Review of Small Soldiers (1998) by Baurushan J — 27 Jan 2014

The legendary director of Piranha, Gremlins and one of my favourites, Explorers; director Joe Dante directs this action movie for the elderly kids who are obviously into dolls titled Small Soldiers. The story is about CEO Gil Mars played by Denis Leary who gives the green light opportunity to Larry played by Jay Mohr and Irwin played by David Cross to create a new line of action figures by making them more realistic so that whenever toy owners play with them, the toys can play with the owners back in retaliation.

Back in Ohio, toy store owner Stuart played by Kevin Dunn and his son Alan played by Gregory Smith are failing in their business so when truckdriver Joe played by Dick Miller delivers the toys from the company Heartland Play System, Alan is convinced, they will make a little money until the toys break free including the Commandos led by Chip Hazard voiced by Tommy Lee Jones and the Gorgonites led by Archer voiced by Frank Langella.

Archer soon begins to communicate with Alan as the Commandos then escape and hatch a plan to take over the world. A lot of people found this movie to be uninteresting and boring but thanks to a huge cast and the legendary work of the late Stan Winston who combined all animatronics, puppetry and computer animation in one, this movie is made enjoyable and overall, a good action film for kids.

Small Soldiers gets a 8/10.