Right on TargetBilly Peltzer is an unlikely hero. He doesn't have muscles. He doesn't have a whip or a light saber. He has little personality…although he does have a nice style when drawing comic...

Girl Next DoorIf Billy is your typical '80s boy, then Kate is the ideal girl for the typical '80s boy. She's the cute girl-next-door, like Winnie Cooper from The Wonder Years. But Kate has a dark s...

Cute OverloadEveryone and everything in this movie adorable. Billy is cute. Kate is cute. And Gizmo is cuteness incarnate. Sure he has way too big eyes and weird little toes with humanoid toenails,...

A Mogwai of a Different Stripe Stripe puts the nature vs. nurture argument to bed, at least in regards to the cuddly mogwai species. Stripe is born evil. When still a cuddly mogwai, he's cute, but...

Kiss Her GritsPolly Holliday was previously known as Flo on the TV show Alice. Flo was a sassy waitress who smacked her gum and spouted, "Kiss my grits." That attitude makes her perfect for the cru...

Benjamin Cranklin Billy's dad is an inventor. Some men invent useful things, like the telephone, the light bulb or bird feeders that electrocute squirrels. (We'll take two.)Rand Peltzer invented…...

Mother Knows BestIn Billy's character analysis, we briefly speculated where Billy's bravery comes from. The answer is simple: it comes from his mom. Because Billy's mom is like the love child of Ma...

One Corey is Better than TwoThe two Coreys—Feldman and Haim—were big in the 1980s. But before the two teamed up in the Lost Boys, Corey Feldman was in Gremlins. Like Gizmo, he doesn't have much...

Hungry? Why Wait?Kingston Falls must have an amazing public school system, because when Billy finds himself with an exotic creature that reproduces asexually merely by getting wet, he doesn't call...

Chinese Junk(Shop)In the 1980s, Americans were especially wary of China, one of the more powerful communist countries during the Cold War. This anxiety toward China shows in films like Indiana Jone...

Mr. Futterman's Billy's drunk neighbor. He complains about foreign machinery and foreign people, but in his rants, he gives us the title of the movie. Check this one out: MR. FUTTERMAN: Gremlins! Y...

Stripe Didn't Shoot the Sheriff…but He Did Blow Up the Deputy Sheriff Frank's patronizing and ineffective, and his bad policing puts innocent lives at risk. Plus, he tries to get a Christmas tree...

Young Upwardly Mobile ProfessionalEvery '80s movie needs a yuppie jerk to talk down to the protagonist. In this movie, it's Gerald. Here are a couple of his lines.GERALD: Peltzer, this is a bank, n...