Nonureva Really Surprised!

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Roy Hart If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

thor-teague A basic gremlins ripoff, this film is trying and failing one to be of those "so bad it's good" films. It's not. At all. It's just plain bad. Eye-bleedingly bad.The movie hangs around an abandoned warehouse and shows an old man/security guard go through a couple employees and end up hiring a whiny do-nothing, or something. Then some things happen, some plush toys are bandied about the screen, then some other things happen. A guy catches on fire, and then some more things happen, end credits.The puppets are not one one hundredth as scary as the acting and direction. The creatures are cute little plush toys that get thrust up against the "actors" and wiggled to and fro. The human beings at which the camera is pointed try plaintively to convince us that something scary is happening. The film's attitude towards women (or all human beings for that matter) is beyond reprehensible. Every last character is suicide-inducingly annoying. Every single line of dialog is either wooden or whiny, or both.I could go on, but in the immortal words of Todd Barry, "This is like shooting fish in a barrel. No, it's like looking at fish in a barrel. No... it's like BEING SOMEWHERE NEAR A BARREL."In short, this film is a train wreck. You don't want to stare but you can't look away. It just sinks lower and lower and you're so stunned and amazed, you want to see how the next 5 minutes can suck worse than the previous five.There are not, in fact, more than 2 consecutive frames that don't induce cringes.Now, it's been brought up that this film actually competes with Manos for "worst film in history," or at least MST history, but it is noteworthy that this film technically has a plot. Technically.My recommendation: view with Mike & the Bots. Only way to stay sane through this one. (Even they try to escape... you'll love it.) For a great chuckle, search through the IMDb reviews and sort by "Loved it."

geminiredblue Once upon a time, back in the 50s, a young security guard named McCready is working the night shift at a movie studio when a spaceship lands off-screen. Through the fog produced by a machine, we see barely visible fishing wire pull back the top of the plastic spaceship. Inside are two Gremlin-like puppets. Flash forward 30 years, McCready is now an old man. He's saddled with one irresponsible partner after another. Unfortunately, none of them last too long. Why? Because the Hobgoblins are still around, living in an old film vault. See what the Hobgoblins do is tap into their minds and create their wildest fantasies. But once the fantasy ends, the victim dies. One night, his current whiny young partner Kevin lets the monsters out. Now, Kevin must find a way to stop them. To sum up in seven words: HOBGOBLINS is a cheap rip-off of GREMLINS. And not an overly good one at that. The filmmakers even stole the growls of those beloved disgusting, yet hilarious creatures. Sure, you could tell everyone was just having fun making it, but sometimes a movie needs more than that. What we have here is a group of not-so-gifted amateurs. Cinematography is pretty ho-hum, but I did like the lighting. We get a wild pastiche of blues, oranges, reds and greens. The title characters are obviously puppets. One of their heads even starts falling off in a scene. The humor usually rings hollow, like the characters are in on the joke but we're not. Most of the acting is pretty wooden. Though, I did like the actor who played Mr. McCready. He clearly has talent. Sadly like in most bad movies, a good actor is reduced to only a few scenes. Cool trivia note: Duane Whitaker, who plays Road Rash in here, later went on to mild success as one of the rapists in PULP FICTION. Logic is thrown right out the window. Case in point, it's just been established that the Hobgoblins are drawn to bright lights. In the very next sentence, we're told that all the Hobgoblins must be destroyed before dawn because once it's daylight, it's too late. When I heard that, I found myself scratching my head. Huh? The music rocks too, even if it's bargain basement material! MST3K showed this one and I think it's one of their best episodes. If you can, watch it with Mike and the Bots. If not, get together your funniest friends and have a blast!!!

catheadcatheadcathead I really don't have anything new to add but I just felt like I had to comment on this sack. So here goes:Atrocious. I'm running through my MST3K DVD collection again and I just watched Hobgoblins for about the 10th time. It's really, really painful but it was next on the list... You can see that there is a tiny kernel of an actual movie buried under all the crap that is "Hobgoblins" but it just couldn't get out. Everything about this movie is 4th rate. The story, the acting, the effects, the women, the "action scenes", the... ahhhh forget it. I can watch a piece of crap like "The Bloodwaters of Dr. Z" (aka "Zaat") over and over and over with hardly any ill effects (I like it in fact- btw, it will be on TCM later this month- October, 2009) but "Hobgoblins" is a whole 'nother ballgame.The worst part of it all may be that it's now about 12 hours after the movie ended, I had a good night's sleep, some coffee and some dry toast, my medications, and yet the ersatz "New Wave" dance music that Amy, Red Shorts, and Laraine Newman were frolicking to in the living room is STILL RUNNING THROUGH MY HEAD. This torment will last for days. Good luck, won't you?

Seb After Gremlins hit box office gold it must have seemed like a really good idea to rip it off. Unfortunately Hobgoblins lacks some of the key ingredients of Gremlins, notably the likable characters, plot, credibility and effects, and Gremlins was quite funny in places whereas Hobgoblins just isn't.In fiction good writers try hard to make you like the main character, that's how fiction has worked ever since some Greek guy put a mask on and pretended to be someone else. So what character have you got to bond with in Hobgoblins? How about a whiny henpecked little weasel in a dead end job with a totally frigid girlfriend and a bunch of friends that are more irritating than having Vanessa Feltz sewn into your face? His friends include a rake-fighting military tough guy, some weedy gay guy in red shorts and a girl so sexual that the mere sound of her boyfriends car horn causes her to lift her skirt up in anticipation.The film has one good idea, basically these hobgoblins can bring your every fantasy to life. Sadly this good idea is squandered by the actors sheer inability to act as well as plenty of scenes where they hug plush toys to themselves and try to act scared. There's not much logic to it either, the hobgoblins are supposedly locked safely away in a vault with a cage around it. But when we see it neither are even shut. How much effort would it have taken to shout at a stage hand to close them? Too much for this movie unfortunately.I couldn't escape the feeling that the people responsible for this film put in the very least effort they thought they could get away with. The poster (shown to your left) depicting a 50's pinup being bummed by a gremlin is pretty tacky too.