DVD Collectors Online

Gremlins 2: The New Batch, a review by Tom

Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990/United States) IMDb | Wikipedia Warner Home Video (United States) Director: Joe Dante Writing: Charlie Haas (Writer), Chris Columbus (Original Characters By) Length: 106 min. Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.78 Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1, English: Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround, French: Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround, Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround, Commentary: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

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Stars:
Howie Mandel as The Voice of Gizmo (voice)
Tony Randall as The Voice of the "Brain" Gremlin (voice)
Zach Galligan as Billy Peltzer
Phoebe Cates as Kate Beringer
John Glover as Daniel Clamp

Plot:
The rules are the same but the laughs are bigger and the thrills are better. This time Billy and everyone's favorite Mogwai, Gizmo, must face off against a new batch of Gremlins that definitely think New York is their kind of town.

Plus, feed on a great batch of extras including never-before-seen footage, a "behind-the-screams" look at working with the Gremlins, a full-length audio commentary and much, much more!

Awards:
Nominated:

Saturn (1990)		Best Director (Joe Dante)
Saturn (1990)		Best Fantasy Film
Saturn (1990)		Best Music (Jerry Goldsmith)
Saturn (1990)		Best Special Effects (Rick Baker, Ken Pepiot, Dennis Michelson)
Saturn (1990)		Best Supporting Actor (John Glover)
Saturn (1990)		Best Supporting Actor (Robert Picardo)

Extras:

• Closed Captioned
• Commentary
• Deleted Scenes
• Featurettes
• Outtakes
• Scene Access
• Trailers
• Trivia

I remember that this movie was the first movie I rented at the age of 12 when I got my own video rental customer card. I always enjoyed this movie, though it has been a long time since I last watched it. Seeing it now, I feel that it went a little to far with its meta humor at times. But I still enjoyed it.
I always thought that Phoebe Cates was really cute in this movie.

Rating:

(From Tom's Horror Marathon 2012 on October 27th, 2012)

Legion, a review by Silence_of_Lambs

Summary:
An out-of-the-way diner becomes the battleground for the survival of the human race. When God loses faith in humankind, he sends his legion of angels to bring on the Apocalypse. Humanity's only hope lies in a group of strangers trapped in a desert diner with the Archangel Michael.

My Thoughts:
A movie that sadly is unable to decide what it wants to be: Splatter, Horror, Apocalyptic, Mystery, Thriller, Action, Romance all these genres can be found. In fact this movie seems to contain just about any genre except Comedy and Musical. While it has elements of them all it belongs to none, because it misses them all.
The characters remain strangely underdeveloped, the plot jumps around in a way that is sometimes very hard to follow, many strings remain unsolved and/or unexplained.

While watching this film I came to the conclusion that the original concept must have been for a movie with a running time of about 2.5 - 3 hrs, this got (for what reason ever) downsized to about 1.5 hrs. (equivalent to T2, which needed the "Director's Cut" to show it's full greatness). What remained is a random collection of good (sometimes even great) action and CGI sequences, which nevertheless always have a very familiar touch.

What's positive?: The remaining fragments show the intended quality. The photography is of a sometimes breathtaking beauty (especially the opening sequence). The acting of the leading cast (Bettany, Quaid, Walsh) is good (with tendencies to great), within the limitations of the script.

I think this is the first movie I know of for which the parody got released before the "original": It's "Dogma"
What a pity about the wasted potential (in story and talent).
I'm hoping and waiting for a "Director's Cut"

My Rating (out of possible 5):

(From Michael's random reviews on October 13th, 2010)

Tom's Random Reviews, a review by Tom

Title: Full Metal Panic? FUMOFFU
Year: 2003
Length: 300 Min.
Video: Full Frame 1.33:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1 , Japanese: Dolby Digital Stereo
Subtitles: English

Plot:
This is a hilarious spin-off series to "Full Metal Panic". FMP is based on a series of novels which tell the main story and a collection of comedic short stories. The first anime series "Full Metal Panic" is a mixture of the first few novels and some of the short stories. The series "Full Metal Panic? FUMOFFU" solely uses the fun short stories as its source. No mecha action in this series. But a lot of fun nonetheless! As a time-filler I just wanted to show my brother and a friend one or two episodes, but we ended up watching all 12 episodes in one go until 2 in the morning 
Both of them never have seen an episode of either FMP or FUMOFFU. That tells me, that one can enjoy this spin-off without having seen the original FMP.

Rating: 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=c1bAVLCL50o

(From Tom's Random Reviews on February 24th, 2008)