It's Christmas Eve, so Michael and Nakea are sitting down for a true holiday classic: Joe Dante's Gremlins (1984), starring Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Hoyt Axton, Polly Holliday, and Howie Mandel.
First, we're briefly celebrating the completion of The Unenthusiastic Critic Podcast's inaugural year, and seeing whether Nakea will admit to liking any of the over 50 films she endured in 2018.
Then, we're sitting down for Dante's Christmas-adjacent comedy, a feel-good holiday confection of murdered Santas, microwaved imps, and the rich smell of rotting human flesh wafting from the chimney.
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.
Program
0:00: Prologue: from Gremlins (1984)
0:53: Preliminary Conversation: Our Year in Review
10:47: Interlude: Scene from Gremlins
11:41: Cultural Osmosis: Pre-Viewing Discussion
18:48: Interlude: Original Trailer
20:42: The Verdict: Post-Viewing Discussion
58:43: Outro and Next Week's Movie
1:00:04: Outtake
Notes and Links
—Movie Reviewed: Gremlins (dir. Joe Dante, Warner Bros., 1984)
—Find additional episodes, leave a comment, or make a donation at unaffiliatedcritic.com.
—Email us, or follow us on Twitter and Facebook. (Suggestions of movies to watch for future episodes are very welcome.)
—Tchaikovsky's "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under CC BY 3.0.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:01:53 — 57.0MB)
3 thoughts on “GREMLINS (1984)”
Strange that with its Christmas themes, "Gremlins" was released in the summer.
One possible reason the the sequel, "Gremlins 2: the new Batch", is being re-assessed is the gremlins' target in the 1990 film is the Trump Organization. (Of course, the names are changed. You know how litigious Trump is.)
Another Joe Dante film in a similar vein, which I enjoyed more than most critics and think deserves re-assessment is the 1998 "Small Soldiers".
I really need to watch Gremlins 2. And it's so strange to me that Dante's working mostly in TV these days, directing episodes of Hawaii 5-0.
Speaking of Dante in TV, there's also his prescient 1997 made-for-cable movie, "The Second Civil War," in which a refugee crisis sets the plot in motion.