REVIEW: Gremlins

MOVIE
Gremlins

CAST
Zach Galligan, Phobe Cates

RATING
PG

RELEASE
June 8, 1984

DIRECTOR
Joe Dante

STUDIO
Warner Bros. Pictures

RUNNING TIME
1 hour 46 minutes

GRADE
A+

STARS
***3/4

REVIEW:

Back in 1984, Steven Spielberg directed Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom, and financed a movie called Gremlins. These two movie became the main cause for the PG-13 rating. In this, I could see why, but what some people didn't see under the heavy violence is a smart, funny movie that can be watched over and over again. Billy Peltzer lives with his parents, despite being done with school and works at the bank to provide money for his family. One night for Christmas, Billy's father brings home a mysterious creature called a mogwai that he calls Gizmo. The catch is, there are three important rules to remember with a mogwai; keep it away from bright light, especially sunlight, which can kill the Mogwai, never get the Mogwai wet, and to never feed it after midnight. Unfortunately, when all of these rules are inded broken, all hell will break loose as Billy has very little time to stop these creatures until all of man-kind is nearly extinct. This movie has the rare title of being a good horror-comedy. But mostly, it's just a plain funny movie. Howie Mandel voiced Gizmo, the main Gremlin and was absolutely terrific doing it. Plus, this movie did have a few scary moments, one including an evil gremlin and a microwave. I would also like to point out that even though this movie is PG, you should know that this movie caused PG-13 to happen, mainly because this film can get very dark at parts. So I wouldn't recommend this movie to children, even if they want to see it because of Gizmo's cute appearance on the DVD/Blu-Ray cover. But overall, if you enjoy comedies from Steven Spielberg with elements of horror in it, then go out and rent Steven Spielberg's Gremlins.