Gremlins (Corey Feldman, Phoebe Cates) : Blu Ray Review

Gremlins couldn’t be hitting Blu Ray at a better time. After years of having to endure woefully forgettable and lifeless CGI creatures in Garfield, G-Force and Alvin & The Chipmunks, Spike Jonze has reminded cinema goers what it’s like to actually BELIEVE in mythical characters onscreen again with Where The Wild Things Are – and you can sure as hell bet that his inspiration stems firmly from the likes of 80s classics like The Goonies, The Never Ending Story and Joe Dante’s Gremlins series.

For those who haven’t revisited this nostalgic gem in a while, 1984’s Gremlins (not to be mistaken for the truly odd Gremlins 2 : The New Batch which essentially was a piss-take of itself) follows Billy Peltzer (Zach Galligan, a Shia LaBeouf of the 1980s) who is given an insanely cute furry little creature called a Mogwai (which looks remarkably similar to a Furby) by his father for his birthday. However, Billy is totally unaware of the carnage he is about to encounter, with a gift that just can’t be returned to the store.

You see boys and girls – there is a huge responsibility in looking after Gizmo, because there are certain strict rules which must be followed:

1. Mogwais must be kept away from bright light.
2. Never get them wet.
3. Never, and I mean EVER, feed them after midnight.

Of course, accidents happen, water is spilled, food is digested and one of the true original classics of the decade ensues.

You really can’t go wrong here – hell, Steven Spielberg was behind it all (remember when he went through that stage where everything he touched was gold and wonderful and not… Crystal Skulls), along with writer Chris Columbus (who went onto direct Harry Potter) and Joe Dante… who is Joe Dante.

The cast is fun too (Corey Feldman pops up, while Phoebe Cates is such a cutie – it is amazing how she just dissapeared from screens post Drop Dead Fred), the gags are surprisingly good and in-jokey (much more than I remembered they were), the flick is surprisingly graphic and scary, and of course… the Gremlins are… well… violently discarded of.

The transfer to Blu Ray is as good as can be expected for a low-rent movie that is over 20 years old, however it’s the Special Features that make this worth the effort (as most of the DVD copies I’ve ever come across are fairly skint on Extras).

If you are a fan, or were a fan, of Gremlins then be sure to add this to the collection to revisit and pass onto your own kids… if only to see a green monster get whizzed in a blender or exploded in a microwave.

WATCH OUT FOR | RATING : 3.5 / 5

REMEMBER THAT COOL 80s “GREMLINS” THEME SONG?
DOWNLOAD NOW :