Why some people hate Gremlins 2: The New Batch will forever be a mystery. Sure, its entirely different from its predecessor but only in good ways. Its weird, its fun, and it even lampoons the original. Taking place in an elaborate, big city skyscraper instead of a small town, returning director Joe Dantes follow-up finds the titular creatures causing insane amounts of mayhem as they take over the building. The film begins as a standard sequel before taking a sharp-left turn into creative anarchy. The film's wildly subversive second half is a full-on assault of artistic inspiration that becomes less about furthering a plot and more about indulging in the director's perversely entertaining artistic whims, including an all-Gremlin musical rendition of the classic Frank Sinatra tune New York, New York. Is it indulgent? Absolutely, but in this case at least, that's far from a bad thing. This film is a triumph - a loving celebration, and biting critique, of our pop culture-saturated times.
Jesse Gumbarge is editor and chief blogger at JarvisCity.com - He loves old-school horror films and starting pointless debates. You can reach out at: JesseGumbarge@JarvisCity.com
