[6]

Gizmo the cute Mogwai is back, and he gets wet again — this time in a New York City skyscraper run by a Donald Trump-like billionaire. Billy Peltzer and Kate Beringer (returning stars Zach Galligan and Phoebe Cates) both work there and re-team with their furry companion just in time to do battle with another army of nasty gremlins. This sequel to the 1984 original is more a madcap parody than a horror movie, with none of the fable quality or dark atmosphere of the first film. The script is meager enough to allow for large blocks of gremlins shenanigans that overwhelm the movie. This is good if you like monster mayhem, bad if you like a little more in your creature features.

While Rick Baker’s animatronics and special effects are far superior to those in the first film, director Joe Dante (The Howling, Matinee) indulges in a display of technological prowess that spirals into a busily boring mess before things are over. I enjoy most of The New Batch, for its audacity and ambitiousness if for little else. It’s an unusual onslaught of comic book chaos — a kind of childish, whacky filmmaking that rarely gets such a big budget and lavish production values. Without any grounded storytelling or earnest character development, though, the film outstays its welcome.

Galligan and Cates are pushed to the background with little to do in the sequel, but some supporting players manage to make an impression. John Glover is great as the goofy Trump-like billionaire and Robert Prosky is memorable as a TV horror host on the outs. Horror icon Christopher Lee makes a welcome appearance as a scientist whose genetic experiments allow for many interesting gremlin mutations, including a vegetable gremlin, a winged gremlin, a spider gremlin, and a gremlin turned into sheer electric energy. Tony Randall voices the ‘Brain’ gremlin who dons glasses and begins speaking for his constituency to the public. And then there’s the trans-sexual gremlin who wears down actor Robert Picardo until he almost finds her scaly green face and puckered lips appealing.

Like I said, it’s a wacky movie. Just run with it.

With Dick Miller, Keye Luke, Haviland Morris, and cameos by John Astin, Julia Sweeney, and Hulk Hogan. Howie Mandel provides the voice of Gizmo. Jerry Goldsmith, as always, delivers a top-notch score.