1990 - GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH, is more of the same but less

 Warner Brothers wanted a sequel to Gremlins and finally lured Joe Dante back with the promise of complete control over the picture.  This was a bad idea.  Dante ran amok indulging himself with his cartoon sense of humor and let the picture get completely out of control to the point of incoherence.

 Dante crammed a lot of stuff into the picture.  It was a spoof of Die Hard, and a satire of cable TV.  He indulged himself with cartoon sequences from past his prime animator Chuck Jones and a musical sequence.  The first Gremlins was barely credible but at least it had a story.  Gremlins 2:  The New Batch doesn't even bother with a story so it is virtually impossible to get involved with the film.

 Dante brought back some of the original cast which included a rather haggard looking Phoebe Cates who was only 26 years old.  Rick Baker made the gremlin puppets for this film but even the fuzzy cuddly "Gismo" seems to have lost a lot of it's cuteness along with Phoebe Cates between the first and second film. 

Gremlins 2: The New Batch is what you get when you let an interesting cult director go nuts on a large budget.

106 minutes.