Gremlins 2: The New Batch

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Year:	1990
Country of origin:	USA
Director:	Joe Dante
Genre:	Anarchic sequel
Starring:	Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, John Glover, Robert Picardo, Christopher Lee
Rating:	5/5
IMDB link:	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099700/
Tagline:	Take Your Batch to See the New Batch.
Favourite line:	"Rabies. I've got rabies, and I'm supposed to get the flu this week."

Director Joe Dante reckons this is a purer movie than the first one.

The plot:
Gizmo’s owner, Mr. Wing, is being pressured by building developer magnate Daniel Clamp to sell up his small Oriental antiquities shop, but Mr. Wing resists….right up to the moment he dies.
Gizmo, now taken into the ‘care’ of Clamp Enterprises, is experimented upon by evil Dr. Catheter! (Christopher Lee).
Billy (Zach Galligan), now an employee at Clamp Enterprises, tracks down Gizmo and tries to liberate him but, as usual, things don’t go to plan, and Gizmo ends up getting soaked, causing him to spawn once more.
The New Batch cause limited mayhem but, when they manage to activate the sprinkler system in the Clamp Enterprises skyscraper, suddenly, their cocoons are formed, and a fresh army of Gremlins is made manifest…..

Riotously entertaining, this, from beginning to end.
With a focus more on comedy than the original outing, this truly has the air of the anarchic about it and, tonally, is reminiscent of the original Airplane! movie, where gag after gag is hurled at the viewer, some sticking, some not.
The comedic shift in emphasis should not, however, imply that the horror has gone. It has not and there are plenty of ghoulish moments, as the Gremlins cause absolute chaos, and the humans fight back, the personal favourite being the Gremlin fed through the shredding machine, a nice little nod to the original’s food processor moment.
Talking of call-backs, this is rife with them, along with meta-commentary and self-referential wit:
A film critic holds up a copy of the original Gremlins film, and tells the audience it is dreadful.
Phoebe Cates attempts to tell another morbid seasonal story, only to be cut short.
The Gremlins manage to get into the projection room, and stop the film, refusing to continue with Gremlins 2 as they think it’s rubbish, and would rather watch Snow White instead.
On top of that, you’ve got film references aplenty: Q: The Winged Serpent, The Wizard of Oz, the Rambo movies, The Phantom of the Opera, and plenty more besides.
With so much going on, there is the danger that it will all topple over around your ears, but director Dante just about manages to keep things under control, steering it to the right side of demented yet cohesive.
Absolutely bonkers from beginning to end.
Bloody loved it.