Pretty hard to watch but I still like it.

This film is one of my "Cinema memories". You know the kind, the childhood trips to the pictures that stick out in your mind? With that it has a very strong nostalgia appeal.

I just watched both films again and I actually found it quite hard to watch Gremlins 2 in some bits. Much of the appeal of the first one was that it was actually quite menacing and almost scary in parts but this sequel totally drops that for what looks like complete goofy kid humour.

The whole thing feels like one of those sequels with a new writer and director where the studio has told them to "tone it down" so it's surprising that it's much of the same crew as the first film.

There are terrible inconsistencies too. Kate's initial dislike for Gizmo seems out of character and it seems weird that they'd move to New York. Also the diversity in the Mogwais seemed inaccurate as we've already seen what Gizmo's offspring look like and they aren't that different from him.

I think I almost switched off when the movie reviewer within the film started reviewing the first Gremlins movie as it was just a step too far into spoof territory. This would have been fine if it was a spoof series but the shift in tone was a bit offputting.

I can't fault the animatroics though. All the gremlins look amazing, particularly The Brain Gremlin but it's a shame as it seems wasted on the really childish theme.

Regardless of all my moaning I still quite like the movie but it's mostly due to nostalgia as it's undeniably quite a bad and shallow film.