Small Soldiers

SMALL SOLDIERS is, essentially, Joe Dante's third GREMLINS film, except that the antagonists aren't gremlins this time around but instead normal, plastic toys who have been brought to life via military technology. It's along the same lines as TOY STORY, which came out at around the same time, but I think the Dante movie has the edge; it's live action, for a start, and the special effects used to animate the soldiers are remarkable.

The film goes for a light action-adventure template with plenty of laughs thrown into the mix along the way. Like GREMLINS, there's a lot of small-scale stuff going on here, like fireworks being used as weapons and characters encountering the dangers of garbage disposal units. It's a kid's film, with child actors in the lead roles, but one of those ones that adults are sure to enjoy too.

Cast-wise, we're handed decent turns from Gregory Smith (before he won popular attention with EVERWOOD) and Kirsten Dunst (just before she graduated to adult roles in SPIDER-MAN). Elsewhere, we get Denis Leary chewing the scenery as the slimy corporate villain, and Dante lucky charm Dick Miller as an unlucky delivery driver. Best of all are the voice actors hired for the soldiers; they're led by Tommy Lee Jones but boast plenty of veteran talent, including Ernest Borgnine and Frank Langella. Overall, Dante gets the tone just right, leaving this a highly enjoyable family adventure.

I found this movie in my attic recently. When I was looking at the VHS, nostalgia instantly flew back into me. I remember the toys, I remember vividly playing the film on endles repeat, and I remember me and my friends playing our own version of "Small Soldiers" at our local park. Great memories...

I was SO baffled to see a 5.9 rating on IMDb. Why? This is a great family\action film. After seeing the rating and many negative reviews, I decided to watch it again on VHS. Maybe it just wasn't as good as I remembered. That's happened to me many times.

Well, I liked it then, and I liked it now! Still, it was a good film. What I liked the most was the music and the special effects. The musical score was outstanding and so was the "War" remix. The CGI in the film amazes me on so many levels...I thought they were real! The action is very good and the movie is never boring. It's definelty one of the coolest kids movie ever made!

Overall, if you like edgy family films, watch 'Small Solders'. I think you will enjoy it.

Small Soldiers is good old fashioned, Tongue-in-cheek fun.

Regular movie watchers will see many of their favorite characters, all caricatured here together as either a Commando-Elite or a Gorgonite warrior.

The names of the characters, particularly the Commando-Elite, are extremely good, and worthy of an award of their own.

Although some of the animation is a little wooden, that just seemed to add to the whole flavour of the film.

As long as you don't have any pre-conceptions about this film, and ignore the hype, you are in for some highly entertaining fun. After all, who can watch a room full of bikini-clad barbie-dolls-with-attitude, "playing with their owner for a change", without breaking into a grin...

Favorite quote: "Lets see how you like being played with"

Who would have thought? A "family film" that doesn't suck! Small Soldiers, while not perfect, is still great fun. It's success is completely down to Joe Dante, a guy with an obvious love of classic b-grade, sf, horror and exploitation movies. It's no suprise he started his career with Roger Corman. Small Soldiers is basically a variation on his previous Gremlins ( cute, seemingly harmless, kiddie-friendly objects run amok) but I enjoyed it more.

You can always tell how smart a movie is by its supporting cast, and the presence of the legendary Dick Miller ( a Dante mascot), Phil Hartman, Dennis Leary, and Mr Show's David Cross, not to mention the terrific voice talent, emphasize just how cluey Small Soldiers is. And any movie with Bride Of Frankenstein references gets my thumbs up!

I hope Dante brings Dick Miller back to the big screen SOON! We need him!

I know the summary doesn't have anything to do with this comment, but I thought it would be funny to start this review. "Small Soldiers", believe it or not, it's more valuable that it appears to be. Yes, it may be a flawed movie, but considering that it is a movie born in the heart of Hollywood studios and intended for small audiences (and not so small), "Small Soldiers" takes his chances to create successfully a political satire, a very dark one.

Joe Dante (a very underrated director) is a specialist in filtrating that kind of political message. And that's no wonder why decided to direct this movie. The best of all is that also works as a family flick, where the characters are likable enough to care about and it's really entertaining.

Anyway, I really like it.