Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990) - Just Rewatched

Let's Talk - Movies
Episode 43: Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990) - Just Rewatched

Jason Connell and Sal Rodriguez revisit the movie and talk about Key & Peele's Gremlins 2 skit, '90s sequels, and killing Leonard Maltin.

Synopsis: The Gremlins are back, and this time, they've taken control of a New York City media mogul's high-tech skyscraper.

Director: Joe Dante, Chuck Jones
Writer: Chris Columbus, Charles S. Haas
Cinematographer: John Hora
Composer: Jerry Goldsmith
Cast: Keye Luke, Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Dick Miller, John Glover, Robert Prosky, Robert Picardo, Christopher Lee

Recorded: 07-12-23
Studio: Just Curious Media
https://www.JustCuriousMedia.com/

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Transcript

Jason Connell: 0:01

Whoa, just curious. Welcome to Just curious media. This is let's talk movies. And I'm Jason Connell on the show. Today I'm joined by special guest, Sal Rodriguez.

Sal Rodriguez: 0:15

Thank you, Jason. It's good to be here.

Jason Connell: 0:16

It's good to have you back sir. As always. So we are breaking down a movie sound that we set up a while back because we did the original. And this is the sequel Gremlins to the new batch. 1990 just that was in the 90 rewatched Yeah, left the 80s came out in the 90s.

Sal Rodriguez: 0:41

Big deal. That's a big deal. I think.

Jason Connell: 0:43

Huge deal. I'm gonna bring the poster up for those watching on YouTube. Bloop. There it is. So I really enjoyed are just rewashed of gremlins. I hadn't seen the movie in a while and it really held up. I enjoyed it thoroughly. You had seen it, I think before I even saw it. But revisiting the movie, I'd forgotten how kind of dark and twisted it was. It wasn't this like Kid romper movie. There was a lot in there like, wow, they're really killing these Gremlins Gremlins are trying to kill them. And so it's masquerading as a Christmas movie at the same time. And it's really good. I mean, Joe, Dante, Steven Spielberg producing. So of course that came out years prior. I believe the original came out in 84. If I'm not

Sal Rodriguez: 1:31

mistaken, the Karate Kid. Yeah, the

Jason Connell: 1:34

Karate Kid. So the problem is sometimes and I think Joe Dante spoke to this when I listen to commentary because I heard the commentary from Gremlins and the sequel, was the fact that it just took too long for it to come out. You know, you missed that window. And that happens a lot. It's like, oh, yeah, we should do a movie. And it's like, oh, I kind of missed it. Maybe there should have been in the 80s. Right. It probably should have been like 8889. All right. Well,

Sal Rodriguez: 2:01

Jason to reference karate kid again. I mean, Jay started working. What in two weeks?

Jason Connell: 2:06

Well, 10 days after the movie hit the theater. They're in production for the sequel. There you go. Two years later. Yeah, maybe it should have come out in 8687. Actually, it's a little bit more in our subconscious. And then six years, kids are no longer kids. And, you know, I remember sequel comes out was I interested? No. It caught me at the right time. The first one. By the time the sequel came out. I tuned out. I finally watched it years later forgot it. I rewatched it recently. And here's the verdict. Oh, I actually kind of enjoyed it. You know, it's not as good as the original. But I've kind of been going down this rabbit hole of well, I'm always watching older classic movies, but I've been watching some sequels to see if those hold up. Like Romancing the Stone. Sophie and I watched recently I've always loved that movie. Fantastic. Fantastic. Fantastic. Put on juvenile. I do not remember seeing a movie this bad. And like, it's so bad. It's like what happened? And that's not the first time. So Gremlins too. It's like, yeah, it's a different thing, which is important to kind of stand out from the original. And they took it there. They went to this next level. And I remember hearing Joe Dante speak. He's like, he didn't want to do the sequel. And he agreed to do it if they let him do whatever he wants. And that's what he said. And that's what it did. Citizen Kane, yes. Again, I'm going I'm going all Citizen Kane here. So we'll go through our usual beats. Before we go any further though. Yes. I believe like last time we have a visitor amongst us.

Sal Rodriguez: 3:43

Oh, yes. This is actually one of my prized possessions. And what I mean by that is every collector has like if I ever had a fire sale, this would be like one of the last to

Jason Connell: 3:53

go. He please tell us who that is.

Sal Rodriguez: 3:56

This is a beautiful stripe. Well, I'd love to call it an action figure. But some may call it a doll. Some people may call it a doll depends on who you talk to. It's a collectible. It's an actual definitely. It is a collectible toy made into the image and likeness of stripe. It's got the wonderful Mohawk Wait a second, isn't it? Yeah, that's his name. Stripe. Right. Okay.

Jason Connell: 4:16

I always wanted to call him spike. Yes. I thought it was more appropriate. But why? Why do I want to it's a Mandela, Mandela and I really was spike. It's tell us how tall he is. Is he 12 inches? I looks pretty tall.

Sal Rodriguez: 4:29

Well, the thing of it is he's kind of squatted down a little bit. You know, his knees are bent. Yeah. So he would be even taller. I'd say he'd be about a good 14 inches tall. Otherwise, he's actually you know what? He's probably about 13 inches tall. Now with the bent legs. It will be about 15 inches tall. His legs were straight. So the arms sizable. There are solid here, okay. Yes, there is some movement at the shoulder. There's some movement at the hips. And that is all you have would essentially be four points of articulation. Let's see the head and the head moves. So five points of articulation because that's the neck. That's each arm. That's three that's each hip that Five points of articulation and oh and wrist the wrist also move I just realized so 567 points of articulation and that is it yeah so seven points of articulation on this beautiful stripe action figure I feel like I'm on Home Shopping. Yeah you do you need to buy look like it for just four easy payments 2995 Well, here's

Jason Connell: 5:20

the rub. Spike stripe is not in Gremlins to the new batch what it is the new batch. Oh, he died. Sorry, buddy. In the original, he said, but he can hang out with he's out. He's out stage exit left. And you also have somewhere or you can you can put him behind you. You can put him in front. You

Sal Rodriguez: 5:44

know what? Maybe I could put him here. Yeah,

Jason Connell: 5:47

you have a gizmo who is in this movie, but you can't get access to him because you got it's like the house of cards over there. It's dominoes you pull gizmo out and everything comes crashing down.

Sal Rodriguez: 5:59

Jason I'm about to disappoint you even further because not only do I have some gizmos and a few other cute Mogwai ah, I do I also have no I'm mad at myself. I also have spider Gremlin you do I do have spider gum.

Jason Connell: 6:16

Why are all these things

Sal Rodriguez: 6:18

well unfortunately for this episode, I just kept thinking of stripe and I forgot about spider until we watched until I watched the trailers and I was like oh no spider Gremlin I have Gremlin. And he is sought after he is a sought after collectible made by NACA.

Jason Connell: 6:31

So you mentioned Mogwai which is well Gremlins is the name of the movie and Gremlins are like little demons but a Mogwai means devil demon or Gremlin and Chinese Cantonese. So it's kind of confusing. At least I thought when I revisited Gremlins I thought okay, so gizmos, so cute. We love him. He's a Mogwai but the movies not called Mogwai because it would have been hard clunky. It's called gremlins. So then you know, a Mogwai turns into a evil version when they get the eat after midnight. Right? They just turn into what stripe is. Yep, they turn more grotesque and they just look more menacing. So there's like, are they still Mogh wise but evil? Are they Gremlins now? kind of vague there? Because whatever. There's that it's like a Jekyll and Hyde. Let's check on it. And if you get wet, if a Mogwai gets wet, if they're good or evil, they get wet more of their state is born if you will, so and Gizmo gets water on him and both movies more of the cutesy ones come out they may not be perfectly him like a copy of a copy or stripe jumps in a pool and the first movie and makes a ton of the meaner lockwise Yes. So a great scene and again, the first movie, I highly recommend it but we're delving into the sequel. And so here's the synopsis for the sequel. The Gremlins are back and this time they've taken control of a New York City moguls high tech skyscraper. Okay, so they're in the big city, Sal. They're in the Big Apple. They're no longer in this little town. Little Mayberry Pleasantville now they've made their way to New York City.

Sal Rodriguez: 8:17

It reminds me of Jason takes Manhattan

Jason Connell: 8:18

Jason takes Manhattan Home Alone to he's in New York and everybody's gonna wind up in the Big Apple at some point in time. Crocodile Dundee goes to the Big Apple like it's this what you did in the 80s and 90s. You Yeah, we're gonna go we're gonna go there. The Muppets took Manhattan if I'm not mistaken. So it was a theme or a trope is you might ask. So the release date? June 15 1990. So summer movie, genre, comedy fantasy horror. I love it. I love it. They got horror in there. I know. You're a huge horror fan. And that's why you're on this episode. Also to complete the the two pack. Now quickly, because we've done this before, but let's just run through the players because a lot of them are the same. And there's a lot of returning cast members mixed with some newbies. But I'll just go through this quickly. Produced again, Steven Spielberg, anything he touched? Definitely in this time hits. No, we don't have to go back to the future era. Yeah. Which again, he just produced didn't direct it. He produced poltergeists. So just Steven Spielberg, that producer

Sal Rodriguez: 9:31

made hits I forget about the movies that he did not direct and that he produced I forget Yeah. And

Jason Connell: 9:35

why he produced is because he couldn't take all these commitments on you go off and film Raiders of Lost Ark. I can't also direct but I want to produce and then get the right. There's only one Steven Spielberg. And that's why and so he was involved. So if his name was on it, you can believe that he's going to give some time and some guidance because we talked about this last episode on the Gremlins was the fact that the script by Chris Columbus who went on to become a great driver If you're not getting his credits in just a moment, and the original gizmo becomes stripe, so gizmos gone, he goes dark, and he's stripe but they, they being Spielberg said, You know what, after I've gone over this again and again and again. The audience needs someone to hang on to he's so cute. Keep them alive. And it was a stroke of genius. If he had taken gizmo away we would have lost him and yeah, you're not as connected. So that's the type of stuff that he would do. You got to root for somebody. Yeah, you got to root for somebody and you know the actual people. They're not as dynamic. Well, they're not as cute as they're not definitely not as cute. So again, directed by Joe Dante, who Spielberg sought after and got him and his credits are they range as well but the burbs of fun dark comedy innerspace explores Twilight Zone, he did one of the segments of Twilight Zone, the movie so to Spielberg sort of John Landis. And then of course, the howling which I know you like

Sal Rodriguez: 11:00

Oh, I love the howling in fact, I was just thinking there is a parallel with the transformation scene in the howling similar to a transformation scene. I think if it was Gremlins or Gremlins to one of the movies. Oh, yeah, yeah. Harkins it harkens to the howling, I think.

Jason Connell: 11:13

And then I mentioned Chris Columbus, so he wrote Gremlins, I think he was still at NYU film school. He also wrote nine months young Sherlock Holmes, and then he went on to become a well known director. He did two of the Harry Potter movies. He also directed nine months Mrs. Doubtfire, Home Alone, huge movie, adventures and babysitting. So here's a guy that was you know, gets a script plucked, it becomes a movie and he's got the goods and he becomes a name himself. The writer for this movie, though, also was co written. It wasn't just Columbus, they brought on a second writer, Charles S. Haas. I looked at his credits. He was also a writer on Tex, which I love that movie filmed in Tulsa, Oklahoma starred Matt Dillon, Emilio esta vez. And it was written what came off of a book The screenplay was written from a book by se Hinton, se Hinton wrote the outsiders and Rumble Fish and that was then this is now she's a Toulson. And that's how those movies wound up in Tulsa. So really cool. I didn't know that until today. So I was like, wow, he also wrote the movie matinee with Jim Carrey, which is a really fun Oh, yes. No, no, not Jim Carrey. That's No, no, you're thinking about the mark. Different movie.

Sal Rodriguez: 12:37

So there's a movie with Jim Carrey, where he's at a movie theater. My fault.

Jason Connell: 12:41

Yeah, yeah. This is one with John Goodman Mandela Effect. He owns a theater and he tries to enhance the theater and yeah, sorry. But anyway, so I didn't know that until today that this was co written. And again, the composer was again, the famous well known well established Jerry Goldsmith. Oh, rest in peace passed away July 21 2004. At 75. This guy SAO had eight teen Oscar nominations. I know I mentioned this last episode, but only one win, which is kind of crazy. For the Omen, LinkedIn 76, an eerie score. And he did other movies and I'll just quickly rattle off a few LA Confidential Basic Instinct, Hoosiers incredible score. poltergeists speaking of Star Trek, the movie Chinatown, Patton, Planet of the Apes, and so so many more. That's crazy. I mean, really? Oh,

Sal Rodriguez: 13:40

to know that you had a part in such historic films? Yeah, I'd be like walking around telling people

Jason Connell: 13:47

Oh, the name of that Jim Carrey movie? Yes, the majestic ere we go. Yeah, but matinee is a fun movie. nonetheless. Yes. Now the original creature designer we talked about him as well as Chris weightless. He designed gizmo and other grim ones and he was the Oscar winner for creating the fly, which is called Oh Brundlefly Brando fly. 1986. Not not cute. Not cute. No. He also did the design for enemy mind Raiders of the Lost Ark. So well known, well established. So those are all the repeating returning crew. Okay, plus the newbie in hoss. So here's the cast from the original movie. Zach Galligan is backplane. Billy Peltzer in Gremlins wax. We're madness in the method which I don't even know. Phoebe Cates is back. Yay. If he became he plays Kate Behringer Fast Times at Ridgemont High Gremlins drop dead Fred. Key Luke. He plays Mr. Wing and the originally was the grandfather. There's no grandson on this one. So now he gets a name and he's Mr. Wing. Now rest in peace. We lost key Luke January 12 and 1991 at 86 But he is fantastic. He's in so many of the Charlie Chan movies. Yes, he was in a great Woody Allen movie named Alice, but loved him. So he does reprise his role a little bit in the beginning days and he also kung fu. Well, I can't say that I didn't have that written down because there's already enough but you could be right there. So we may have to look that up. I'm not disputing that or if I have a moment. I may. Okay, you got me. You got me looking now. You got me looking?

Sal Rodriguez: 15:30

I thought he plays a David carotenes. Sensei.

Jason Connell: 15:35

I think you're right. I guess that's him. No job. I thought I had that written down. Good job. Kung Fu. That's going to be the basis for the Miyagi dos show that we want to see. Yes, exactly. The predecessor, the predecessor. So quickly going through more Dick Miller as back as Mr. Futterman. He's fantastic. We did lose Dick Miller, January 30 2019. At 90 But he's in movies like Parana the Terminator sorts of blows him away and the pawn shop the burbs so great. He's coming back in this movie. He's hilarious. Also, Howie Mandel is back as gizmo which Oh yeah. He's so good. I have to say he really is.

Sal Rodriguez: 16:21

You know what? I almost feel like this deserves a meme to be thrown out there reminding everyone that how he Mendell did the voice of gizmo. I think people have forgotten that

Jason Connell: 16:30

people for I forgot, I forgot around. He's really cute. And he's watching Rambo in the movie. And also just a quick mention Jackie Johnson plays Sheila Futterman Dix wife, and she's back so it's kind of cool. They brought this couple back. And I'll tell you how this all goes down later, but she's in Little Shop of Horrors, Gremlins of course and Small Soldiers. So here's who's new to the franchise if I can call it franchise. Sure. John Glover now you may know him he plays he always like a smarmy bad guy. And this is not really he has some redeeming qualities. He tried out for the Karate Kid and was almost John crease but he's not quite as big and menacing as crease as you know, as my dad. What's his name?

Sal Rodriguez: 17:17

Martin Cove,

Jason Connell: 17:18

Martin co thank I have all these notes in front of me. I'm like, so cold has a different look more like a GI Joe face, especially back then in the 80s Yeah, it was just like so. glycols Greenbrae Yeah, the

Sal Rodriguez: 17:29

Greenbrae look Greenbrae

Jason Connell: 17:30

Glover was in some of those things that John G Albertson had on his YouTube page, the tryouts and Glover is in those scenes. So he plays Daniel clamp and he's in movies like masquerade Scrooge to pay back so many more high coveted working actor. And Daniel clamp is kinda like Donald Trump. Honestly, he's a real estate mogul. This is high tech SkyRise and wants to own all of New York, basically, which is cool. He's great at this role. Then there's Robert petrosky. Who I love he plays grandpa Fred. Rest in peace. We lost him December 8 2008. And he's in movies like thief, Christine. Rudy, also Mrs. Doubtfire, another reference, but he's a great actor. And in this movie, he's playing grandpa Fred. He has like this old like Vampire outfit on sale. And he kind of does those revivals, you know, those shows where they would intro like scary movies. Oh, you know, like, and that's his role. They're making a show. And he's always in showing that and he becomes kind of the Gremlins like his show because it's darker, because they're taking over this whole building. And inside the building. There's all these other entities. And so you've definitely seen this character before. And he's great at it. And then there's Christopher Lee, well known actor, he plays Dr. catheter, which is hilarious. And rest in peace. We lost him June 7 2015. He's in movies like Dracula, The Man with the Golden Gun, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and so many more. His characters kind of silly. He's a doctor and I'll get into that his role but great actor nonetheless. And I'll kind of skip over a few others but there's Tony Randall does brain Gremlin he does the voice and Tony Randall was a great actor so many movies and shows and he passed away may 17 2004. I don't have his age, but a great actor and cool that they brought him man to do this role. Because this the one Gremlin that speaks he's very intelligent, super high IQ and it's very elegant. You know, the way Tony Randall sounded. It's just really well spoken class. So oh, I just learned this. Check this out. Tony Randall from Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Sal Rodriguez: 19:54

What?

Jason Connell: 19:56

True story?

Sal Rodriguez: 19:57

Well, how come you don't talk like Tony Randall.

Jason Connell: 19:59

Oh man, I have my own voice I'm sorry, I know actually held was the I'm looking at it at four. Okay, so on the last episode you started to talk about something that I found hilarious but held off. And that is the key in Peele skit delves into Gremlins, too.

Sal Rodriguez: 20:19

Yes.

Jason Connell: 20:20

And you're like, Oh no, there's a funny skit. It deals with gremlins. I was like, hold on, so it's for the sequel, not the original. Well, tonight, before we go into the movie, we're gonna take a step sideways over here and watch this hilarious video that came out several years ago because, as I said earlier, Joe, Dante said, I'll do it. I want to do everything under the sun. And they said, Okay, well, this is kind of making fun of that, like how these crazy ideas came to light. And I do believe, of course, key and PIL played by Keegan Michael Key and Jordan Peele. I do believe that keys character is Joe Dante. I think he's portraying Joe doubt. He's a little bit of an accent too. And I watched it again, he's got the hair and Okay, he's probably being Joe Dante in the production room talking to his staff. And they're coming up with ideas for Gremlins, too. So we'll watch this. We're gonna laugh. We'll talk more about it. And then we'll play the trailer. And then we'll just kind of delve into the movie and talk about a little bit more.

Sal Rodriguez: 21:29

JC you knew about this sketch before I brought it up to you? Oh, yeah, you

Jason Connell: 21:34

came across it a few years ago and couldn't stop laughing. It may have been a reason that I went back and watch Gremlins again. Nice. Like, you know what, and then I had to watch the sequel because this skit was the sequel. So another reason that something can force you to go back and revisit old stuff. The purpose of this show, like, oh my god, I hadn't thought about this movie in a while, that movie in a while, and then this is a reason to go watch it. Ideally, we're doing movies that deserve to be rewatched grim ones, too. Yeah, sure. But we wouldn't say it's like a classic, but it's a nice complement to the original. I would say that for what it is for what it is. Alright, so if you're ready, we'll queue it up. And we'll have some fun. I'm ready

Sal Rodriguez: 22:19

and stripe is ready. Okay, sorry.

Media: 22:20

I'm ready. Okay. Okay, guys. Gremlins two. I'm telling you, this movie should write itself. First of all was a classic. This should be pretty straightforward. Basically, all we're doing is maintaining the integrity of the original picture. We want to do all this stuff with the water and the can we help you? I'm sorry. Let me introduce myself. Hi, y'all. My name is star magic Jackson Jr. I'm the Hollywood sequel doctor. So studio just brings me in to oversee things when they bout to drop a deuce. So that's why I'm here. But Don't mind me. I'm just going to be over here. Y'all do your thing. It's your movie. Okay. Let's brainstorm. Adam, if it's gonna take place in an office building, I was thinking what if gives him a good sweat from a water cooler this time? Okay, hold on a second. I'm sorry. I'm wanting to step in here. Just one second. So what's wrong with y'all? Y'all looking like a bunch of sad sacks? This is G two people. We right and Gremlins two we should be a party with pizza. Anchovies pineapple. Just come on. Let's up the spirits look. Okay, I'm gonna put a little bit of spice into the mixture here. What if we did this? Everybody here gets to design their own Gremlin. I don't see that the Gremlin design is broken. It's called brainstorming on brain drizzling sweet pea. Okay, shut your mouth for a second. Look. Here's the thing. None of this is final. So you mean like what if there was like a brainy Gremlin? A brain and Gremlin you talking about a gremlin with glasses who could talk and sing New York, New York. That's brilliant. It's in the movie done. There. Whoa, whoa, you said that nothing was final. That was before I heard the words brainy and Gremlin in the same sentence together. It's done. I love it. It's in the movie. Next. What about a spider Gremlin? Gremlin with eight legs and the thorax just catching pretty ladies in a web in an office building. Oh my god, it's in the movie. I love it. Next. What about a bat Gremlin? You mean a gremlin with leathery wings just flying around flip flop and bust through a wall make a perfect bat symbol in the wall get outside getting some wet concrete jump up on a building and just dry in place like a gargoyle wherever we are cooking with gas now I love it. It's in the movie Matt? Could there be a female Gremlin? Lipstick boobies bit you have me and little gremlin But JJ I love it so much that it's not only in the movie, but it's definitely In the movie there's no back seats on now when no penny taxis Yes, yes, yes in the movie die. That's why we need a woman in the writers room next. I don't know googly eyed Gremlin. But you do know because you talk about a gremlin whose sole purpose in this film it's just that he looks stupid as fuck yes, it can be in the movie and it is in the movie done next What about you silver five? Oh, electricity Gremlin you said noun and grammar that you play in Badlands you just like a child you have the brain of a child you do not have a high IQ but you have hasn't he came up with a gremlin this is made out of bolts that zigzagging all over the room and it's done completely in animation. You were crazy person and your ideas in the movie done. Next, can we put the whole experiment? Why are you talking about putting Hulk Hogan professional wrestler turned actor turned cultural icon in the movie where he breaks the fourth wall of the movie he's in by talking to the audience user ratings don't have this down take that away from you. I don't even care anymore. We got the holster in this bed so it's done. I don't have any more time. So let me just recap right now is brainy Gremlin spider Gremlin back Gremlin. Lady Gremlin googly eyed Gremlin lectricity Gremlin Hulk Hogan is gonna throw in a gremlin festival Gremlin, just write it up. I'm having so much fun. Thank you. It's all on me in the actual film, so I gotta go put some cowboys and Back to the Future three Scion Are y'all Okay, you guys know that none of that is going to be in the actual movie

Sal Rodriguez: 26:56

How to hold my left.

Jason Connell: 26:59

Now you could laugh. It's okay. That is that, by the way. See that? The tag at the end says all of that is in the movie, actually in the movie. And guess what? It is. That's what makes this skits so funny. They just took it to that level. They brought in this script doctor who comes in when studios dropped deuces, which is hilarious. And yes, he does go off and help Back to the Future 3d Which, oddly enough we watch recently. I took Sofia through all of the movies. And then the third one, there are cowboys. They do go there. Yeah, sure he worked on it.

Sal Rodriguez: 27:40

I did back to future one and two, and I don't think I went further.

Jason Connell: 27:43

Yeah, it's tough. But you know, it's worth the watch. It does end things, which is nice. But nothing's like the original.

Sal Rodriguez: 27:50

I feel Jason like you are such a cinephile. You're such a cinephile that I feel like if you like a movie, you then feel obligated to watch sequels.

Jason Connell: 27:59

That's true. There's that I must do this. But that skit is perfect. It belongs in this episode because that's the absurdity that's going on like that was Joe Dante being like, I love his reactions in there. He's like, are not or we don't have to do what I was doing vegetable Graham letter. That's just so beautiful. And all those things are in there. So I think I watched the sequel to make sure that they really are in there. And yes, Hulk Hogan breaks the fourth wall and there's a lot more in there. That skit could have been longer. But really, really funny. Those guys are very talented and no surprise that they're doing huge things now oh, you know, they are appeal is doing directing huge movies, get out know many others. And key is just anything. He's in his comedy gold. He truly is. And you were saying that he ever did something with Obama? Like yeah,

Sal Rodriguez: 28:54

yeah. One of the characters the key does is angry black man. Yeah. And so he was standing next to Obama at the lectern. I think there was it was during the White House Correspondents Dinner, and Obama was delivering an eloquent presidential speech. And key is behind him as interpreting as an angry black man. It was hilarious. So yeah, these guys are definitely top notch,

Jason Connell: 29:17

top notch. Okay, so now let's play the trailer. Yes. And if you have laughed, it's okay. And then we'll kind of go through the beats of the movie and wrap it up but hopefully inspiring people to watch Gremlins too and maybe enjoy it.

Sal Rodriguez: 29:32

I know I'm inspired. I'm reinspire you are inspired.

Jason Connell: 29:35

Sounds great. This is working. Okay, hang on. All right. We are set here we go.

Media: 29:50

Remember the last time we told you not to feed them after midnight. urge you to keep them away from the light and the most important warning of all we told you to never ever get them away. You didn't listen they're mutating. The building on fire? Oh no, that's a false alarm. Are you trying to panic? New York City? Absolutely. So the monsters are real. I didn't say that

Unknown: 30:48

Gremlins to the new batch. Now, was that civilized? No, clearly not fun but didn't know same civil law.

Sal Rodriguez: 31:04

That was Tony Randall at the end.

Jason Connell: 31:07

Yeah, that was Tony Randall. And that is brainy Gremlin. You can hear the voice very sophisticated. And so that's brainy who came up in the skit, you know, and then yeah, he saw scientists there. You saw Christopher Lee. You can kind of see there in New York City. So there you have it. It's a nice trailer to nice setup. And now we can kind of just go through the beats of the movie really quickly. And just you know, because I watched it recently, and I'll just kind of give you more backstory spoilers are coming. Okay, folks that came out in 1990.

Sal Rodriguez: 31:43

I'll give you one on the toy front. Jason. They did actually release a electricity Gremlin. No figure. Yeah. Real. I mean, it was more like a it was flat. Right. So it's not really an action figure. And there was no articulation but it was, it was an electrical, it was an electrical Gremlin toy. Yeah,

Jason Connell: 31:58

there is one electrical current and this movie. Yeah. So like I said, it starts really, with Daniel clamp. He wants to be here he is Donald Trump at the time. This is pre Trump becoming president and all that there was a time that Trump was like, Hey, he's the big New York City mogul. So that's who this character kind of is.

Sal Rodriguez: 32:19

Yeah, Trump was at home alone, right. Home Alone, too. Probably too. Okay. Yeah, another great sequel.

Jason Connell: 32:25

There you go. Wow. People love it. People love it. So he wants to own Mr. Wings building Mr. Wang gizmos caretaker passes away and Gizmo escapes in the big city. So then going back to the original effect. Going back to that one, the dad finds gizmo and the grandson kind of smuggles him out of Mr. Wings care and sells him to him. They're just in Chinatown in New York. They're not like in another continent or country. So that's what's going on. So gizmo lives in the city but in Chinatown, but he escapes gizmos on the move. You know the puppeteers are doing more work. He's actually moving around now because gizmo in the original he's in a backpack. He's in a car he really couldn't not much articulation for 84. So then gizmo winds up this is where you have to just kind of go with it sell gizmo winds up in a lab. Like he's he's guys finding these twins, his twin scientists. Oh, yes. He's like, and they just grabbed him. And now he's in a lab and they're just like, What is this? Christopher Lee runs the lab. He's a head scientists, and they're poking and prodding and they're gonna do these experiments on him. Naturally, it's the same building that Billy and Kate work at. And this is in clamps building. So it's like, okay, you know, movies just tie all these things together like the world's so claustrophobic everything happens within this little framework, so they get reunited, which is really cute. Okay, there's that. So then, Billy, you know, he saves them and Gizmo Of course he gets wet. How's it get wet? Well, they talked about it and the key and pills get the water cooler gets gizmo went and stars don't pop some other Mogwai out. Yes. And then of course the eat after midnight and there's not stripes not there. Sorry stripe. Well, I don't even know what stripe is now we've lost him stripe fell. He's fellow found him. He can't believe he's not in this thing. So there's another bad Gremlin leading the cause. And so it starts to kind of be that they take over the building the Gremlins are taking over the building. So there's I mentioned earlier there's a TV network in the building and there's a TV show called microwave with March. Okay, so Gremlins pop up because the kitchen scene in the original was huge. The mother goes down Gremlins in the kitchen. She has to save her own life and kills three of them. And that's like a legit scene like you go back and watch that one like wow, okay, there's the horror aspect. while they're trying to recreate that here in a kitchen by network kitchen, and one gets in a microwave sound, but while that's going off, guess what happens when there's fire? And that type of set? What does that cost to happen? Oh, the sprinklers. Boom. Oh, and then all these Gremlins start to multiply. So now more Gremlins are and they're in the meantime, the evil type they're taking over the building, which is great, right?

Sal Rodriguez: 35:31

So funny. It's what it's what we signed up for when we yeah, we need

Jason Connell: 35:35

this we want to kind of revisit some of this madness.

Sal Rodriguez: 35:39

Well, Jason, it's like I use the comparison to the walking dead. I bailed out of The Walking Dead. Yeah, for a few reasons. But one of the reasons was, I signed up for zombies. Where are the zombies is like zombies. Like overs people. There you go. So I was like, I didn't sign up for this. So when I see Gremlins, I want to see gremlins.

Jason Connell: 35:57

Yeah, I agree. And so there's another funny this is very meta, by the way. In the movie. We see Leonard Moulton as himself the famous TV why he made his TV movie critic that was on TV on I think Entertainment Tonight, and had his book out every year. True story. I was on an elevator with Martin Martin Mall. But that would have been cool. And Leonard Moulton and his daughter, they have a podcast together. But this is years ago, she was much younger. And they were talking. I went and saw movie at the Arclight theater in Los Angeles. And I was on this elevator and a filmmaker was on there, Mike White. And we had all just seen this movie, Art School confidential, whatever. So we're seeing this movie. And here's Mike White, who's become an even bigger director. Now. Here's Linda Moulton. Here's his daughter. I'm also on the elevator taking in the scene them talking about the movie they just saw. Like this is like so LA. Right? I was like, This is crazy, like a fly on the wall. Like, oh, yeah, you know, I'm all there who talks on an elevator because they were like, slow at it anyway, actually, the movie art school confidential was directed by Terry's wig off. And they're like, Yeah, what do you think? Well, and I was like, This is too funny. Here's like a famous movie reviewer. And so then I was inspired to send him a copy of strictly background and see if he would review it for his book, but never did didn't come out. But anyway, I thought was really funny. So there's my time to let her molten. But in this movie, he's parroting himself, and he's on a show called the movie police. And what's he doing in his scene? He's critiquing and giving a review on gremlins. He's got the like, the VHS box, and he's blasting the movie like this movie, because in real life, he gave Gremlins a really bad review of what it was scathing and Joe Dante said, Listen, I'm over it, whatever. Come be in this movie and slam my movie again. It'll be hilarious inside baseball, very meta. So he comes on, he's slamming it and Gremlins killing. So really funny. I mean, there's scenes like that, like, you know, I love that they went there that could have come up in the skit, but maybe they had to cut that skit down to so

Sal Rodriguez: 38:21

I like it though. I like how everybody was kind of okay with making fun of themselves.

Jason Connell: 38:25

They were okay with it. Yeah. So gizmo again, is tortured by a lot of bad Mogwai. But he turns into Rambo because you asked me about that last time. And it was in this movie. He turns into Rambo. Because early in the movie, when he was still with Mr. Wang. The TV comes on and Rambo's on, and you even hear gizmo say Rambo. He's like, super excited. And then we cut to Stallone, and he's like to survive a war. You've got to become war. And so think about that later in the movie. We see gizmo start to Rambo up, go through some training. It's pretty damn cute. I gotta say

Sal Rodriguez: 39:08

they did release a gizmo Rambo action figure they see. So

Jason Connell: 39:12

you keep teasing us and you have nothing to deliver. No, but

Sal Rodriguez: 39:16

I want to I want listeners to go hey, some stuff. Go find some Gremlin stuff yourself. It's all out there.

Jason Connell: 39:22

Yeah, it was really cute. I'd love to see that actually, because it was really funny. He looked like Rambo. And then like I mentioned the Gremlins embrace the TV show about the scary movies. And then Brainy Gremlin goes on and does an interview so they let him live because they think his shows great. He sees queuing up scary movies, interviewing them. So while that's going on, there's so many Gremlins they're killing people. They're haunting other going through the whole building and whacking people and they've they've really just taken everything over. So Billy working with clamp and Billy's an architect and kind of getting the short end of this Stick. And Phoebe Cates is like a tour guide. It kind of reminds me of the Empire State Building because I visited that many times and got on the tour and gone into the lookout. That's kind of what this you know, cuz it's a huge building. There's a lot going on it kind of reminds me of that in it. But so Billy's working with clamp, because he's bright. He knows how the Gremlins think and no one will listen to him and claps like we need help, nothing's working. And Billy and him construct a plan to trick the Gremlins to thinking it's dark outside. So they like put up a veil or something. So it can't really tell it's not light outside. And then when they get them in the window or out in front of the building, they drop it in the sun's gonna demolish everybody. That's the big plan. And I think they change all the clocks in the building. So so that's what does it so he wins the day Phoebe and him happy as ever gizmos, okay, he's saved. And clamp turned out to be a pretty good guy, because he wants to save the city now. And now he looks at Billy as someone who can really count on as he probably got, who knows if he builds more things, Billy is an architect. So yeah, to happen. And oh, by the way, the fodder memes are hilarious, because he's the guy that was fighting with them on the original movie, running them over in his old car think he even coined the phrase Gremlins, and the original. But what's funny is, him and his wife are coming to stay with Billy and Kate. So it's like, again, it's like have all the times for them to come with a big city and stay. So everything's just kind of like, you know, it's just condensed in a bit like, you just gotta go with it. It's like, okay, all right. Everything's lining up for this. But it delivers in other ways. And the technology is definitely changed in the six years, for sure.

Sal Rodriguez: 41:50

It's better.

Jason Connell: 41:51

I think, well, maybe for them. I'm sure if there was a commentary that talked about just the creators and what they dealt with. I'm sure that it would have been, I'm sure it would have been different. I'm sure there would have said like they weren't doing the cowboy trick all the time. I'm sure that there was a little bit easier for them to manage.

Sal Rodriguez: 42:08

Wait, Jason, I I recently read about the cowboy trick, but I forgot what it is. What is the cowboy trick?

Jason Connell: 42:13

Yeah, we talked about it last episode. So they were doing it in the original because, like, for instance, if gizmo is in a scene, and they're gonna pan down and do something else, they will add a shot, like out of the camera, it'll swap them. If Billy's in a scene and they're gonna do something he'll take the current gizmo, they can only do like one thing, you know, maybe swap them out, and then someone else will take over. I guess it's called cowboy, cowboy movies. It's like, you go behind that rock, and then someone else would come up. It's a sleight of hand. I see. Yes. Right. The cowboy. Yeah. It's pretty cool. Yeah, they use it a lot in the original. I don't know if they did it in here.

Sal Rodriguez: 42:52

No, didn't we start talking about it? Because we noticed they did it on Cobra Kai with the stunt actors, I think, you know, they show the back what happens

Jason Connell: 42:58

on there, too. Yeah, they'll do all these pans. Yes. Someone's in there. Absolutely. And they there's no way to do it. I mean, you could just cut or you just try to pull it off that way. But the ones that were doing the original you can't tell? Because it's like the camera pans. And it's a different all sorts of different Gremlin and you wouldn't know the difference if they didn't tell you. So very cool. That is it. Those are the beats. That's the movie. It's fun again, I've watched so many sequels in the last few months. And it's like, wow, okay. I mean, I'm not watching Godfather two and saying that because that's epic. But I mean, other ones that I just didn't remember. You go back and watch Weekend at Bernie's two, or you were saying earlier, like ghoulies, to creators to even tremors to so many times. It's like, Ah, well, this isn't as charming as the original. It's not, but there's a lot going on. It's a lot of meta. It's a lot of laughs and they just went for it. And maybe the skit really made it more enticing for me. It's like, oh, it's so silly. Let's just go with it. Yeah, but I remember watching it and thinking okay, you know, it's not bad. It's worth seeing if you want to watch gremlins. Hey, run through them both. And see how you feel.

Sal Rodriguez: 44:11

What because it's only two. It's not like you got to go through three or four. Exactly. Exactly. Two is not bad. Like if let's say you love Gremlins didn't love Gremlins two would then you feel obliged to watch Gremlins three and Gremlins for I don't know if I would feel obliged.

Jason Connell: 44:25

Well, there is the show Gremlins secrets of the Mogwai now, which is animated, but it's season one, and I don't know anything about it. But I know that's happening now. So it took this many years later to launch this and was that 33 years later?

Sal Rodriguez: 44:43

Well hang on 33 years later to launch this animation. And then six years to launch the sequel from the original. Yeah, they're slow. Draw. I'm almost feeling like they've like lost a lot of ground with the franchise itself.

Jason Connell: 44:58

Yeah, it was mismanaged. It wasn't in high demand. And it seems like there's a lot of opportunities for figures as you know there are a lot of toys but I'm sure the show which was animated or is animated spawns from the fact that Cobra Kai doing what it's done you know you're gonna see a lot of people we're already seeing more the what is it the Mighty Ducks game changers? I don't know anything about it. But I do know there's a show now that spawned from the movies and that was three movies at least there could have been more. So there you have it, man. It Oh, one more thing. Yeah, there's a funny spoof in the movie that the Gremlins invade the office building and interrupt the movie itself, like Gremlins to itself. And you can't tell like the film reel, like what I mean, I didn't think my film are all messed up. But I thought What is this? No, that's meta. He did a really good job of like, let's just do this to Let's throw this mess out and they get it back on track. And then the movie continues on. And of course, the Hawk was in there, breaking the fourth wall as talked about in the skit. So that really did happen as well.

Sal Rodriguez: 46:06

Well, that's interesting. That brings up another thought then you have these special Comic Con edition action figures. You could make a Hulk Hogan Gremlins two action figure you could no one's ever done that. I don't think

Jason Connell: 46:19

otherwise. I think he's dressed as Hulk Hogan, but you just give them a little patch or something.

Sal Rodriguez: 46:23

Yeah, give them a little maybe a little gremlin maybe a little stripe action figure.

Jason Connell: 46:27

Something Yeah,

Sal Rodriguez: 46:28

yeah, they can do that.

Jason Connell: 46:30

And they do also do like a couple I don't know Oh, maj is in the movie New York, New York. They do like a musical number and then Phantom of the Opera. So they get Yeah, they go there. I think if you did like a back to back thing or within a short span of time. I think you should watch them both.

Sal Rodriguez: 46:47

I will. I will. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna commit to you Jason Connell. Let's talk movies and just curious media. I will I will commit and Joe Dante. How about that,

Jason Connell: 46:55

okay. And Spielberg, Spielberg. Okay. Well, hey, that means let's talk movies is working so well. And that's really what we're after. So anything else? My friend, it was fun to delve down this Gremlins to a journey. We talked about it. So I felt obliged because we set the stage. I think I even said we will come back into the sequel. Yeah, I was like, well, let's just do it. Let's just do and showing and listening to the skit and the trailer kind of bring another element to the show.

Sal Rodriguez: 47:24

Yeah, that sketch is pretty hilarious. But let me ask you, Jason, did they not make a Gremlins three? Because Gremlins two was not successful at the box office. Did that happen?

Jason Connell: 47:32

I would have to check the numbers. I think Dante was over it. Just hearing him talk about it. I think too. Is it like he went all in? There's nothing else to do it have to go to someone else. And now we're in the 90s 1990 and other movies were in vogue. Were Gremlins even as popular. So yeah, I just don't think there was a demand or desire. And Spielberg really wanted to do it. He could have got someone else which would happen now like a new director is doing Gremlins three. But financially, I don't think it was as successful as the first one. But I don't know if it made her last money. I didn't check that out. Well, yeah. You know, hard questions.

Sal Rodriguez: 48:10

No, you know why? Because I'm always thinking of what computer technology is going to do. And if they do a reboot of Gremlins, yeah, there'll be computer generated. Gremlins. There'll be no, that's

Jason Connell: 48:22

very generous. Yeah, that's exactly true. And then, you know, I think there's, you're losing an element there. Right stripe. We're losing an element there, buddy.

Sal Rodriguez: 48:32

Stripe agrees.

Jason Connell: 48:33

He totally agrees. Yeah. You look great. You're holding up after how many years? Has it been? Sal is at 45 When he come out?

Sal Rodriguez: 48:42

I think this action figure will probably came out in the early 90s. I would say the early 90s. Okay,

Jason Connell: 48:47

well, it looks amazing.

Sal Rodriguez: 48:48

He does look great.

Jason Connell: 48:50

I was trying to look up the budget real quick. On the second one, maybe it would it give Yeah, so yeah, maybe it just well, these are these numbers are outdated. It has the budget estimated and of this equal 50 million, and it has worldwide gross is like 41 point 4 million. So that would lose money. But then you go to VHS and in the enterprise. I made money but just not enough to make a third, probably what happened? And even if they weren't going to do it, and Dante didn't want to the studio would have just pushed it forward. So um,

Sal Rodriguez: 49:24

I feel like they just could have went super nuts with the merchandising. Or Exactly.

Jason Connell: 49:28

But, you know, I don't know. I don't know how the merch did but I'm assuming that well, you helped. So that's good. I did. That's good. So that's all I got. That's all I got.

Sal Rodriguez: 49:38

No, that was a lot of fun. You did say it would be fun. And you're right. You're good. Yeah. All right.

Jason Connell: 49:46

So without further ado, please enjoy

Sal Rodriguez: 49:49

Gremlins to the new batch.

Jason Connell: 49:52

Yeah, rather than doing our usual outro we want to thank all of our fans for tuning in to Let's Talk movies. We love the review. We've gotten also the five star ratings are great. They take literally a nanosecond to dis click five star on your phone and they help us immensely. And Sal, you love that we have let's talk movies, social media platforms as well.

Sal Rodriguez: 50:16

Oh, yeah. Well, you know, all of the just curious media shows are on all the socials. Yep. In fact, now that we're talking Jason, you think that there'll be a just curious media on threads

Jason Connell: 50:29

might see you're ahead of me, buddy. So I need to look into that. Yeah, we got to look into some threads.

Sal Rodriguez: 50:36

But yeah, fine. Let's talk movies and just curious media on all the socials, all the platforms. Were there. Jason is ready to talk to you. He absolutely is

Jason Connell: 50:44

ready to talk right now. And we also as always want you to go to just curious media.com There's a logo for those watching on video. You can stream every single episode from there. Some people said, I hate all these apps, blah, blah, blah, okay, that's fine. Whatever, just go here. And you can just scroll down and pick the show. And then they're all there. streamable so you don't have to deal with anything. You can also go to YouTube and watch the videos but this is the mecca This is the mothership the hub go there. We have all five shows. So it's just a one stop shop. What else can you do? So that's pretty easy.

Sal Rodriguez: 51:28

Yeah, I think it's the place to go. It's funny when you like imitate. When you do an impression of like an old guy that hates tech. You're like, Ah, I don't want to go to another app. That's me. That's me, Sal. Younger Sal. No, it's true. Like I got an acting job. I gotta get another payroll app for a new payroll company. Oh, no, I gotta get another app. Oh, yeah. What is this?

Jason Connell: 51:46

We have a meme of you. Another app.

Sal Rodriguez: 51:49

Another app from my phone. It doesn't have any more space on it. Yeah, I

Jason Connell: 51:52

think Sal Rodriguez goes to just curious media.com and just streams him. He says, Yeah, screw it. I'm just everything. So anyway, thank you so much. Until we come back. We will not be doing Gremlins three, because until there is one, but we'll be doing some movie at some point in time that you should watch for the first time or revisit. Thank you