‘Gremlins 2: The New Batch’
I’ve long believed there are two types of people in this world: those who like Gremlins, and those who like Gremlins 2. And as a corollary to that theory, those who like Gremlins 2 better are flat-out wrong. I’m not here to recant my previous statements, because Gremlins 2, even decades later, still seems like a movie made by people who hate the idea of having to make a Gremlins sequel. Where the first movie nods to Looney Tunes humor laced through with darkness and horror tropes, Gremlins 2 is a wall-to-wall, slapstick, fourth-wall-breaking comedy that skewers everything from Donald Trump to Gremlins, to the very idea of sequels. But when the humor hits, it hits, including a ludicrous scene set in a Canadian restaurant, the outrageous Brainy Gremlin, everything with Christopher Lee, and Phoebe Cates’ abbreviated monologue about Lincoln’s birthday. In retrospect, the movie is more in line with The Matrix Resurrections, another sequel that feels like the filmmakers are using studio money to throttle the franchise. Follow up a viewing of Gremlins 2 with the classic Key & Peele sketch, and you’ll be better for it.