Film

Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more
 

Gremlins (1984)

Director: Joe Dante

Average user rating
No reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

With a characteristic mix of narrative anarchy, cinephile allusion, cartoon-style slapstick and black-tinged comedy, Dante gleefully sinks his teeth into the kind of fluffy, sugary, sickly small town fantasy beloved of his pal and sometime producer Spielberg. It starts with a Christmas gift - a cute, cuddly little 'mogwai' - but the time of goodwill soon turns hellish when, splashed with water, the creature starts sprouting the titular monsters, whose sense of mischief extends to the murderous and beyond. As the all-American township falls prey to the little demons' destructive urges, Dante lets rip with fabulous special effects, hilariously sadistic set-pieces (most memorably the monsters wreaking havoc at a screening of Disney's Snow White) and in-jokes galore, all delivered at such a heady pace that the trashing of traditional American values and consumer goods even feels quite liberating.

Author: GA 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields


Cast & crew

Director: Joe Dante

Producer: Michael Finnell

Cast: Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Hoyt Axton, Polly Holliday, Frances Lee McCain, Dick Miller, Keye Luke, Scott Brady full cast

Genre(s): Fantasy

Duration: 111 mins

Related articles


Features

Making a name for himself

Making a name for himself

Sin Nombre's Cary Joji Fukunaga learned his lessons well.

To the letter

Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.

Mind over matter

David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.

Fool's gold

Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.

We are the championed

Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."

A history of violence

Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.

True romantic

James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.

Playing in the dark

MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.

Junk bonds

Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.