For those of us that were growing up as teens and
twenty-somethings during the 80's, that period brings
back distinct memories of Flashdance, Top Gun, Star
Trek, Police Squad, John Hughes movies, and perhaps
the most memorable film of them all, Joe Dante's GREMLINS.
I was working as a General Cinema manager back in
1984 when the film came to my theater. I can clearly
remember the sensation of GREMLINS and how it sold
out shows consistently for the first few weekends. What
was not too surprising was how many people came back
for a second viewing.
GREMLINS had everything you could want in a Summer
Blockbuster --- menacing creatures, horror, comedy, great
special effects and Phoebe Cates! All brought to you through
the imaginative minds of Steven Speilberg and Joe Dante.
To discover this film was actually being released to Blu-ray
came very unexpectedly. Originally announced solely for
overseas release, mention of a mysterious TARGET ad
began to circulate across the Internet over the past week
advertising exclusive availability. Most of us thought it to be
a misprint. However, sure enough, this morning TARGET
was offering an EXCLUSIVE offering of GREMLINS on BD.
I took the opportunity to view certain segments of the Blu-ray
in hopes of offering you an opinion of how I thought the
transfer looked and sounded. I have seen this film dozens of
times and knew exactly which scenes would be the best to
test drive.
On a whole, GREMLINS looks very good on Blu-ray and
quite representative of how I remember it looking back in
1984. It appears no major remastering was done here.
There's nothing eye-popping about this transfer. It still
looks like something released from that period without
any kind of degradation.
For instance, the opening scene where Randall Peltzer
is walking through Chinatown in hopes of finding his son
a birthday gift, is filled with muddy red colors. It's originally
the way I remember that scene looking. However, as we
cut to the opening title sequence we move from from the
darkness of a city street to the startling daylight shot of a
Ricky Rialto Billboard, you begin to get an idea of just how
much sharper this film looks in high definition.
The print has its share of debris scattered throughout
and film grain is ever evident (as it should be) as some
of the darker indoor scenes take on a slightly muddy feel.
However, as I noted above, this is exactly what I remember
the transfer to be and I don't expect there to be any
complaints from home viewers except that this BD is
probably not a major improvement over the original DVD.
What is most notable about this transfer is the crisp
audio that does justice to Jerry Goldsmith's score with
distinct separation across the front speakers. This has
always been one of my favorite soundtracks and it's so
good to hear it as clearly vibrant as it did on my vinyl
recording. Just as notable here is the use of surrounds.
Inside the china shop you can hear the jingling of wind
chimes coming from different directions as the film's point
of perspective changes. Switch over to Scene 12 to find
yourself immediately immersed into the sounds of gremlins
scattering across the rear and front speakers while a
nervous Mother climbs the stairs with a knife ready to
attack whatever she finds.
Extras on this disc include 2 commentaries, a making
of featurette, photo/storyboard gallery (with a few cute
pictures of Phoebe Cates), deleted scenes that I imagine
are the same ported over from the DVD release, two
versions of the film's theatrical trailer along with one for
GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH.
I thought I might share with all of you two photos I
took while on the Warner lot earlier this year that will
immediately take you back to the opening scene of
Gremlins.
This is the very street used for ChinaTown. I imagine that
it was covered with a tarp to simulate nighttime and that
neon signs and decorations were added for ambience.
However, these are the store fronts that Randall Peltzer
walks by in the first few moments of the film.
This is the curio shop where Randall Peltzer finds that special
Christmas gift for his son. Notice the entrance to the stairs that
lead down to the shop.
(DVD screenshots)
One last thing to note. The first few seconds of the film's
first scene where Randall Peltzer steps our on an alley with
a fire escape stairway to his side is the same exact city facade,
alley and fire escape that Spider-Man saves and first kisses
Mary Jane upside down in the original film -- also shot partly
on the Warner Lot.
