The Couch Critic
The Couch Critic is your laid-back guide to movies and TV shows that deserve your attention—or maybe don’t. Nathan dives deep into storytelling, character development, and cinematic style with a sharp eye and a wry sense of humor. Whether it’s a blockbuster hit, a hidden gem, or a cult classic, Nathan’s relatable approach ensures every episode feels like a cozy chat with a friend who just happens to love film. Perfect for casual watchers and cinephiles alike, The Couch Critic brings thoughtful critique without the fluff. Grab your favorite snack, settle in, and let Nathan guide you through the world of screen entertainment.
The Couch Critic
Gremlins Unwrapped: Chaos, Comedy, and Christmas Charm
Join us for a festive feast of chaos and charm as Bob from Static Radio (staticradio.com) returns, this time to chat about the holiday classic, Gremlins. Can you believe it? Zach Galligan and Phoebe Cates star in a movie produced by Steven Spielberg himself, and we're here to explore all the fun trivia and nostalgia you never knew you needed. From discussing how Howie Mandel gave life to the adorable Gizmo to pondering why Zach Galligan didn't soar to superstar status, our conversation with Bob blends humor and insight, making for an unforgettable episode.
Ever wondered how 80s movies still manage to capture our hearts or what makes Gremlins a quintessential yet unconventional Christmas movie? We promise you'll leave this episode with a newfound appreciation for the film's quirky balance of horror, comedy, and holiday spirit. Bob and I dive deep into Joe Dante's creative genius as we unravel the film's unique storytelling, from its small-town setting to the Looney Tunes-style humor brought to life by the legendary Chuck Jones. And speaking of nostalgia, we'll even touch on the current state of Looney Tunes and the polarizing reactions to Space Jam: A New Legacy.
As we wrap up this lively episode, reflect with us on the masterful introduction of Gremlins and its timeless quality as a festive favorite. We'll explore how its PG rating might have looked different today and ponder the film’s enduring legacy in comparison to other iconic movies of the era. Plus, hear about our exciting transition to YouTube in March, where you'll be able to catch our reactions in full Technicolor. Don't miss this chance to relive your favorite 80s memories with us and our special guest, Bob.
On the couch. We're laughing, crying, feeling it all, breaking down the big screen, the hits and the flaws. Grab your seat, press play. Let's take the pic. Lights camera action. Episode of the Couch Critic.
Speaker 2:I'm your host, nathan, and thank you for joining me on this journey of Christmas movies A little under 100 Christmas movies, and it's been a journey so far. We're finally close to the end of February, which is crazy. My son's birthday is next week and he'll be three years old, but I am oh, what was that? Was that a special guest? That's right, I have a special guest on this episode. He's been on the show before, but you know what? I'm going to have him introduce himself. Anyway, special guest, go ahead and introduce yourself, please oh, hey, this is bob.
Speaker 3:Sorry, I didn't mean to pop on there. You just mentioned the uh, your uh, the birthday coming up.
Speaker 2:I was like, oh, look at that birthday bob was on our full metal jacket episode last season and he has his own show, static radio. Is that correct?
Speaker 2:yeah, static radio okay, and so whatever you want to do, if you want to stop yeah I I've listened to a couple episodes and I remember bob explaining his show before and it's basically just him and his friends coming on telling the most random stories, and and there is there's some hilarious stuff that I've heard about. So go check out. It's random. Yeah, it is totally random, but I love random. And, speaking of random, we're going to be talking about probably another one of the most random christmas movies on my list and that is gremlins, and gremlins stars zach galligan as billy phoebe, cates as kate hoyt axton as randall peltzer and john louis, as this is the name of his character, the chinese boy. That's what he's named on imdb, so don't come after me. That's what they I don't know. Yeah, his character doesn't have a name, okay, and so, uh, bob, obviously you've seen gremlins before. Oh, yeah, do you have any like tidbits, a little bit of trivia that some people might not know about this movie?
Speaker 3:oh well, it's been out for so long.
Speaker 3:I don't know, maybe everybody would know all the tidbits, but it's by director Joe Dante, who is a contemporary with Steven Spielberg and Brian De Palma and Francis Ford Coppola. So he was during that time in the 70s when all those guys were coming up, the 70s, when all those guys were coming up, and so he's one of the many 70s-ish directors who kind of made their name back then and doing different stuff and then kind of came forward and Gremlins was like the big hit for him, right. So he'd done a lot of other stuff and he did one of the segments of the Twilight Zone movie just a couple of years ahead of this as well. So that's where you may know him from, prior to this. But he was I don't know if folks really think about the directors as much, but he's done all kinds of stuff over the years and so forth, not quite, as you know, burning bright as Steven Spielberg would be, but still pretty good director all the way around. And didn't Spielberg produce this or something? Still pretty good director all the way around.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and didn't Spielberg produce this or something? Because I remember when I watched it yeah, I saw his name I was like I didn't know he directed this, but then it said directed by this other guy, yeah.
Speaker 3:Joe Dante is the director, even though, yeah, people always once you see Spielberg's name, even if he's just a producer, it's like everybody's like, oh yeah, he directed it. Well, no, he didn't like. Poltergeist didn't direct it. Toby hooper directed that, right and uh, so, just like that, this uh gremlins is, uh, it's steve spielberg presents. But I'm assuming the marketing department at the time were like, if we're gonna going to sell this movie, nobody's heard of Joe.
Speaker 2:Dante Put Spielberg's name on it.
Speaker 3:People would put Spielberg yeah, exactly, just like Back to the Future was a Steven Spielberg production producing, and that's Robert Zemeckis film, so go figure. Right.
Speaker 2:Well, you said earlier that this movie has been out for a while and everyone probably knows everything about it. But let's just see. Let's just see. I actually found some trivia about it, so there may be some things that maybe you don't even know. Did you know that originally the character Stripe, who's like the evil gremlin?
Speaker 3:and.
Speaker 2:Gizmo were actually supposed to be the same character.
Speaker 3:Oh, I didn't know that that's a good one.
Speaker 2:I didn't know Originally, Gizmo was supposed to turn into the evil, but they're like. We wanted the audience to have someone one of the gremlins to sympathize with and to grow to love, so that's why they decided to make them completely different characters.
Speaker 3:This is something that you might know Toy sales.
Speaker 2:That was their decision, you know, you know and I was cute yeah, well, and that's where they got the idea, for furby is from gizmo, and so uh, but and this is probably something that you might know, but many people may not. Uh, did you know that howie mandel voiced gizmo? Yeah, I knew that. Yeah, because I remember. Uh, bobby's world, did you ever?
Speaker 3:watch that yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So that's why I was like, oh yeah. And and another little cameo which you may or may not have noticed chuck jones, the beloved animator who did Looney Tunes and how the Grinch Stole Christmas. He actually makes a cameo in the bar while Billy is drawing and he actually compliments him and says hey, nice drawing. So it's a nice little random cameo. Like I don't even know if he had anything else to do with the movie, they just said, hey, let's put Chuck Jones in here randomly, anything else?
Speaker 3:to do with the movie. They just said hey, let's put chuck jones in here randomly. Well, I think, I think that a lot of the um, physical comedy is probably you know, from chuck jones inspired things. Right, because he also did a lot of looney tunes and things like that. So this is very looney tunes. Ask if you've ever seen the old Looney Tunes with Bugs, bunny and so forth and the coyote and the roadrunner.
Speaker 2:And speaking of Looney Tunes, just a little side note real quick. Have you seen the trailer for the new Looney Tunes movie they're coming out with? It's like with Daffy Duck and Porky Pig no, I haven't seen that one now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're, they're releasing a a full theater released film and I don't know what I think about it. I'm gonna go see it, I'm gonna review it, but I, I, I don't know if it's if they're trying to get today's audience with some of the stuff that I saw in the trailer, I'm like but anyway, that's not what we're talking about? We're talking about gremlins.
Speaker 3:The Looney Tunes were on work for more for a space jam.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah Movie yeah.
Speaker 2:Which wasn't that great either.
Speaker 3:Well, in the new one space, jam two or whatever legacy or something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we, we don't speak of that, bob.
Speaker 3:We don't, okay we don't speak of that, bob. We don't speak of that. Okay, sorry, sorry, I brought it up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thanks a lot, jerk. So what were some of the things that you liked about the Gremlins movie?
Speaker 3:Well, I think there was. It's an 80s movie, so there's a lot of 80ies things, you know, going on, so eighties nostalgia and so forth for it. But, um, I think I liked it because it was all kind of uh much like a lot of eighties movies at the time. It was all kind of small town stuff, right, so there'll be the suburbs or you'd be in small towns and that was kind of the feel for a lot of these things and so much like Back to the Future. It all kind of happens in this little town. For the most part, other than Hoyt Axton bringing, you know, gizmo into this world from the city, everything is kind of a small town related and I think I like that because it's kind of quaint, it's kind of a thing of its era, you know, and you know part of that was because they had a back lot and they had a small town there and so it was cheaper to film. But it also was, you know, it's just kind of a quaint little thing that was happening there.
Speaker 3:I think Zach Galligan, which I don't know why he didn't do more. He was such a likable actor and a likable character and he really didn't, you know, take off from gremlins like you would think he would have. I mean, he hasn't done um too much since then. That would be you know any kind of big time other than gremlins, you know. So it's kind of weird, um, how that worked out, because he was really quite a likable every man kind of character you think he would have broke out from this. Obviously, phoebe Cates in the time period did and did a lot of things and married Kevin Kline and so forth, and now it's kind of just, you know doing her own thing, but she was kind of the breakout star of this, even though you know doing her own thing, but she was kind of the breakout star of this, even though, honestly, I think Zach Galligan was a much better character overall.
Speaker 2:I mean, he played the character better Right and with the small town it kind of helps you connect with the characters a lot more because it's a more intimate feeling and so you feel like you're a part of the town yourself just by watching the movie. So yeah, so I agree. I agree with that one 100%. And what was kind of funny is I noticed that Phoebe Cates and I want to say his name is Judge Nelson- Are you talking about gremlins, or are you talking about, well, gremlins?
Speaker 2:because he's, because he's in this too, and so that's that's the connection I made. Um, that he's, I guess, friends with billy or something, and I was like wait, that's that guy from and she's in the same movie as him. So I thought that was kind of cool and I don't know if that was on purpose or if this movie came out before or after fast times at ridgemont high, um, but but they're both in this movie. So I I made that connection as well.
Speaker 2:But yeah, one of the things I liked is something kind of like what we talked about before the cartooniness, the silly fun it's, it doesn't take itself too seriously, it's not like a a 100% horror movie. It's funny, it's kind of like a dark comedy, and so I I really enjoyed that and it did, it did a really good job at balancing the horror and the comedy. Like it could have gone straight horror and just been the creepiest thing ever, but because and I think it's because it has the backdrop of christmas that it allows it to have that kind of humor and just crazy randomness you threw me so you got it's judge reinhold because he was in I was thinking judd nelson.
Speaker 2:He was in both Fast Times and this one.
Speaker 3:I was thinking Judd Nelson. He was from Breakfast Club, but anyway, tomato, tomato, yeah, you said Judge Nelson. I'm like who's Judge Nelson? Another kind of weird bit of trivia, if you're talking about people who are in this and they were really quite popular at the time or actually just ahead of this was Polly Holiday, because she played Flo on Alice and then had her own series, flo's Yellow Rose, I think it was called, and she was in this movie as kind of an old lady which was totally against her type, just kind of speaking of random people. And this is the early days of the Corys, because Corey Felton was in this as well.
Speaker 2:That's right's right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so the two so no two, two coreys, just one corey in this one exactly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, um, so was there anything else that you that stuck out to you, like that this is a, this is a pretty good. Well, like, like, when it comes to related of christmas, like is this one of those movies? You know they? They say like die hard If you take out Christmas. It could still be die hard If you take out Christmas. Even some people say if you take out Christmas out of home alone, it could still be a similar movie. I mean, do you see, do you see this as one of those films? Like you don't necessarily. Oh yeah, I don't think you have to have Christmas.
Speaker 3:I mean it. It they do play to it a bit, you know. And then the time of year with the snow and everything. But I think if you took Christmas out of it it would still be fine. It's basically you know what happens in a small town when, when you bring in these little fuzzy chaos makers, and that's what that's what the movie is really about, and then it's just really. The funny thing is it's almost like a horror movie script, except you take out actually didn't even take out all the gore, you just take out some of the gore and made all of the horror.
Speaker 3:You know kind of monster things, all these little creatures, and they're kind of cute and kind of funny and it really was even for the time.
Speaker 3:I mean they didn't play to children necessarily, although most of it did. I mean there was, you know, the flasher gremlin and there's kind of a pervy gremlin and there was a cross-dressing gremlin and they had all these things mixed in there that were definitely not, um, you know, for kids, uh, but they kind of came and went really quickly. Uh, it's kind of like, you know, uh, looney tunes they had looney tunes throws out a lot of references really quickly and some of them are more, you know, adult than others, and so it really kind of fit in that vein of things as it played out and was kind of interesting. And you know just so many, I mean, it was, you know, a plethora of gremlins at one point with all these different personalities to them, which was quite interesting. As they did it it just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger and faster and more right and things were just happening and you can't hardly, even for the day it still holds up pretty good for the pace and everything that it kept, everything moving.
Speaker 2:You know, you know, yeah, I think, even like with the visuals of it, like I I still for the most part. I mean, there was that one moment where it's like a big mob of the gremlins and it just looked kind of cheesy. But other than that, like the visually, like the transformation it's still like, and even like the weird noises, it still had that creepy horror vibe to it and that's why I feel like having christmas as a backdrop is is what makes it more light and and it doesn't, uh, lean too much into like the creepiness, and so I think that, in that aspect, I think setting it during christmas time helps with that. So, um, so, yeah, one of my biggest dislikes though I think I only have like one big dislike is that it's a it's your typical movie where you have dumb people doing dumb things and and there's only one part in particular, that I really think about I know basically, but like there's one part in particular, but before I name mine, did you know, notice any moments like that in this movie?
Speaker 2:I mean, you might name exactly the same part I'm thinking of.
Speaker 3:Oh well, it was. I mean it constantly. I think the um, uh, the person who kind of got the um the worst of it was Mr Futterman. He's played by a character actor named Dick Miller, with his snow plow and all that kind of stuff he just kept doing, you know, dumb things and eventually his demise and so forth. But he was probably one of the bigger doofuses in the movie. But I think, unfortunately, you want the gremlins to be smarter than the people. You want the gremlins to be smarter than the people and if they weren't like a little bit ahead of them, I think that the movie wouldn't you, wouldn't? It helps you suspend your disbelief, because then you're rooting for the gremlins.
Speaker 3:So I think, that's part of it as well.
Speaker 2:Well, and I think it kind of goes back to and maybe that's why Chuck Jones was in this movie, because it does kind of go back to Looney. Maybe that's why chuck jones was in this movie, because it does kind of go back to looney tunes like bugs bunny, the animal character is much smarter than elmer fudd, the human character the human character, and so and so that's I.
Speaker 2:I think that's kind of what they were going for for this movie, and so again, maybe that's why chuck jones was in there but but that's exactly the part I was talking about with the snow plow and and the part that I think is so dumb about it is it's it's like and and I saw I think I just saw a movie recently that was like this too like this thing is coming towards them and there's obviously ways that they could get around it, but they stay in one little corner the entire time and that's why they die, and that's why they die, because they they don't just move to the left a little bit, and so that I mean that's, that's the big reason that I I have that dislike of dumb characters doing dumb things it's all been recently with, um, uh, austin powers in the in the steamroller, yeah, scene where it plays out and he easily could have just got out of the way but he gets run over.
Speaker 3:But it's for comedic effect, right?
Speaker 2:so yeah, so is there anything else about this movie that that you feel like likes, dislikes?
Speaker 3:little tidbits well, I I'll tell you the setup for this movie at the very beginning of the movie. I mean, it's all very fun and everything. The very beginning of the movie where hoyt axon gets gizmo and goes through that and brings it to the house and everything, and and brings it to the house and everything and him coming into the house and he's an inventor and all these inventions, that kind of work but kind of don't work. The whole intro to this movie was done so masterfully. It reminds me I don't know if you, kind of in the same time period but the original Superman movie with Christopher Reeves.
Speaker 3:The beginning of that movie is so tight and so well-timed that this is just like that to me. And this was an era when, when they would do that right. So they were trying to move the camera more, they were trying to keep the pace going, they were trying to to bring you into things and I think the beginning of this movie is so good with that. And I mean you, you're by the time we get gizmo in the house and where he's going to be. You know, don't feed him after midnight, don't get him wet, kind of thing. You are wholeheartedly into this movie because it all it happened so perfectly.
Speaker 3:Um, the the beginning was so perfectly orchestrated and there was no dead, dead points or anything. Now, the other thing, though, is that very first part, where he he's getting the mogwai, is much darker than as we go through the movie. So it actually lightens up as we move forward through the movie, even though there's some, you know, kind of really, I mean there's people die and things get killed and chopped up in blenders and in the microwave and everything else, um, but the lightheartedness of it all goes, you know, kind of up, um, throughout the movie until towards the end. But, um, I don't know, I, I said my, you know. Getting back to my original point is, the front end of this movie was just so well-made and you could just I mean, heck, if it was just that part and you just got hey, I got gizmo, you could have ended the movie right there, but I've been super happy. So it really was masterful by Joe Dante for this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and going back to you saying, mentioning, you know, gremlins getting chopped up and thrown into microwaves. Again it harkens back to Looney Tunes and how. Something as horrific as Daffy Duck being shot in the face with a shotgun, but then you see the cloud of smoke go away and his bill is in the back of his head and it's somehow funny. What in real life would be horrific is somehow funny because of the cartooniness of it. And again, that's probably why Chuck Jones was in this movie.
Speaker 3:That's right and it was, you know, kind of gross. I mean they blew up and they it was gory, a little bit gory they were mean to gizmo. I mean you were totally bought into gizmo being the good guy and spike and the, and the good guy and spike and the and the rest of them were, um, mean to gizmo and so, yeah, I mean there was, there was, there was some trauma happening. I was looking to see I couldn't remember the rating and it's only pg. I would say had this been uh in another uh year after this, it would have been a pg-13, because that's when pg-13 came on the scene. I think was around 85. So, um, I'm surprised this wasn't somehow they avoided the, just because it was. It was quite graphic with some of the death scenes of the, of the gremlins well, and and even with kate's monologue talking about why she doesn't celebrate christmas it's because her father broke his neck trying to come down the chimney like holy crap so yeah, I mean, I mean, yeah, it's, it's.
Speaker 2:It's always surprising to watch movies back in that time, like even the rated g movies like um. I remember I I'm a teacher and so I was showing my students the cartoon Anastasia and I completely forgot about how creepy the villain was in that movie. Right, yeah, you know his eye pops out and there's basically like I guess some people might say like he's summoning demons and stuff, and I'm like oh my gosh, why am?
Speaker 2:I letting these kids watch? So yeah, I would never let my students watch Gremlins either. Why am I letting these kids watch? So yeah, I would never let my students watch Gremlins either. So those are our thoughts about this movie, our likes and dislikes. So let's go ahead and rate it. So what I'm doing with the Christmas movies is I'm giving them two types of ratings. I'm giving them a Christmas rating, basically like how dependent is this movie on the holiday of Christmas? And then I'm also giving it a general rating of is this just, is this a good movie? And so I'm I'm basing it off of one to five stars. So, with Christmas or Christmas rating, what would you give gremlins?
Speaker 3:for the Christmas rating, Okay, so that would be it has to has to have christmas in it in order to make it work well.
Speaker 2:So for example as a christmas movie. Well, well, for example, I I did a charlie brown christmas. I gave that a perfect five out of five because oh yeah it's just quintessential christmas. And take christmas out of a charlie brown christmas and it's not a charlie right. So basing it off of that, what would you? What would you give rare bones?
Speaker 3:oh, three, three and a half, uh, out of five, I think okay, can we do?
Speaker 2:yeah okay, yeah and yeah, I'll give it. I'll probably give it a four when it comes to a christmas movie because, again, I think that the christmas lightens it even more, and so that's why I give it a four out of five. So for general rating, just based on a movie in general, what would you give gremlins?
Speaker 3:Oh, out of five stars, I give this a five. This is a five-star movie. I mean it's got everything you could want in a movie, um, and it's fun to watch and you can watch it more than once. I mean it's not, you're not going to be disappointed. You know, watch it once you'd be like okay, I never had to watch that again because there's so much going on that every time you watch it you're going to pull different things out of it, because it's it's really quite fast paced and you know, even though it's's an older movie, still very fast paced and very fun to watch see, now you're making me want to bump up my original rating.
Speaker 2:I originally was going to give it a 3.5 and and one of the reasons for that is because, also, that other scene of someone doing something stupid when the professor deliberately puts water on gizmo it that irritated the crap out of it. So but I'm I'm I'm going to ignore that because, like you said, it is a very much a rewatchable movie. So I'm going to give gremlins a 4.5 out of five because of that stupid professor guy out of five because of that stupid professor guy. So that is bob and i's thoughts on gremlins, the second to last movie of february, and so next week take a listen to what another special guest and I are going to be talking about. I hate to do this to you, but I think you can help me pick up the slack on those etch-a-sketches.
Speaker 3:No problem, I appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Buddy's killing me. I already got Lum-Lum and Choo-Choo pulling doubles.
Speaker 3:I quit thinking yesterday with that special talents thing.
Speaker 2:I feel bad for the guy.
Speaker 1:I just hope he doesn't get wise.
Speaker 2:Well, if he hasn't figured out he's a human by now, I don't think he ever will.
Speaker 1:He hasn't figured out he's a human by now. I don't think he ever will. I think they're too small, I'm just special.
Speaker 3:You don't look so good, buddy, are you okay? I'll be okay, I just need a glass of water.
Speaker 2:Ah, Buddy, we're taking on the Will Ferrell, what some people call classic Christmas movie, elf, and my special guest is going to be my former partner in crime of Nady and Katie at the movie's fame. That's right, katie is returning to talk about Elf, and that will be our last audio podcast episode because, starting in March, we're going to be heading to YouTube, so you'll be able to see mine and some of my special guests' pretty faces every time you listen to our reviews. So, bob, thank you once again from St static radio for coming on to the show. Guys follow his show. If you like randomness, you will love static radio. Take a listen to it on all of the podcast platforms and also on youtube as well, correct?
Speaker 3:yeah, we're everywhere awesome.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you everyone for listening to the couch critic, where every movie gets its closeup.
Speaker 1:It's not just a movie, it's a way of life. We'll watch it together, day or night, so settle in close and don't miss a flick. This is the moment for the couch critic.
