Review of Small Soldiers (1998) by Melvin W — 04 Oct 2012

Major Chip Hazard: If it lacerates or detonates, I want it mobile and I want it lethal. .

"The few, the proud, and the small.".

I hadn't watched Small Soldiers since I was 8 years old, but I found a great deal of enjoyment from this fun and satirical Joe Dante film. The movie obviously doesn't come flaw free. In fact if you wanted to keep count of just how many elements of this movie are flawed; it would be a tough job. The fact is though, that I just don't really care about the flaws. There's too much good stuff going on here, that it overshadows everything that is wrong with it.

So, a toy company comes up with a new idea that let's the toys interact. Then they market it around the American heroes killing the enemy aliens. There's a lot of satire going on here especially in that the soldiers are the bad guys. After a neighborhood kid gets his hands on the toys a little early, the battle between the Soldiers and the aliens begins. Dante isn't exactly subtle, but his style works perfectly here. The movie has the same kind of feel that The Burbs had, and both are good films from Dante. The movie is so chaotic and messy, but in the best possible way.

The cast brings out the best in the movie as well. We have Kirsten Dunst, Tommy Lee Jones in a voice role, Dennis Leary, Phil Hartman, David Cross, and a variety of other decent to good character actors. Also, I really enjoyed the jokes that were being thrown at us, either direct or subliminal. Dante had a good eye for what he could exploit with this type of plot and I believe he made good use of what he had.

You can call the movie stupid, you can call the movie ridiculous, and you can call the movie flat out awful; but I'm going to call it one hell of a fun time. It may not be a masterpiece, but it does exactly what it set out to do. It's entertaining, occasionally funny, and never boring. It's quick moving and appeals to more than just children. It's truly an underrated movie in my opinion.