Peope often wonder why this is my favourite movie of all time. I always thought that it was pretty obvious why, it's just so damn awesome! What started out as a movie I hated, but was forced to watch at my nan's, turned into the greatest thing I'd ever seen within the same decade.

The Story & Characters
Randal Peltzer, played by none-other than Hoyt Axton browses for a gift to give to his son and stumbles upon an underground store in Chinatown owned by a wise old man, Mr WIng (the legendary Key Luke). When he see's a strange creature called a "Mogwai", he has to have it. Before he leaves, he's told three very important rules for looking after the creature (keep it away from the light, don't ever get it wet and don't feed it after midnight). Within hours of recieving the creature Randal son carelessly let's water spill on it, to which the creature multiplies, only the copies are more sinister and being up to no good they manage to eat after midnight. This causes them to enter a pupil stage and evolve into a far more wicked creature, a "Gremlin". These scaley green, grotesque creatures soon start to wreak havoc on their hometown and multiply several times throughout the course. It's up to Billy and his love interest to save everyone.

My favourite charactor in this film is Murray Futterman, played by my favourite actor, Dick Miller. He's just so fantastic to watch and has been in many of Dante's films as a background character of some sort. There's something about him that makes me feel so awesome just by watching him perform. He's so casual.

The Cinematography
The film is set just before christmas and so everything is done to that colouring and gives of a happy vibe, until all hell breaks loose and it becomes something else. As I speak, I'm watching a blu-ray copy of the film and it cleaned up fantastically. For one of the first blu-rays to come out they did a really good job.

The Soundtrack
This is the first film I've ever watched where I've enjoyed the soundtrack enough to get a copy of it to play seperately and to this day I still own two copies of the original US vinyl pressing and another Japanese pressing of the same album, I've also got numerous 12" and 7" singles of tracks that where made by 80's musicians to fit in with the film. Recently I re-purchased the soundtrack, this time on CD, because they remastered it and it had a bunch of extra tracks that I could only previously hear if I re-watched the film or played one of the numerous bootleg copies I have. Jerry Goldsmith did a great job with this film and many other films for that matter, he just so happens to be my favourite composer too.

Favourite Scene
Instantly I can tell you that the best scene is the kitchen massacre, where the Gremlins attack Billy's mother, prompting her to kill several of them in some pretty creative ways. One get's blended as she stabs another then follows up by spraying oil in a third Gremlins face as it backs into the microwave and implodes when the door is shut and it activates.

If I continue to talk about this film I'll just crap on forever, so I'll stop myself now, to save us both the time. As I type this the credits have just started rolling and the 'Gremlin Rag' is playing over them. Another great viewing of Gremlins to keep me tied over for another 6 months or so. No doubt I'll type a longer review next time I view it.