Genre: Comedy/Horror/Fantasy
Release date: 1990
Runtime: 106 minutes, color
Formats: VHS, DVD
Director: Joe Dante

The sequel to Gremlins, released in 1984. Gremlins 2 takes a departure from the horror of Gremlins, presenting the Gremlins as being more comical.

The movie begins with Mr. Wing, the original owner of Gizmo (voice of Howie Mandel) trying to keep possession of his store. Real estate tycoon Daniel Clamp (John Glover) needs Mr Wing's property in order to begin construction of his new skyscraper in New York City. Unfortunately, Mr. Wing dies, and Mr. Clamp was able to obtain Wing's property and get the Clamp Tower built.

Once the skyscraper was built, many tenants began to move in. One of them was a geneticist by the name of Dr. Catheter (Christopher Lee). Dr. Catheter finds Gizmo and decides to use him for research. Fate should have it that Gizmo's original owner, Billy Peltzer (Zach Galligan), and his girlfriend, Kate Beringer (Phoebe Cates), are both working at Clamp Tower.

The Gremlins are produced when a janitor accidentally sprays Gizmo with water. Some of these new Gremlins find their way into Dr Catheter's lab and imbibe some of the genetic formulas. The most notable of these gremlins are Brain (voice of Tony Randall), Mohawk (voice of Frank Welker), and a hybrid between a Gremlin and a spider.

The Gremlins become very comical at this point, focusing the movie's satire on itself, and on the previous film.. A couple Gremlins get angered when a movie critic (Leonard Maltin, as himself) on the cable network that broadcasts from the Clamp Tower gives the original Gremlins a low rating. A female gremlin in the batch discovers she has a crush on Mr. Clamp. Brain takes most of the spotlight, showing off his genetically acquired knowledge.

Even with the comedy, the director still manages to sustain the horror that the Gremlins are. In my opinion, the most fearsome Gremlin is the Spider Gremlin, which almost kills off someone (I forget who), but Gizmo, all dressed up in his Rambo combat gear, launches a lit match to save the day.

This film is way better than the first, because the director went all out to bring an entertaining masterpiece to the silver screen. Definitely one to enjoy when Comedy Central announces that they will be broadcasting it.
This film spawned two video games back during its initial theatrical release, one for the NES and another for the Game Boy. Both games are seperate titles and bear few similarities, although both titles were developed by Sunsoft.

The NES version featured Gizmo has he worked his way through the various floors of the Clamp Centre, such as the lobby, the air conditioner ducts, different television studios, and the control room. The game is played in a 3/4 isometric viewpoint, allowing Gizmo to walk and jump in eight directions. There are five worlds, each with two levels plus a boss room. After defeating a boss Gizmo acquires a more powerful weapon. He startes with a throwing tomato and works his way up to the Rambo-inspired flaming arrow. Bosses are based on the gremlins from the movie, such as Mohawk, Electrogremlin, and Spidergremlin. The game also includes a password system to make play a little easier.

The Game Boy version was a side-scrolling platformer that consisted of four worlds with two levels each plus a boss level and two bonus rounds. Gizmo is once again the playable character and he must fight his way past the gremlins and hazards of the Clamp Centre. His two weapons are a pencil which is used to scratch and a stereo that contains a music note that Gizmo can shoot. The bosses are again based on their movie counterparts, with the Batgremlin being the most frustratingly difficult boss in the game in my opinion. There are no passwords and no continues, making this game extremely difficult yet strangely addictive.

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