Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)

Directed by Joe Dante. Starring Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, John Glover, Robert Prosky, Robert Picardo, Dick Miller, Haviland Morris, Christopher Lee, Jackie Joseph, Gedde Watanabe, Keye Luke, Kathleen Freeman, (voices) Tony Randall, Howie Mandel. [PG-13]

Bananas sequel to the 1984 hit film unleashes another wave of those devilish beasties, transporting their mayhem from small-town America to a highrise building in NYC. The darker and scarier aspects of the original film have been dialed way back in favor of anarchic comedy (to such a degree that it’s stunning that a major movie studio would finance it); it’s a go-for-broke send-up of itself and sequels in general, all but dropping any sense of plot once the gremlins start running wild. The nasty edge, sense of discovery, and sly subversiveness of the original is missed, but the supporting characters are more memorable, especially Glover as a hysterical Donald Trump/Ted Turner hybrid and Lee as a “corporate mad scientist” named Dr. Catheter who gets some of the best lines (“All they have to do is to eat three or four children and there’d be the most appalling publicity”). Sometimes resembles a live-action cartoon, with appearances from Looney Tunes stars at the start and finish (stay tuned through the credits); there’s even a brainy gremlin that can talk, splendidly voiced by Randall. Loaded with cameos, the funniest of which involve Leonard Maltin and Hulk Hogan, though video versions replace the latter with old footage of John Wayne in Chisum.

81/100