i fell asleep during turtles , was mildly amused by bttf iii , but had a terrific time at gremlins 2 today . yes , it's true , the performances by the special effects are generally better than the performances by the actors , and the film has more rubber logic than most , but it's fun ! yes , you can guess the story . gizmo winds up in a research lab after his owner , the old chinese man , dies . the research lab in in " clamp tower , " a massive new york sky scraper that contains various cable networks ( including things like " the archery network " and " the safety channel " ) , a mall , restaurants , and the headquarters for clamp international . of course , billy and kate , the heros from the first film , also happen to work in that building . billy rescues gizmo from the genetics lab ( run gleefully by christopher lee ) , but your typical series of catastrophes happen to little gizmo and gremlins rapidly infest the entire building . since there's a genetics lab to trash , the gremlins mutate into a variety of bizarre creatures , including a winged gargoyle , spider-monster , and a quasi-intellectual , pipe-smoking yuppie . there are more sight-gags , parodies and wonderful bits throughout this movie . there's the " movie police , " " microwaving with marge , " and some amusing cameos by various warner brothers characters . there's an on-target parody of kate's " why i hate christmas " speech ( though it was a tad too long ) from the first movie , and great satire of corporate personality throughout the film . the movie is rated pg-13 , though most of the violence happens to gremlins and to the set rather than to any humans . our nine-year-old was liked the movie , but didn't really start laughing at it until after the gremlins popped out all over . the puppetry and radio-controlled gremlins in this movie were both extremely well-done . the gremlins have a little more personality in this film than in the first one . gremlins 2 took a good idea and made it better . i hope dante & company quit while they are ahead . i'm not sure how the movie is doing . we saw it in an empty theater today , which is a shame because the movie is a blast . * * * laurie mann * * harvard ! m2c ! jjmhome ! lmann * * <a href= " mailto : lmann%jjmhome@m2c . m2c . org " >lmann%jjmhome@m2c . m2c . org</a> * * * * * * <a href= " mailto : laurie_mann@es . stratus . com " >laurie_mann@es . stratus . com</a> * * * uunet ! lectroid ! es ! laurie_mann * * * 
