Gremlins & Gremlins 2

Gremlins
(1984) [Trailer]
Director: Joe Dante (IMDB)

Synopsis: A furry little critter from Chinatown is picked up as a Christmas gift and turns out to be more than its new owners can handle.

This is one of my all time favorite childhood movies and also one of the best Christmas movies ever. Joe Dante is an overall rad dude and probably one of the most effective directors when it comes to blending horror and comedy. There's lots of interesting practical effects and puppetry, which is something you don't see in a films nowadays... stupid CGI. Jerry Goldsmith (RIP) provides an incredible score as he does in every film he's involved in.

There are lots of amazing scenes in Gremlins that I loved as kid and that still hold up for me. Here's my top 5.

1. The final confrontation at the department store... the chainsaw scene is the best.
2. The hatching of the Gremlins at Billy's house and the kitchen massacre scene.
3. The Gremlins watching Snow White... so genius... I love the Mickey ears that you'll briefly see if you look hard enough.
4. The Gremlins getting wasted. Who doesn't love a drunk monster?
5. The teacher trying to feed a snickers bar to a Gremlin.

Gremlins 2
(1990) [Trailer]
Director: Joe Dante (IMDB)

Synopsis: The boys are back and this time they're taking it to the big apple.

Dante returns to direct this follow up and it delivers a cracked out version of part one. It's pretty extreme and goes a bit over the top, but in a fun way. Like part one, I noticed a lot of homages to other classic films: Rambo, The Wizard of Oz, King Kong, and Phantom of the Opera are all given nods and there's also a chorus-linesque scene at the end which is great. There's a very meta scene involving the Gremlins interrupting the movie and taking you out of the film into what is meant to be real life. The blu-ray offers both the theatrical version featuring Hulk Hogan, and the home VHS version featuring the Gremlin's shoot out with John Wayne. Both versions are pretty funny and it's an interesting idea I haven't seen before. 

Although this isn't as good as part one, it's still pretty funny and worth a viewing.