Gremlins 2: The New Batch is a 1990 horror comedy distributed by Warner Bros. Its stars include Zach Galligan as Billy Peltzer, Phoebe Cates as Kate Beringer, John Glover as Daniel Clamp, Robert Prosky as Grandpa Fred, and Robert Picardo as Forester. The producers are Rick Baker (Gorillas in the Mist) and Michael Finnell (Small Soldiers). The director is Joe Dante (The Hole).
Taking place a few years after the events of Gremlins, Gremlins 2: The New Batch takes place primarily in a New York City office building. The lovable Mogwai Gizmo is now homeless as Mr. Wing, his owner, has passed away and his antique store demolished. Some scientists from an office building owned by Clamp Enterprises picks him up and takes him to the lab for tests. Today his old friend Billy Peltzer is engaged to Kate Beringer. The two work at the same office building Gizmo is taken to. He is a designer and she is a tour guide. Billy hears a familiar tune that Gizmo used to sing and heads for the research lab where he finds his long-lost pal. He rescues the little Mogwai and hides him in a drawer for his fiance to pick up later. But the curious Gizmo gets out and is sprayed by a nearby water fountain, spawning more Mogwai creatures. Kate comes by and gets one of the Mogwai, thinking it is the harmless Gizmo. But the other more mischievous creatures had forced the little Mogwai into the air vent and trapped him. She takes the creature home and immediately notices that it likes to cause trouble. Billy soon comes home and recognizes that it is not Gizmo. That night, they try to take it back to the building but are thrown out. The next day, they return to the building and find out that there are many more of them. The malicious Mogwai had eaten past midnight the previous night and were ready to hatch from their cocoons. After hatching, they quickly take over the entire downtown highrise and cause a fire during a cooking show making the sprinklers go off. The gremlins have now multiplied and chase almost everyone from the building. The remaining humans are Mr. Clamp, Kate, Billy, Marla (Billy’s boss), and Forester, the head of security. The gremlins enter the laboratory where they start drinking all the genetic formulas. One of them develops the ability to speak while another can fly like a bat and is immune to sunlight. Gizmo reappears as a Rambo-style soldier and saves Marla and Kate from the large spider gremlin. Murray Futterman from Kingston Falls had been sightseeing near the building when he spots the bat gremlin flying toward him. He dumps some cement on the creature. It flies up to the top of the cathedral as it dries and becomes a gargoyle. Futterman heads to the office building and sneaks in the secret entrance after Mr. Clamp had gotten out to take charge outside. Meanwhile, the gremlins are now numbering in the thousands and are waiting for nightfall when they can leave and wreak havoc all over New York City.
One of the most fascinating characters in the film was the gremlin who drank the brain solution and became intelligent. He doesn’t appear to be as malicious as his fellow gremlins. “Brain” is smart enough to speak to humans. He even conducts an interview on television explaining a little about what the gremlins really want. Although he joins the other gremlins when they are partying in the lobby, Brain isn’t making a mess or breaking things like the others. Instead, he’s actually singing his own rendition of “New York, New York” while dressed in regular clothes and, most notably, wearing glasses.
Another feature of Gremlins 2 is how Gizmo changes from being a peaceful being that never fights back to a Rambo-style warrior. Early in the film, he is tortured so badly that he decides it’s time to fight back. The little Mogwai also hears Rambo, played by Sylvester Stallone, on the T.V. saying, “In order to survive war, you have to become war.” Gizmo puts on a Rambo head band and makes weapons with which to protect himself and his friends from the evil gremlins. The good Mogwai trains like Rocky does in the Rocky film series, which also starred Stallone. He uses his makeshift bow and arrow to save Kate and Marla from the giant mutant spider gremlin.
To wrap, Gremlins 2 is more humorous than its predecessor and offers some quite interesting characters and hilarious gremlin antics.