Re-watching Gremlins after almost three decades and as an adult, the following things struck me:
a) it is actually a Christmas film, albeit an unconventional one
b) it is filled with anarchic and self-conscious humour
c) it is technically much sloppier than I remembered (the cheap fake beard of the old Chinese man, the idiotic and irrational behaviour of the protagonists, the bad acting, etc.)
d) it is essentially a dumb, juvenile and simplistic film
Mix these observations and you actually get a fun - if at times boring and predictable - off-kilter film, that would exist more naturally in the parallel universe of cult cinema, where different criteria about what is "good" apply. Or think of it as the one that got away, the fugitive imp that sticks its tongue out at "dignified" hollywood with its unexpected mainstream success.
a) it is actually a Christmas film, albeit an unconventional one
b) it is filled with anarchic and self-conscious humour
c) it is technically much sloppier than I remembered (the cheap fake beard of the old Chinese man, the idiotic and irrational behaviour of the protagonists, the bad acting, etc.)
d) it is essentially a dumb, juvenile and simplistic film
Mix these observations and you actually get a fun - if at times boring and predictable - off-kilter film, that would exist more naturally in the parallel universe of cult cinema, where different criteria about what is "good" apply. Or think of it as the one that got away, the fugitive imp that sticks its tongue out at "dignified" hollywood with its unexpected mainstream success.
