Gremlins [DVD] [1984]

"Well it's been along time coming but at last it's here, Gremlins is on Blu-ray!"

"But was it worth the wait?"

"As a die hard fan of the Gremlin films, I would say yes!"

I don't think theres any point in me writing a review of the film itself as I'm sure everyone in the world knows the story by now, a true testament of how brilliant and well made a film Gremlins is, but you could always check out the many DVD reviews here on Amazon if in need of a recap. This review is about the blu-ray disc itself, to help anyone thinking of upgrading or experiencing this classic film for the first time.

I'll start by talking about the picture transfer. I would say for a twenty five year old film the overall picture transfer is very good, bright and with a great amount of detail. But I feel I must point out that it's not as good as some of the other Blu-ray transfers of films of a similar age, "The Thing," "The Shining" and "The Goonies" spring to mind, but it is a faithful transfer never the less. There is amount of grain to the picture, but then I wasn't expecting the picture quality of a new blockbuster, but like I said for a film of this age It's still amazing quality and a great improvement over DVD.

The improvements are: more detail on the Gremlins themselves with more colour and detailed skin, the face shots of Gizmo are the most beautiful of all! The human face's and interior scenes also have a more fleshed out feel to them. The scene inside the store towards the end of the film, Gizmo and Stripe's face off, I feel stands out the most for me, a noticeable upgrade from the washed out picture quality of the DVD. The outdoor scenes are also a vast improvement over it's DVD counter part and show the true power of what Blu-ray can do.

As for the sound, this Blu-ray disc has been mastered in Dolby TrueHD and sounds very crisp and sharp, only a minor enhancement over the impressive DVD master.

"But it's the extras that was also a big part of why I purchased this Blu-ray edition!"

For many years, we in the UK have been having to make do with a no extras basic DVD edition. I'm so happy to announce to long suffering British fans, that there are a good selection of extras included on the disc, this time around!

The extra features include: not one, but two! Insightful audio commentaries from director Joe Dante himself with cast members, a vintage six minute making of featurette, a photo/storyboard gallery and a selection of standard theatrical trailers. But the best extra feature by far, has to be the over ten minutes of never before seen footage, which also includes a director and cast members commentary.

So, if your thinking of upgrading or just looking to brighten up your Blu-ray collection, then Gremlins is for you!

Gremlins is the story of an inventor who whilst peddling his wares in Chinatown at Christmas time comes across a shop and decides to buy a present for his son. The present that he buys is a Mogwai an incredibly cute little creature to give his son as a pet. He is warned to follow three rules regarding the Mogwai, these being:

1) Don't get the Mogwai wet

2) Don't expose the Mogwai to light, especially sunlight

3) Most importantly don't feed it after midnight

The Mogwai is taken home to his family and the son immediately loves the creature soon dubbing it Gizmo. Obviously, the son manages to break all the rules therefore spawning little Mogwai's which when inadvertently fed after midnight metamorphasise into the gremlins creating havoc across town.

The film is a bit slow to get going but Gizmo is just so damn cute you're happy to watch it. Once the gremlins appear though the film becomes really funny and clever. The creatures and the puppetry are second to none and in a time before CGI the mind boggles to think of the amount of work that must have gone into some of the scenes. There is an extraordinarily hilarious scene where the gremlins are in a bar acting like how a bunch of drunken men may act in a bar. There's even a gremlin with a flasher mac on who proceeds to flash at the barmaid!!

I do have a couple of problems with the film though. One of them being the casting of Zach Galligan as the son and the main character. When you hear that the father is going to buy a present for his son you automatically assume that the son will be a lot younger than he actually is. I don't know how old he actually is and is supposed to be but he looked about 19. I just felt that the role was written for a younger character. Saying that there is a love interest in the film (Phoebe Cates) which I suppose couldn't have played if the character was a lot younger. There is another thing I've always wondered. If you can't feed the gremlins after midnight, when can you start feeding them again?!

There are some small roles for future stars Corey Feldman and Judge Reinhold. Unfortunately there are no DVD extras but the film is really fun so it's still worth buying. As stated previously though, it's not really a kid's film. There are a couple of scary scenes. I don't think it should be a 15 rating but maybe a 12 would have been more appropriate.

A good movie is like your favourite cereal, when having it after a long break it's like the first time all over again.
Well watching Gremlins again was wonderful enough but watching it on Blu-ray, brilliant, the characters are sharper, colour more pronounced, just better than expected.