Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5602 in DVD
• Released on: 2000-06-05
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Dubbed, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 102 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
When his absent-minded father gives young Billy Pelzer (Zach Galligan) a new pet, he warns him to abide by three rules. The rules get broken, of course, and the pet--a cute Mogwai named Gizmo--unwittingly gives birth to the vicious Gremlins who proceed to terrorise the town.

Although the long shadow of Producer Steven Spielberg hangs over Joe Dante's 1984 comedy Gremlins almost as much as it did over Tobe Hooper's Poltergeist (1982), Dante doesn't allow it to overwhelm his own quirky style too much. Glimpses of Robbie the Robot and The Time Machine (which promptly disappears) at an inventors' convention reveal his passion for old-movie references (which culminated with Matinee, 1993). Aided and abetted by Spielberg's guidance and a script by Chris Columbus (who would go on to direct and produce the Home Alone franchise) and a music score by Jerry Goldsmith, Dante had all the help he needed to make the biggest hit of his career.

Much of the humour derives from Dante's playful handling of the setting in Smallsville, USA, whose inhabitants are as much the target of his satire as they are of the Gremlins' unwanted solicitations. The xenophobic neighbour who warns prophetically of "gremlins" in foreign cars and machinery provides a subtext for the attack on homely American values, as does showing Invasion of the Body Snatchers on TV while the wicked Gremlins hatch. The sight of the little tykes cavorting in a bar, getting drunk and even dancing in pink leggings looks suspiciously like a satirical dig at the whole 1980's culture of selfishness: with their destructive impulses and overindulgences the Gremlins are the ultimate egotistical yuppies. As with many Spielberg projects, the bland hero saves the day for nostalgic, old-fashioned values, but there are plenty of laughs along the way--for example in the now-classic scene when the hero's mother fights off Gremlins in the kitchen by stuffing them in the blender and microwave. Dante's 1990 sequel is even more satirically pointed, and he effectively remade the original with Small Soldiers (1998), replacing Gremlins with toys.

On the DVD: Disappointingly, there are no extra features at all here, aside from subtitles and "interactive menus"--which simply means there is an onscreen menu and it works. --Mark Walker

Amazon.co.uk Review
When his absent-minded father gives young Billy Pelzer (Zach Galligan) a new pet, he warns him to abide by three rules. The rules get broken, of course, and the pet--a cute Mogwai named Gizmo--unwittingly gives birth to the vicious Gremlins who proceed to terrorise the town.

Although the long shadow of Producer Steven Spielberg hangs over Joe Dante's 1984 comedy Gremlins almost as much as it did over Tobe Hooper's Poltergeist (1982), Dante doesn't allow it to overwhelm his own quirky style too much. Glimpses of Robbie the Robot and The Time Machine (which promptly disappears) at an inventors' convention reveal his passion for old-movie references (which culminated with Matinee, 1993). Aided and abetted by Spielberg's guidance and a script by Chris Columbus (who would go on to direct and produce the Home Alone franchise) and a music score by Jerry Goldsmith, Dante had all the help he needed to make the biggest hit of his career.

Much of the humour derives from Dante's playful handling of the setting in Smallsville, USA, whose inhabitants are as much the target of his satire as they are of the Gremlins' unwanted solicitations. The xenophobic neighbour who warns prophetically of "gremlins" in foreign cars and machinery provides a subtext for the attack on homely American values, as does showing Invasion of the Body Snatchers on TV while the wicked Gremlins hatch. The sight of the little tykes cavorting in a bar, getting drunk and even dancing in pink leggings looks suspiciously like a satirical dig at the whole 1980's culture of selfishness: with their destructive impulses and overindulgences the Gremlins are the ultimate egotistical yuppies. As with many Spielberg projects, the bland hero saves the day for nostalgic, old-fashioned values, but there are plenty of laughs along the way--for example in the now-classic scene when the hero's mother fights off Gremlins in the kitchen by stuffing them in the blender and microwave. Dante's 1990 sequel is even more satirically pointed, and he effectively remade the original with Small Soldiers (1998), replacing Gremlins with toys. --Mark Walker

Special Features
1.85 Wide Screen
DVD 9
French\Italian
English\Italian
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital 5.1 English French Italian
Dolby Digital 5.1
Interactive Menu
Scene Access
Arabic\Bulgarian\Dutch\English\French\German\Italian\Portuguese\Romanian\Spanish

Customer Reviews

Gremlin's Rule!
Even today you can still purchase toys and other items based on the film, which only goes to prove the popularity and success of it. And I'm not surprised. Gremlins is simply great, and I think that Gizmo must be the most adorable and most emotionally realistic creature ever created in motion picture history. Gremlins is a horror comedy - less horror and more comedy by todays standards - in which a young man called Billy Peltzer takes possesion of a new pet (Gizmo) and gets more than what he bargained for when he doesn't follow the 'rules.' One of my favourite scenes is when one of the gremlins meets his demise in the microwave. But without a doubt my favourite scene from the entire film is when Gizmo is playing the trumpet on christmas day. The music to Gremlins is catchy and very film style eighties. Gremlins would be a brillient purchase to make as it is just fantastic.

Timeless
Gremlins is the story of an inventor who whilst peddling his wares in Chinatown at Christmas time comes across a shop and decides to buy a present for his son. The present that he buys is a Mogwai an incredibly cute little creature to give his son as a pet. He is warned to follow three rules regarding the Mogwai, these being:

1) Don't get the Mogwai wet
2) Don't expose the Mogwai to light, especially sunlight
3) Most importantly don't feed it after midnight

The Mogwai is taken home to his family and the son immediately loves the creature soon dubbing it Gizmo. Obviously, the son manages to break all the rules therefore spawning little Mogwai's which when inadvertently fed after midnight metamorphasise into the gremlins creating havoc across town.
The film is a bit slow to get going but Gizmo is just so damn cute you're happy to watch it. Once the gremlins appear though the film becomes really funny and clever. The creatures and the puppetry are second to none and in a time before CGI the mind boggles to think of the amount of work that must have gone into some of the scenes. There is an extraordinarily hilarious scene where the gremlins are in a bar acting like how a bunch of drunken men may act in a bar. There's even a gremlin with a flasher mac on who proceeds to flash at the barmaid!!
I do have a couple of problems with the film though. One of them being the casting of Zach Galligan as the son and the main character. When you hear that the father is going to buy a present for his son you automatically assume that the son will be a lot younger than he actually is. I don't know how old he actually is and is supposed to be but he looked about 19. I just felt that the role was written for a younger character. Saying that there is a love interest in the film (Phoebe Cates) which I suppose couldn't have played if the character was a lot younger. There is another thing I've always wondered. If you can't feed the gremlins after midnight, when can you start feeding them again?!
There are some small roles for future stars Corey Feldman and Judge Reinhold. Unfortunately there are no DVD extras but the film is really fun so it's still worth buying. As stated previously though, it's not really a kid's film. There are a couple of scary scenes. I don't think it should be a 15 rating but maybe a 12 would have been more appropriate.

classic
gremlins is a classic,of that there can be little debate,its legacy is unchallenged and the merchandise born from this is still in demand to this day,some 22 years after its release.
The film tells the tale of a mogwai called gizmo who ends up in the hands of billy,a geeky teenager with the strict instuctions of dont feed gizmo after midnight,dont let daylight touch gizmo and dont let water near him or the results could be destructive,as it happens all of the above happen in one way or another and demon mogwais called gremlins are spawned who bring chaos and death to the sleepy town.
The film has a dark humour to it but can more likely be deemed a light horror that is widely accepted as an 80s classic,if you aint seen this then you should.