Gremlins 2: The New Batch

Warner Bros. | Release Date: June 15, 1990

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

69	METASCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 28 Critic Reviews

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Mixed:

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Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

Harper Barnes

One of the wildest and funniest satires since the original Airplane. [15 Jun 1990, p.3F]

Dave Kehr

It is indeed the kind of movie - crude and anarchic, filled with shotgun satire and gross-out jokes - designed to drive parents crazy and fill adolescent hearts with joy. For unfastidious adults, too, it's a great time at the movies, maniacally and often breathtakingly funny. [15 Jun 1990, p.B]

Almar Haflidason

The sequel to Gremlins actually proves more enjoyable than the first film, offering audacious dark humour and a lot of knowing 'in-jokes'. Read full review

Michael Sragow

This uninhibited and uproarious monster bash, directed by Joe Dante, is more quick-witted and ironic than the original; it sets forth a savvy, slaphappy agenda before the opening credits and follows it straight through to the end, and even beyond. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

An hilarious sequel featuring equal parts creature slapstick for the small fry and satirical barbs for adults. Addition of Christopher Lee to the cast as a mad genetics engineering scientist is a perfect touch. Read full review

Desson Thomson

A devilishly, hysterically, cacklingly, subversively funny picture that builds and builds until it literally self-destructs. Read full review

R. L. Shaffer

Gremlins 2: The New Batch is a great meta horror-comedy. It focuses less on scares, but makes up for it with great effects, a hilarious story, and awesome supporting characters. Read full review

TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)

A huge improvement over the original, Gremlins 2: The New Batch is surprisingly sympathetic towards the title menace, and surprisingly thought-provoking as extended commentary on modern life and morality. Read full review

Owen Gleiberman

Gremlins 2 is a limited achievement — it’s nothing but the sum of its own whirring pop-culture mechanics. But that’s more than enough to keep you occupied, and occasionally exhilarated. Read full review

John Hartl

What lends it novelty and makes it such wicked fun is the change of locale from a Capra-esque small town to rude, hectic New York City. Read full review

Chris Cabin

It’s a giddy, diabolical, and terminally underappreciated sequel to the film that made Joe Dante’s career. Read full review

Keith Phipps

The director has done the original Gremlins one better: Instead of a film with a subversive streak, he's made a puckish act of subversion with a streak of film. Read full review

Bill Cosford

This is a weird piece of work, silly and exhilarating. And yes, the sequel's better. [15 Jun 1990, p.10]

Jay Boyar

Those who enjoyed the gremlin-in-the-microwave scene from the first film will probably love the paper-shredder sequence in the new one. [15 Jun 1990, p.6]

Ted Mahar

Written by Charlie Haas, Gremlins 2 is more clever than Gremlins, and Dante seems to move everything at a much quicker pace here. Perhaps because things are pretty predictable, Dante lingers on little. Much dialogue will be lost to audience laughter. [15 Jun 1990, p.R15]

Jonathan Rosenbaum

Solid, agreeable entertainment, this basically consists of plentiful gags and lighthearted satire spiked with Dante's compulsive taste for movie references, humorously scripted by Charlie Haas but without the darker thematic undertones and the more tableaulike construction of the original. Read full review

Michael Wilmington

Gremlins 2 is better than the original, though it lacks the same archetypal horror-movie drive. Read full review

Janet Maslin

Gremlins 2: The New Batch speaks to the gleeful hell-raising monster in each of us, and it speaks with much more verve, cleverness and good humor than the film on which it is based. Add this to the very short list of sequels that neatly surpass their predecessors. Read full review

David Ansen

Gremlins 2 has its horror-movie side, but the grisly is definitely subordinate to the gags. Only a snob could resist such a generous level of lunacy. Read full review

Jay Scott

A superior sequel to an amusing original. A new batch of slapstick and satire. [16 Jun 1990]

David Sterritt

Of course, most of the people who flock to Gremlins 2 are interested in the special-effects fantasy scenes featuring the gremlins themselves, and the nastier the better. Here the filmmakers are at their most energetic and most wearisome, dishing out so many silly-gruesome variations on the crazy-creature theme that you can't help being impressed, even as you feel like ducking under your seat for a moment's relief from the relentlessness of it all. Read full review

Roger Ebert

Yes, it has some big laughs, and yes, some of the special effects are fun, but the movie has too many gremlins and not enough story line. Read full review

Jay Carr

Gremlins 2 is one of the few sequels that improves on the original. [15 Jun 1990, p.33p]

Susan Wloszczyna

Watching the new batch of mischief makers in Gremlins 2 is like gorging on raw cookie dough. Tastes yummy at first, but pretty soon you begin to get sick of the stuff. [15 Jun 1990, p.1D]