SMALL SOLDIERS (1998)
Rating: 2.5 stars (out of 4.0) ******************************** Key to rating system: 2.0 stars - Debatable 2.5 stars - Some people may like it 3.0 stars - I liked it 3.5 stars - I am biased in favor of the movie 4.0 stars - I felt the movie's impact personally or it stood out ********************************* A Movie Review by David Sunga
Directed by: Joe Dante
Written by: Gavin Scott, Adam Rifkin, Ted Elliott, and Terry Rossio
Starring: Gregory Smith, Kirsten Dunst
Ingredients: Toy soldiers that attack parents and children, families under siege
Synopsis: When a military-industrial conglomerate swallows Heartland Toy Company, a bungling toymaker (Jay Mohr) incompetently puts advanced military computer chips into two groups of toy action figures. The pacifistic toy extraterrestrial Gorgonites led by Archer (voice of Frank Langella) are programmed to hide and surrender, while the Commando Elite toy group led by Chip Hazard (voice of Tommy Lee Jones) are programmed to attack and kill Gorgonites and their allies. The military chips accidentally give the toys the ability to think and act like living creatures.
The toys escape into a suburb and wreak havoc. When a boy named Alan Abernathy (Gregory Smith) befriends Archer and the Gorgonites, the Commando Elite toy soldiers categorize humans as Gorgonite allies and mount a lethal attack on Alan's family and the family of next door neighbor Christy Fimple (Kirsten Dunst), whom Alan has a crush on. The evil soldiers also insert military chips into Christy's Barbie-type dolls to turn them into soldiers.
The Fimple and Abernathy families find themselves surrounded by an army of toys with nail guns, flame throwers, attack helicopters, and buzz saws. Will they survive and defeat the aggressive hordes of small soldiers?
Opinion: Although SMALL SOLDIERS' marketing tie-ins suggest that it is a children's movie, the type that little kids (young enough to buy plastic dolls) would love to attend, it is not. If children under ten actually did attend the movie, they might wonder about the sporadic profanity and about all those nude Barbie-doll-types running amok. Or they could mimic the kid, Alan, who climbs up a telephone pole and shorts a piece of metal between two live power cables. And they would find that their beloved doll hero Chip Hazard is actually the bad guy. In short, parents of young children should be warned that SMALL SOLDIERS is not the type of material found in TOY STORY, BABE, or 101 DALMATIONS. The glib, bland, and predictable SMALL SOLDIERS has good special effects, a happy ending, and preaches a good moral (don't judge a toy by it's cover), but it is inappropriate for younger children, who should not be watching the quality of movie where boorish characters make catcalls at nude Barbie dolls or use cuss words.
A superior toy-horror movie for a wide general audience should be at moments suspenseful and chilling, but funny and bitingly satirical with multi-generation appeal. It should contain action for the kids as well as well-timed, story-related inside pop culture allusions for adults. It should contain interesting characters, accommodate the audience's gut sense of justice, deliver a few unexpected twists, and escalate to a satisfying moral-laden conclusion.
SMALL SOLDIERS doesn't fall into the superior category because its human characters lack dimension, the movie is predictable, and its pop references lose comic impact because they fly thick, but are peripheral, rather than story-related. On the other hand, special effects and pop culture trivia fans might be pleased by elements of SMALL SOLDIERS. The toy effects by JURASSIC PARK's Stan Winston are well done and lifelike. As for trivia buffs, director Joe Dante serves up a cornucopia of hidden cultural references. (Example: "You're from Jersey? What exit?") Even the voices and music refer to previous movies (DIRTY DOZEN, SPINAL TAP etc.).
On a side note, fans of the late actor/comedian Phil Hartman will enjoy seeing him in a small role as Mr. Fimple. It was his last movie role.
Reviewed by David Sunga July 13, 1998
Copyright © 1998 by David Sunga This review and others like it can be found at THE CRITIC ZOO: http://www.criticzoo.com email: zookeeper@criticzoo.com
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