5. Gremlins 2: The New Batch
Gremlins was a massive hit in 1984 and Warner Bros wanted a sequel, pretty much straight away. They asked director Joe Dante to make the sequel but he didn't want to do another Gremlins movie. After it passed through the laps of various other directors, it landed back in Dante's lap who agreed to do it, six years after the original was released and with a budget that was three times the size. He was also given creative freedom to do whatever he wanted, a brave move for any studio. The film was a hit with critics but a miss with the audience who thought that Dante took his total creative control a bit too far. But he did have the foresight to cast Dean Norris in the role of a SWAT officer in one of his first roles. He must have seen that Norris was born to play a law enforcement officer, even when he has to wipe out a plague of Gremlins.