Thursday, August 2, 2012

Movie Review: Gremlins (1984)

Okay so I'm going to switch from a book review to a movie review now. Since this is my first movie review i'll be doing my favorite movie, Gremlins.

Plot:
"While searching for a Christmas present for his teenage son, Randall Peltzer (Axton) discovers a small, furry creature called a Mogwai in an antique store in Chinatown. The owner of the store refuses to sell the Mogwai on the grounds that owning one is too great a responsibility. However, as Randall is leaving the store, the owner's grandson (Louie) sells Randall the creature stating that the family needs the money. The boy gives Randall three specific instructions in caring for the Mogwai: never expose it to bright light (especially sunlight, which will kill it); never get it wet (which will make it multiply); and, most importantly: never, ever feed it after midnight. Randall takes the Mogwai, which he gives the name "Gizmo", to his family in the town of Kingston Falls." -Wikipedia
Well, lets just say Rule #2 got violated, making Gizmo multiply into other Mogwai, And Rule #3 (no food after midnight) also gets violated, turning them into "Gremlins" who wreck havoc among Kingston Falls.

Review:
This cult classic is a great movie to watch not only at Halloween, but at any time. This movie combines action, dark humor, and horror into a movie you'll never forget.

Details:

MPAA Rating:  PG
Aproximate Running Time: 106 Minutes (1 Hour 46 Minutes)
Realease Date: June 8, 1984
Opening Weekend Box Office: $12,511,000

Did You Know?:

*In Cantonese Chinese, mogwai means devil, demon or gremlin. The Mandarin pronunciation is mogui.

*While watching Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs on the local cinema, one of the gremlins wears some Mickey Mouse's ears.    

*The set for Kingston Falls is the same one used for Back to the Future. Both movies were filmed in the Universal Studios backlot.   

*At least one of Phoebe Cates's screams in the scene at Dorry's Tavern is genuine. An enormous cockroach crawled out in front of her during one take.   

*During one night shoot, problems with the Gremlin puppets were so severe that the entire cast fell asleep on the set during the delay.   

*In this film, the Amblin Entertainment logo makes its first on-screen appearance.

Mistakes:

When Mr. Hanson is calling the gremlin to come out from under the desk, his mouth does not move with the words being said.

When the camera shows a shot of "Maximum Tapes", is you pause at just the right moment, you can clearly see a crew member holding the boom mic downward.

As Grandfather leaves the house after retrieving Gizmo, he is holding the "smokeless ashtray" gift in his hand as he walks out the door. In the outside shot immediately following, the ashtray has disappeared.

When Pete cuts the line of Christmas lights that a Gremlin is hanging from outside his bedroom window, the bulbs are still lit after the wire has been cut.

Just before Pete cuts the line of Christmas lights, the Sheriff closes the window of the police car (in order to keep a gremlin out). The window is alternately open/closed in subsequent shots.

When Billy carries Gizmo to the bathroom to bandage his head, Gizmo is visible in the bathroom, already sitting on the counter.

In the wide shot after the title "Gremlins" comes up, on the left of the screen you can see a bench with a snowman behind it and no-one is sitting on the bench. In the next shot, two kids are on the bench.

When Gismo is thrown into the chute, you can clearly see him not make it in. Then somehow he manages to land at the bottom.

The arm of a puppeteer can be seen when the gremlin is attempting to choke Billy's mother.








To see the trailer for Gremlins, click the link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h24CFZqSEAA

To visit The Internet Movie Database (IMDB) page for Gremlins, click the link below:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087363/



Thanks for reading!


Sources:

Movie Poster:

Plot:

Did You Know?

Mistakes:

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