How do you follow up a black comedy that helped create the PG-13 rating? Dante tried to answer that. Uneven but decent.
It's been a few years since that whole unpleasant business at Kingston Falls and Billy Peltzer (Zach Galligan) and Kate Beringer (Phoebe Cates) are engaged and moved off to the big city. Billy's dreams of being an artist have soured a bit as he's working for the Clamp Corporation as a commercial artist. Kate's working there too as a tour guide. They have a decent apartment, benefits, and all in all look to be all their way towards middle class mediocrity.
That's when Gizmo (Howie Mandal) re-enters the picture. The old shop hidden in Chinatown has been bought out by Clamp and the old man has passed away. Gizmo is found and taken in by Dr. Cateter (Christopher Lee), who plans a series of grueling experiments. Billy happens by and rescues his furry friend, but can he keep from violating the rules?
As it turns out, no, no he can not. Thanks to a janitor's (John Astin) misuse of water, Gizmo has spawned a new series of mogwai. After midnight, the Clamp Tower is quickly infested with a new batch of gremlins.
A group of trickster creatures loose in a massive complex? Bad, but when you factor in the genetic lab and one application of various serums results in wholly new types of gremlins, including Brain (Tony Randall) a super intelligent and well dressed creature who simply wants his people to have civilization...and if that involves chaos and destruction, well, that's fine too.
With the gremlins taking over the building and threatening to escape into the city, can Billy stop them?
More comedy; heck when you introduce a film with Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck you're sorting of setting the tone early. Honestly riffs on the first film too, with Kate having a bad flashback to President's Day like her father and Christmas. Dante gets to play with his love of old horror movies too, such as horror host Grandpa Fred (Robert Prosky) being a fairly major character. Still has the best appearance of Hulk Hogan though.
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