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"Dragon breath" is racist. That's 1. But then you throw a gong into the soundtrack after? That's 2, and that's 1980s casual racism.

Gremlins again.

Kieran's watching with me. He just made the connection between this and The Wizard of Oz.

"Pointless dialogue." - what Kieran said about the mother's line about her husband's inventions not working. Because, no duh. Also, I realize, I may have been a little rude to Lynn Peltzer (Frances Lee McCain), identifying her just by her relationships to two males.

Saer's also here. She just called Billy a goober for telling Gizmo to smile for the camera.

Also, she might be drunk (for the record, that's a joke; she's 13). She just asked if I wrote that she called him a "stripper."

I just noticed that Chekhov's race car driving is accompanied by a poster for The Road Warrior. I think Gizmo has dreams of grandeur.

Kieran recognized Pete (Corey Feldman) from Stand By Me and then started quoting that film, particularly the line about turning Billy "his fruit-of-the-looms into a fudge factory."

Both Kieran and Saer referenced Caillou when Billy told Pete "I don't see why not" after Pete asked if he could touch Gizmo.

Kieran hates carolers. "No one appreciates what you do," he told them.

Something else I've noticed watching this movie again so soon is that the Gremlins play a small video game--a portable Donkey Kong--and play with wind-up toys, and the one at the school works a projector. All of this before they perform those same acts later. Unfortunately, it isn't those same individuals doing those acts later--well, maybe the projector one; Billy didn't manage to kill it--so it doesn't actually set up a learning curve.

I just noticed the robot from Lost in Space was talking on the phone. Kieran said the conversation sounded like something out of Airplane!.

I actually like that there is no purpose to the Gremlins' destruction. It's just what they do.

Kate's story is amazing. It's such a non sequitur... not to the situation, exactly, but to the film. And, not only do we get her story, but also reaction shots from Gizmo. In case you have a Gremlins-size hole in your life, here's the story:

The worst thing that ever happened to me was on Christmas. Oh, God. It was so horrible. It was Christmas Eve. I was nine years old. Me and Mom were decorating the tree, waiting for Dad to come home from work. A couple hours went by. Dad wasn't home. So, Mom called the office. No answer.

Christmas Day came and went, and still nothing. So the police began a search. Four or five days went by. Neither one of us could eat or sleep.

Everything was falling apart.

It was snowing outside. The house was freezing, so I went to try to light up the fire. That's when I noticed the smell.

The firemen came and broke through the chimney top. And me and Mom were expecting them to pull out a dead cat or a bird. And instead, they pulled out my father. He was dressed in a Santa Claus suit. He'd been climbing down the chimney, his arms loaded with presents.

He was gonna surprise us.

He slipped and broke his neck. He died instantly.

And, that's how I found out there was no Santa Claus.

Aside from the Chinese guy being a sort of Magic Negro and a little bit of casual racism earlier--mostly countered by Futterman being, you know, wrong, and Rand being a bit of a doofus--Gremlins is awesome stuff, one of the best movies of the 1980s, and one of the best Christmas movies, ever, right up there with Die Hard.