice and a liking for toy cars and 3-D glasses. Rarely has a puppet been so bloody cute and endearing. His complete opposite is Stripe, a gremlin amongst gremlins -- malevolent and gleefully sadistic, he seems smart enough to revel in the idea of destroying the town.
"Gremlins" is a brilliant horror/comedy that infuses a perfect American town with a little mayhem and gore, as well as some wickedly funny little nasties. Definitely a must-see.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Still Fun To Watch
Comment: I have started buying movies I enjoyed as a kid for my kids to watch. I haven't seen Gremlins in forever and it was still a very fun movie.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Terror wears the cutest faces!
Comment: Finally, a childhood favorite that doesn't qualify as coaster material. Gremlins is an 80's classic that still delivers the goods. The movie was well paced and the acting was solid. The characters were given enough time to be developed and they never came off annoying. The gore at times was something else and alot of the deaths were very creative. This is a flick chock full of hilarious moments and that was the intent. I rarely get into comedy horror but this is one of the few that I actually like. The soundtrack is your typical 80's cheese and fits very well with the movie.
This special edition comes with 2 commentaries, behind the scenes, and bios of the actors.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The same great movie, but the images were dark (in my TV, at least)
Comment: I have always loved this movie, with it's strange and funny story. Watching it again after lots, and lots of years felt unusually good, and having my kids roaring with laughter (I had been telling them about the movie, and they were really eager to watch it) next to me felt even better. The images were dark, and I tried to fix it, but at the end gave up. Maybe it was just that I didn't know how to adjust properly the TV, and since I had not tried again, well...
Customer Rating:
Summary: Relive Gremlins!
Comment: I watched this with my 8 yr old son. I remember why I loved it. I am so happy I own it. This movie is so completely adorable!
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