Cathardincu Surprisingly incoherent and boring

BlazeLime Strong and Moving!

Bereamic Awesome Movie

Aiden Melton The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Shawn Watson I remember seeing TV spots for Toy Soldiers in October 1991. I had recently seen The Goonies and I was surprised at how much Sean Astin had matured since then. It made me wonder how I would look once I stopped being a child. I didn't actually see the film until now (the 15 certificate meant I could not see it at the cinema and I just never got around to renting it later) but I seem to associate it first with that particular memory.I was expecting it to be an action comedy, something along the lines of Home Alone meets Die Hard. How wrong I was. Toy Soldiers is surprisingly grim and serious. Directed and co-written by Beverly Hills Cop creator Daniel Petrie Jnr the film features a lot of well shot and staged action. The opening scene in particular has a memorable freefall stunt and there are innumerable blood squibs aplenty (a dying art in an age of awful CGI blood effects). Billy Tepper and his gang of misfit Rejects draw the ire of Dean Parker at their prestigious boarding school, but he refuses to expel any of them as he sees their potential and wants to make real men of them. One of the kids is taken away by the FBI for protection when a terrorist group attempts to put pressure on his dad. Said terrorists promptly take over the school and are dismayed that their target has vanished. Instead they make do with the crop of students that they have and begin making demands. Billy and his gang do not take well to this plot and plan to strike back using whatever limited resources they have at their disposal.It's here that Toy Soldiers sort of disappoints me. Instead of taking place in a concise time-frame it drags on for a few days and nights and features low-octane plotting for the most part. It would have been much more exciting if the gang were efficient and ready for action instead of fighting back with trickery and subterfuge. I guess it does ultimately work and hang together but the suspense could have been ramped up significantly further.There is a great supporting cast featuring Louis Gossett Jnr, Denholm Elliot, Jerry Orbach, R. Lee Ermey, and the terrific Andrew Divoff who doesn't get as much recognition for his many bad guy performances. The movie also features a lot scenes with the boys hanging around in their Y-fronts. I am not sure to whom the director was trying to appeal with this but it feels very unnecessary. There's not much surprise in the fact that it's fallen out of popularity and become a cult movie. Toy Soldiers had a high concept but is too low-key for it's own good. Certainly a good movie to discover but not as good as it should have been.

david-sarkies This movie is one of those Die Hard clones that I quite like. Other reviewers never really liked this movie, but I think that it is in fact a pretty enjoyable movie. It really has little in the way of themes, but there is a bit of action, and the shenanigans of the High School misfits are quite amusing, especially moving the principal's entire office outdoors.Toy Soldiers is about a drug lord whose father has been arrested by the US and taken into custody. So he sends his henchmen to a prep school where the judge's son attends is only to find out that he has been moved out earlier. This doesn't stop them from taking the school hostage and rigging it up to explode.The school is an exclusive prep school for kids who don't settle into other prep schools. I really didn't think there could really be such a school because the exclusive schools are simply that, exclusive, and it makes me wonder why anybody would go to the effort of making such a school like that.Anyway, this is in America and I must admit that I really don't know as much as I think I know. It is not really a problem that it is a prep school for misfits, but rather that the school is taken by terrorists and that these kids use all their wits and intelligence to get out of it. These are both smart and gutsy kids, and not only manage to outwit the terrorists, but the FBI as well.I personally think this is a pretty cool little movie, and something that I quite enjoy watching. It isn't as tight and well executed as Die Hard, but it is a clone so I wouldn't expect much more.

tarmcgator I'm seldom partial to movies about smart-assed teenagers who have problems with authority, but "Toy Soldiers" has grown on me with repeated viewings. This is as much a movie about Billy Tepper growing up and becoming an adult as anything else, and I give credit to Sean Astin and writer/director Daniel Petrie Jr. that they don't make a big deal of that, but let it just unfold and sneak up on you. The camaraderie of Tepper's friends, their grief over Joey's death, and their joy at their survival, all are genuinely moving. And, I have to admit, I take a certain patriotic (and perhaps slightly reptilian) glee when the U.S. Army guys finally move in and righteously kick some narco-terrorist butt. Ooh-rah, General Kramer! And the heroic Robert Folk score is the cherry on top. I'm sure I could find a hundred reasons not to like "Toy Soldiers," but as long as we don't take it TOO seriously, I don't see the need. This is one of the most entertaining "bad" movies in my pantheon.

funkydoodycool I recently rented this movie as part of a nostalgic phase I'm going through. I was born in 1980, and so film from mid-80s to mid-90s has quite an important place in my growing up.This particular movie was one of my favourites, and so I was thrilled when it became available in the UK. It hasn't become worse with time, it is still a great fun film, with plenty of excitement in its own way. Sure, it pales in the shadow of bigger, larger budget films, but don't let that stop you enjoying this.Worth a rent, or even a purchase at the discount prices you'll find it for.