736. Gremlins (1984)

Starring: Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Hoyt Axton

Director: Joe Dante

Running Time: 106 mins

Gremlins is an American film about a boy who, after being given a new cute pet for Christmas, breaks the most important rules about the creature which unleashes a horde of mischievous monsters on the city.

This film is just so annoying. Oddly, it has some sort of a reputation as a classic, and I just don’t find it particularly clever or that entertaining, plus, it’s got the feel of a kids’ Christmas film, but is way too scary and dark for any children to watch, which really irritated me.

However, starting with the positives, this is quite funny. It’s not necessarily an enjoyable sort of funny, but I did laugh quite a bit at a lot of the major jokes in this film, and it redeemed itself when I began to tire of it because of that, however it still didn’t fully make up for the fact that this is one of the most annoying films you’ll ever see.

And the main reason for that is those stupid little Gremlins. The Mogwais are actually pretty cute, even though I hate that sort of stuff, but the little monsters are just so frustrating to see wreaking havoc on the town, with their stupid little laughs, and having such power over the humans, which strikes me as totally unbelievable due to their minute size, was just the tip of the iceberg in frustrating me here.

The other reason that this film is so annoying is the fact that it’s too much of a mix of genres. The idea of having a really dark film in the style of a kids’ Christmas classic is pulled off visually, but in terms of the script and the overall atmosphere of the film, it just feels confused and annoying, while I’m sure that it definitely dispels a majority of viewers, being too far towards a kids’ film for adults, and too dark for kids, so overall, I’ll give this a 7.2.