Wow, that trailer really contains a bunch of spoilers!?!

Yes that’s right this week Lee and Dan are watching the 1984 film Gremlins which is a really hard film to classify so it’s been labelled a Science Fiction/Horror/Comedy.

• in a departure from every other week Dan and Lee had technical problems
• behold as the boys screw up Judge Reinhold’s name completely
• Lee potentially creates ‘a famous illustrator’ in his mind and sees him in this film
• was this released in the greatest weekend ever?
• Gremlins scare Dan and Lee (possibly Lee more than Dan…)
• Homages to other films including Spielberg’s
• Lee can’t even remember the town’s name
• Dan and Lee are loving Joe Dante
• Stephen King and the construction of character and then doing something horrible to them
• Dan identifies the connection to The Wizard of Oz
• Lee bangs on about the soundtrack
• The utter ridiculousness of the rules and the absence of science
• Lee explores the metaphysics of the gremlins
• Buffy the Gremlin Slayer – Dan is effing hilarious!!!
• Lee and Dan discuss the mother’s place amongst science fiction heroes Ripley and Connor – she goes all Chuck Norris
• Dealing with the dog
• Dan does a great Gizmo impression!!
• CGI vs Puppets
• Oh, no more points go listen to the podcast already!!!!

Download the podcast!

Next week Lee and Dan are watching Dragnet!

Don’t forget your goat leggings!!

7 Responses to “Gremlins (1984)”

1. MC says:

   July 1, 2010 at 6:34 am

   It was Chuck Jones.

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   Lee Reply:
   July 1st, 2010 at 6:36 pm

   @MC, I thought it was – it was bugging me though when it didn’t show up in Wikipedia.

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2. MC says:

   July 3, 2010 at 1:43 am

   To Dan… I haven’t seen Gremlins in a while, but in my snowy part of the country, snow does stick to your car when you drive, especially when it is a thick, wet snow. As described, that is indeed plausible.

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3. SG-3 says:

   July 5, 2010 at 4:36 pm

   I remember coming out of the cinema after watching this film, feeling a bit shell-shocked. I think I found it disconcerting that I was laughing my guts out one moment, then the next moment I’m throwing them up from the reaction of some outright brutal scenes. OK, slight exaggeration, but I guess I couldn’t reconcile the jarring opposites – it just didn’t sit well with me the sudden bouts of what I can only describe as mean-spiritedness. Funnily enough, 14 years later I was watching Small Soldiers and I felt a feeling of Déjà vu; I was feeling just how I felt when I watched Gremlins! After consulting Leonard Maltin, I found out why!

   I don’t think I have a Dante aversion; in fact, would you believe my copy of Explorers arrived from the Netherlands today! However, I can’t help doing the Ghostbusters comparison. I certainly don’t feel that “jarring of genres” when I watch Ghostbusters – it may have its truly frightening moments, but never takes it’s tongue out of its cheek long enough to forget that it is a comedy with some scares thrown in for a laugh! I don’t think it ever gets truely “mean”.

   Or I’m waffling!

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   Lee Reply:
   July 5th, 2010 at 6:37 pm

   @SG-3, I don’t think I had such an issue when I watched this for the very first time. I’m surprised too though at the time I probably appreciated being treated like I could deal with the concepts.

   I also didn’t really pick up on it with Small Soldiers either. But watching Gremlins now I certainly noticed it, so maybe I’m just at an age where I’m picking that up or when watching a film for the podcast I might over analyse it.

   I take your point about Ghostbusters though, I’d never really thought about this aspect of the film. It isn’t mean in any sense of the word which probably is why the film transcends.

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4. Arjan says:

   July 25, 2010 at 12:04 am

   1984!!! Man, I feel young/old haha..I was born in that year but I’ve seen this movie a lot.
   If I’d rate midmo podcasts, this one rates the highest till now.
   I’m going to watch it again this week. Might also watch #2 just to see for myself.

   You were talking about how it spawned all kinds of movies/toys.
   I had a small ‘finger’-boglin . Do you remember/have those too? A friend of mine had a big one and we would constantly (you could basicly put your fist in it…) try and scare his grandma with it.

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   Lee Reply:
   July 27th, 2010 at 10:33 pm

   @Arjan, we had ‘finger’-boglins!!! I don’t think that is what we called them though.

   I enjoyed this podcast myself, I’m pretty happy with tomorrow’s Demolition Man one too – more talk about the film etc.

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