We received this DVD in a very short time. The price was great, the quality of the picture and sound were great. Thank you for the fast, efficient, and great service.

Steven Spielberg, Joe Dante, and Chris Columbus collaborated on this modern Christmas classic. "Gremlins" is a mild horror film set in a small town that is easily a stand-in for Bedford Falls from "It's a Wonderful Life." Leave it to these three guys to inject a lot of subversive, sarcastic humor, using the vile Gremlins as their horror-comic tool.

The plot is well-known - a wacky inventor brings home the "perfect Christmas present" from a mysterious Chinese shop - a Mogwai. The Mogwai, Gizmo, is beyond cute (particularly thanks to the voice work of Howie Mandel). But Giz has flaws - namely 3: He hates bright light, he can't get wet, and you can never, ever feed him after midnight.

Of course, these rules get broken throughout the film, with terrific results. The Gremlins overrun the town, causing hilarious, murderous mayhem along the way. It's up to Zach Gilligan and Phoebe Cates as the stereotypically-nice guy and gal to save the day.

The plot is simple - the joy is in its execution. This is one of the best Christmas movies to come out in recent years and is a wonderful antidote to all the holiday movies that focus solely on existential angst or rampant commercialism, although there is just enough anti-commercialism message in this flick to make it worthwhile.

To be fair, "Gremlins" is light-hearted stuff, but can be a little scary if you're kids are young (say, 6 or so, older kids should do just fine). A couple of humans and a gazillion Gremlins meet their makers in unpleasant ways, and the Gremlins are pretty scary up close. The kids will quickly adopt Gizmo as a favorite, but there are quite a few dark moments - and you'll never look at a microwave the same way again.

This was a purchase for a 3 year old recovering from a major surgery. She loves scary movies. I wanted to get her something scary, but fun. I was glad to be able to purchase this dvd at a reasonable price.

Don't expose them to sunlight. Don't let them get wet. And under no circumstances feed them after midnight.

Those are the rules for the now-legendary mogwai, adorable little fuzzballs who transform if you break the last rule. And "Gremlins" is a gloriously unconventional Christmas movie -- a postcard-pretty view of suburban middle-America, splattered with gore, nasty little gremlins and a truly wicked sense of humour (expressed often in movie send-ups).

Randall (Hoyt Axton) spots a tiny adorable creature -- a mogwai -- in a small Chinatown shop, and wants to buy it as a Christmas present for his son. The owner refuses, but his grandson secretly sells it to Randall.

Randall's son Billy (Zach Galligan) is delighted by the fuzzy lightphobic mogwai, whom he names Gizmo. But it soon becomes clear that Gizmo is full of surprises: when water is accidentally splashed on him, he spontaneously generates a litter of NEW mogwai. The ringleader "Stripe" tricks Billy into feeding them after midnight, transforming them into scaly, dangerous "gremlins.

And after a gremlin tumbles into a pool, Billy realizes that the town is about to be swarmed with them -- attacking vicious old Mrs. Deagle, ramming snowplows, murdering kindly teachers, and trashing a tavern with Billy's love interest Kate (Phoebe Cates). As the town descends into gremlinized chaos, the two humans (and Gizmo) must find a way to wipe out the horde... and if they miss only one, it'll start all over again.

Personally I find most Christmas movies a little too sappy and sentimental. So for people who feel that way, a Yuletide horror/comedy is simply ideal -- it's sort of a mad hybrid of early Peter Jackson splattergore, Frank Capra snow-sprinkled Christmastime, and a bunch of sly movie homages and send-ups ("Forbidden Planet," "Wizard of Oz" and "Snow White" amongst others).

But the real fun is in watching the movie's balance between nasty and cuddly -- Joe Dante happily veers between sweet moments and grotesquely funny violence (such as Billy's mom messily killing gremlins with a variety of kitchen implements), with the best example being the malevolent Mrs. Deagle being flung out an upstairs window by fa-la-la-la-LAing gremlins. Completely sick, and gutsplittingly funn.

And Dante sprinkles it with more G-rated comedy that borders on cartoonish without quite crossing, such as the kid in the Christmas tree costume ("Don't ask!") and the gremlins destroying a local pub when they aren't watching Disney movies (is this a message about Disney?). It all climaxes in some literally explosive showdowns with the gremlins -- and particularly with Stripe, their ghastly little leader.

Galligan and Cates are thoroughly solid as the teenage heroes, especially when Cates gives her heartbreaking speech about the horrible experience that made her hate Christmas. In fact, all the actors do a solid job -- the evil old landlady who serves as a sort of Wicked Witch of the West/Scrooge hybrid, the cranky old veteran, the crackpot inventor and the wise old Chinese guy.

But the showstopper is Gizmo -- tiny, round, fuzzy and wide-eyed, with a babyish squeaky voice and a liking for toy cars and 3-D glasses. Rarely has a puppet been so bloody cute and endearing. His complete opposite is Stripe, a gremlin amongst gremlins -- malevolent and gleefully sadistic, he seems smart enough to revel in the idea of destroying the town.

"Gremlins" is a brilliant horror/comedy that infuses a perfect American town with a little mayhem and gore, as well as some wickedly funny little nasties. Definitely a must-see.

I have started buying movies I enjoyed as a kid for my kids to watch. I haven't seen Gremlins in forever and it was still a very fun movie.