My Take: Fine special effects and a few moments of cartoon excitement make up for weak storyline and broad satire.
While it serves up as much fun as his previous works (GREMLINS and INNERSPACE notably), cult director Joe Dante has created what I'd credit as his weakest effort at a film that strangely but slickly fuses rather dark tones (violence) with the wackiness of a Looney Tunes cartoon. Still, considerably, SMALL SOLDIERS is a decent, noble effort at duplicating GREMLINS while knocking-off TOY'S STORY, erasing the feel-good image of smiling cowboy dolls and space toys of that animated film. The special effects work here (done by veterans Stan Winston and the gang of Industrial Light & Magic) are of the best quality, with a nearly indistinguishable alternation of CGI and animatronics. The film manages even to afford certain amounts of pyrotechnics and (literally miniature) explosions, especially during the near-end climax.
The problem lies on the real aspects of the film: human characters (hardly hooking) and plot (which this film hardly has any). The cast (Tommy Lee Jones and Frank Langella as the voice of the toys, and Denis Leary as a sleazy CEO poking fun on Donald Trump) are fine, but rarely used in the films weak writing. But overall, SMALL SOLDIERS delivers a fine, and thankfully short, 108 minutes. It's decent family entertainment, but parental guidance is strongly required.
Rating: *** out of 5.
While it serves up as much fun as his previous works (GREMLINS and INNERSPACE notably), cult director Joe Dante has created what I'd credit as his weakest effort at a film that strangely but slickly fuses rather dark tones (violence) with the wackiness of a Looney Tunes cartoon. Still, considerably, SMALL SOLDIERS is a decent, noble effort at duplicating GREMLINS while knocking-off TOY'S STORY, erasing the feel-good image of smiling cowboy dolls and space toys of that animated film. The special effects work here (done by veterans Stan Winston and the gang of Industrial Light & Magic) are of the best quality, with a nearly indistinguishable alternation of CGI and animatronics. The film manages even to afford certain amounts of pyrotechnics and (literally miniature) explosions, especially during the near-end climax.
The problem lies on the real aspects of the film: human characters (hardly hooking) and plot (which this film hardly has any). The cast (Tommy Lee Jones and Frank Langella as the voice of the toys, and Denis Leary as a sleazy CEO poking fun on Donald Trump) are fine, but rarely used in the films weak writing. But overall, SMALL SOLDIERS delivers a fine, and thankfully short, 108 minutes. It's decent family entertainment, but parental guidance is strongly required.
Rating: *** out of 5.