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 comedy 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 the animatronics and special effects are far superior to those in the first film, director Joe Dante (The Howling, Explorers) indulges in a display of technological prowess that spirals into a busily boring mess before things are over.
James Cameron accomplishes a rare feat with a sequel that doesn’t shame the original and succeeds on its own merits. Aliens is so different in tone than the original Alien, I think of it as a sequel only in name (this goes for all the Alien movies). In a smart move, Cameron decided not to compete with Ridley Scott in the areas of horror and suspense. Aliens is decidedly a combat movie.
