GREMLINS (1984) ** All-time schmaltz & fluff squad of Steven Spielberg, Chris Columbus and Joe Dante present a horror movie for children, Anarchy of the Furbies, in which a YMCA swimming pool manifests itself as a popcorn hatchery for the fiends. The action rolls around like a tilt-a-whirl, not entirely formulaic but derivative to the bone, pausing occasionally for something that it considers cute or gritty. Cute they got, but considering the trinity of midhusbands you know that the grit is going to be more awkward than anything else. And it is. That all said, it's not super boring or stupid, and you can't help smiling at the little critters. I think they're some temperance ladies' metaphor for action on the strip any Saturday night, and if the case is occasionally over-stated it's only because she got so excited about breaking yet another revelation for the cause. It's cool seeing Hoyt Axton finally getting the attention he deserved, and Phoebe Cates stands out amongst a pedestrian cast, but...the romance thing, I mean, c'mon guys, a girl capable of running that bar by herself...is gonna be attracted to the junior under-assistant to Judge Reinhold at the local insurance agency, whom he's socially intimidated by to the extent that he can't even tell Reinhold to piss off when he wants to have a beer without him? I mean, the gremlins look pretty realistic from there mate.
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