Small Soldiers (1998)

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

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

This was the thing back then. When this first came out in Malaysia, it was an instant hit among the kids. I was a Teen and even I was into it. I'm actually quite surprised to see the rating at 6.1 on IMDB. Some of the ratings here are not justified. This is easily an 8. The comedy and the dialogues in this movie are very intelligent. Both from the actors and voice overs . I think they've put in the hard work and it was very well thought out. Didn't knew who kirsten dunst was back then but I thought she was quite cute. Just knew her from Jumanji and thats it. Trust me, the ratings are not what it seems to be. This flick is better than 90% of the crap that came out throughout the year 2017 -2018. It has the good old 90's family values, decent action, a good story line and a pretty interesting ending. Don't miss out on this if you haven't watched it. You won't regret it.Wish there was a part 2 since the ending was left interesting. But the current hollywood would mess it up dear God. 10/10 from myself

A Joe Dante movie always like a conflict — a battle between blockbuster and personal statement, led by a filmmaker with keen commercial instinct, yet the heart of a non-conformist. Through it all, one walks away with the feeling that while the film itself may have some rough edges, there's a true love for movie-making (heck, movies themselves) at the core. That makes perfect sense — before Dante was in the industry, he wrote opinionated mini-reviews for the Castle of Frankenstein magazine. After apprenticing as an editor for Roger Corman, he directed Piranha and The Howling, the latter a film that is a veritable love letter to the history of werewolves on film wrapped within a postmodernist take on them. Again, always that juxtaposition.Perhaps Dante's biggest monetary — if not critical — success was 1984's Gremlins, which is covered in great detail within this tome, as is its 1990 sequel, Gremlins 2: The New Batch. But for the purpose of this article, please indulge some backstory: the former is a cute and cuddly big budget affair on one hand; an incredibly dark, depressing and borderline horror film on the other. There aren't many family pleasing films that detail father figures dying in chimneys and left unfound for months, after all. And the latter is sequel that does everything but scream at the viewer that sequels are inferior cash grabs devoid of art while simultaneously throwing everything that Dante and a fleet of the most talented FX guys and animators can invent at the screen, including Chuck Jones coming out of retirement and an insane Hulk Hogan cameo (look, any movie where Paul Bartel asks for the Hulkster's help dealing with unruly Gremlins in a movie theater demands numerous rewatches).1998's Small Soldiers is, on the surface, all about war. And again — it's a picture at war with itself. GloboTech Industries — no relation to GloboChem, despite David Cross's appearance in the film — has acquired the Heartland Toy Company. CEO Gil Mars (Dennis Leary) demands toys that play back, so he selects two toylines — Irwin Wayfair's (the aforementioned David Cross) Gorgonites and Larry Benson's (Jay Mohr) Commando Elite — and combines them into one storyline of forces at war with one another. Thanks to a tight deadline, safety testing is ignored and Benson uses GloboTech's overly powerful X1000 microprocessor to be part of the toys — which makes them self-aware. Trivia note — the stolen password that Benson uses is Gizmo, a reference, of course, to Gremlins.There's another war between perception and reality. The toys cast as the bad guys, the Gorgonites, are caring individuals who want to protect the planet, while the militaristic GI Joe- esque Commandos become the heels.So what happens when they arrive at toy stores? That's answered when Alan Abernathy (Gregory Smith, whose character is potentially named for Clayton Abernathy, GI Joe's Duke) purchases the entire line from delivery driver Joe (Dick Miller, who appears in every one of Dante's films). Alan discovers that the toys are living and breathing sentient beings when Archer sneaks away in his backpack. Upon returning to his dad's store the next day, the Commando Elite have awakened and decimated the Gorgonites and the rest of the store, leaving traditional, non-mass produced toys a smoking wreck.Read more at https://bandsaboutmovies.com/2017/08/18/small-soldiers-1998/

Extremely Entertaining amalgamation of Toy Story (1995), Gremlins (1984), and the popular Kid Toys G.I. Joe, and Barbie.Director Joe Dante Loves In-Jokes and this one has plenty. The Anti-War stance (making the Commandos Psychopaths) is a welcome Non-PC take, The "Hero" Gorgomites are the Awkward, Pacifistic Conscientious Objector Types (who hide) and are "Born to Lose".All of these Political and Social Statements are really not that important because the Film is basically an Action Romp, sort of a Toy Story on Steroids. It never fails to be Fun and is a lively, quite visceral Satire on War and Horror Films. The Music Selections are appropriate and the Score manages to arouse.An Underrated "Small Gem" that may have caught Audiences and Critics off guard with its PG-13 Violence and Gruesome Visuals. The Barbie Doll-Bride of Frankenstein Chapter is the most disturbing. Very young and ultra-sensitive Children may be scared.Overall, the Voice Cast is excellent and the CGI and animatronics are superior. The Movie has a Heart that softens the Story just enough to make it rise above the standard Action and Horror. It's an overlooked Film that most likely will remain in the periphery of Cult Films but including it in that Off-Beat Genre would not be a mistake.

Joe Dante is in Gremlins territory again, playing with some surprisingly decent late 90's CG instead of puppets. But Small Soldiers wavers between anarchic Dante and lame studio formula. The opening 10 minutes with David Cross and Jay Mohr is dreadful at best and a showcase of lazy writing for what should be an exciting set-up for the toys that will soon wreck havoc. What we get is bad dialogue and Mohr ordering defense chips online - oooo exciting! If Dante is going to be knocking off his own Gremlins, the film would have been much better served by terrorizing the whole town with these toys, instead the story is limited to two uninteresting families living next to each other. Cross and Mohr re-appear like bad writing magic just when the action is getting going in the last act. This will hardly be remembered as one of Dante's best and sadly remembered as Phil Hartman's final film.