Some movies stand the test of time not because of amazing stories or outstanding performances, but instead they just touch certain audiences in a certain way. In other words, they're just fun. Such is the case of Gremlins (1984), equal parts comedy and camp, with a delightful infusion of horror and Christmas joy to make a movie that will be remembered for decades because its fun and unique, but nobody will accuse it of being one of the greatest movies ever made.
In some ways the movie plays like a modern version of 'The Trouble with Tribbles' one of the truly classic Original Star Trek episodes, but other than the annoying, rapidly spawning creatures the similarities end there. Gremlins starts out very innocent, with a like able kid, matched with geeky yet like able parents, and a cranky old lady causing trouble in his life. In a lot of ways the characters work because they are very conventional, many are straight out of the standard 80s mold (think The Goonies). The redeeming element to this is that all the characters are very enjoyable, because viewers have seen them before.
As I briefly touched on earlier, the script, by later Harry Potter helmer Chris Columbus, mixes comedy with horror to produce a very different Christmas movie. I was kind of impressed with how interesting a movie about little monsters could be. There's the main story involving the aforementioned monsters, there's also a romantic side plot for Billy (Zach Galligan). Again, these subplots are very cliche for a movie that came out during the 1980s, but the point is that they work.
In what was probably my favorite inclusion of the movie was the constant shots of old movies, many of which set the stage for the events of the movie. Particularly The Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) before the Mogwai began to break out of their own pods, it was little touches like this that allowed sci-fi genre fans an added level of enjoyment.
From the future looking back, the effects are quite lame, the creatures eyes often don't sync up and motion is very rigid and unnatural, something that today would be done easily with CGI. That being said, for the time the effects would have been cutting edge and probably would have left a young viewer or two with bad dreams for a while after seeing this movie.
Also, the human performances all fall into the "1980s camp" pile, due to shoddy acting made alright simply because the movie is shoddy itself therefore the average performance play along with the whole campy vibe, instead of seeming out of place. There are no great performances, but there's nothing on a Wiseau level, either.
As a piece of high quality cinema, Gremlins is a bit of a failure. The story is bizarre, matched with decent acting and sub par effects there's not a lot of substance. But taken as a piece of entertainment... there is a lot going for Gremlins. There are laughs, good characters, and even a bit of romance, all added up to make a very fun movie, even if it's not a Citizen Kane or a Casablanca.
Dr. Brooklyn says: LIKE this movie (8/10)
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