Toy Soldiers (1991) Full Review

Film Scene Investigation

Here’s my review of the film, Toy Soldiers   Thanks for watching and please subscribe. New content dropping every week.   For Exclusive Content:  https://www.patreon.com/filmsceneinvestigation   Rumble:  https://www.rumble.com/filmsceneinvestigations   Odysee:  https://odysee.com/@filmsceneinvestigation:e   Daily Motion:  https://www.dailymotion.com/Filmsceneinvestigation   Help Support Me At:  https://www.PayPal.me/beaucarter91

Transcript

00:12hey guys welcome back to another cult movie review with me beau here on the film scene

00:20investigation channel thanks so much for checking out the video in today's review i'm going to be

00:28taking a look at the 1991 action thriller toy soldiers before we get into it guys if you haven't

00:38already please do consider subscribing to the channel all the support is greatly appreciated

00:45so toy soldiers from 1991 was directed by the filmmaker daniel petre and was based on the

00:561988 novel by the author william kennedy the movie marked petre's first foray into directing

01:07having previously worked as a screenwriter in hollywood given the scale of the project

01:17it's fair to say that this was a huge challenge for any first-time director to undertake the film

01:27had a big cast that included the likes of actor sean astin who was in the lead role and will

01:35wheaton

01:35who was supporting i was already aware of sean astin from the whole lord of the rings saga

01:44um something that i'm not massively into but uh yeah i knew who he was but i actually never seen

01:53any of his earlier work so going into this film i uh always intrigued to you know see what he

02:01could

02:01offer so the story followed a group of friends who attended regis high a prep school in the state

02:12of virginia the gang were led by sean astin's character billy tepper who was the i don't know

02:21original prankster of the group who was always causing trouble for the dean edward parker who was played

02:29by actor lewis gossett jr early on in the film we saw the group's escapades which included them

02:39removing office furniture and leaving it outside for everyone to see you know before watching this

02:47film i decided to check out the film's trailer on youtube and so i knew going into this that

02:56you know it featured a lot of action and violence but honestly besides the opening sequence

03:03the first 20 25 minutes of this movie really did feel like an 80s teen comedy i can't deny that

03:14i did find

03:16all the group's pranks to be a little tedious but in hindsight maybe this was the filmmaker's way

03:27of lulling us the audience into this false sense of security the story did eventually kick into high

03:39gear when a group of terrorists led by the colombian gangster lewis calley invaded the school

03:47calley who was played by actor andrew divoff was there to abduct a student who was linked to his

03:55father's father's court case the student in question was basically going to be used as leverage but to

04:06calley's surprise the kid had already left the day before with no other option left calley and his

04:15henchmen took over the school and kept everyone hostage the remaining students and staff members

04:24were going to be used as bait in an attempt to free calley's father from prison in the days that

04:33followed things definitely got more tense with the authorities surveilling the school and attempting

04:42to negotiate when it came to billy and his friends well they were tired of waiting around to be rescued

04:52so they decided to come up with their own plan to help the police on the outside the group decided

05:00to basically comply with all of the orders they were given to keep a low profile and not attract

05:09any attention to themselves the reason for doing this was because the group planned to absorb enough

05:17information about calley and his henchmen to then leak it to the police they were basically

05:24sabotaging the security in an effort to help the police make their rescue the film culminated with a

05:34rescue mission by the fbi who had gathered all the information they'd been given by billy the

05:42negotiations had fallen flat and the authorities had been given the green light to go ahead with an

05:51all-out assault indeed it was a risk but given calley's explosive temperament yeah they pretty much had no

06:04no other choice with the added intel by billy and the group the fbi at least had a chance to

06:15potentially save

06:16everyone you know i have to say that this movie toy soldiers at times definitely reminded me of the 1988

06:26classic die hard now i'm not saying that this was a straight ripoff or anything like that it wasn't

06:35but it's fair to say that this movie was definitely influenced by it for example early on in the film

06:46we saw a

06:47moment where a judge was thrown out of a helicopter by calley as the judge was falling to his death

06:57it really did remind me of when hans gruber fell off the nakatomi building the judge's arms were flailing

07:07around and yeah it just uh instantly reminded me of gruber or there was another moment at the end of

07:17the

07:17film when we saw billy climb through a ventilator shaft very similar to that of what john mcclain did

07:26in die hard so yeah there were many similarities that were littered throughout the film but you know

07:35in a way it kind of it kind of makes sense because you know die hard was one of the

07:41you know biggest

07:42box office successes of the 1980s so uh the filmmakers clearly wanted to somehow replicate

07:52that with toy soldiers you know one aspect of the film that i really enjoyed was the violence you know

08:02this movie did not shy away from showcasing the brutality that callie and his henchmen

08:12unleashed i mean you had teachers being executed you had police cars blown up i mean you know it was

08:22safe

08:22to say that these terrorists were not messing around they meant business and i will admit the violence

08:31definitely surprised me when i first saw it i mean for example during the opening sequence we saw

08:37callie and his mercenaries take over a courtroom it was another hostage situation with the authorities on the outside

08:50trying their best to negotiate with callie anyways we eventually saw one of the mercenaries elbow a lady off a

09:02ledge

09:02you know when i saw that uh yeah it was a real eye opener and not because of you know

09:11kind of what happened i mean

09:12in terms of the actions it made sense to the story obviously these were a group of terrorists

09:19so yeah it made sense that at least one of the hostages might get killed

09:25but what caught me off guard was the actual visual that we saw of the lady falling to her death

09:35like you know seeing her fall to her death i was like okay this is going to be a violent

09:40film you know

09:41buckle up i'm ready let's go yeah there was a scene i really liked where we saw will wheaton's character

09:48joey trotter joey trotter basically go berserk and attempt to shoot one of the henchmen so leading up to this

09:58we saw callie give permission to joey saying that he could leave and go home no more being a hostage

10:08no more taking orders he was free to go but joey had other ideas

10:16unlike most people who would jump at the chance to leave the school and go home joey had other ideas

10:27he didn't want to leave his friends and so he decided to take some drastic action

10:35as joey was being escorted off the premises he decided to attack a henchman and take his gun

10:43we then saw him outside trying to actually use the gun before he was tragically shot in front of billy

10:51and all his friends you know what i really liked about this scene was its realism you know it was

11:00sad to see joey you know get killed off like he did but everything played out like it should have

11:08done

11:08when i first saw joey take the gun and run outside i immediately thought that he was going

11:16to start shooting everyone and basically save the day i was expecting some sort of cringe moment with

11:25this teenage kid with this gun like shooting everyone you know just something like that to my

11:31surprise he lost control which of course made sense because joey you know wasn't familiar with guns

11:38and in the process he was shot and killed i'm glad it played out the way it did because

11:45having the joey character this young kid with you know little very little life experience

11:53you know then to suddenly go on and kill the bad guys and play the hero that would have just

12:00been

12:00really silly so um i'm really glad that the filmmakers kind of kept a level head and uh yeah

12:07we didn't see that when it comes to the performances in the film i thought sean astin

12:17did a pretty okay job as the character billy tepper at times i did find the billy character to be

12:27somewhat annoying you know with all his attempts to you know try and save the day it kind of felt

12:35a bit

12:35like this movie toy soldiers was some sort of star vehicle for sean astin and his career here's the

12:46young good looking kid you know saving the day being the hero and you know that's fair enough but

12:54i'll be honest i wasn't all that impressed i can't say that there was anything

13:01specifically bad about astin's performance but yeah i just wasn't wowed by it you know i mean

13:09to me he didn't really showcase his star appeal his star quality so yeah it was okay but

13:18nothing noteworthy one performance that i really did enjoy was that of the henchman jack thorpe

13:28who was played by actor dean champion this guy was cali's right-hand man always there watching over

13:38the hostages with his you know machine gun maybe it was the character's small glasses or something

13:47like that something about his appearance but either way he stuck out to me and that is a good thing

13:54when henchmen are not given any characterization you know they're basically cannon fodder with the

14:05thorpe character you know he actually felt like a threat and you know i have to commend actor dean

14:12champion who played him very convincingly and so dislikes for toy soldiers from 1991

14:23my biggest dislike for the film would have to be the score by the composer robert folk

14:32while the score was indeed a very well produced high quality arrangement i just felt that it was

14:43i don't know kind of too whimsical for a film like toy soldiers as it started um yeah the score

14:52was fine

14:53you know it was there but it wasn't kind of overbearing but as the film unfolded and we got more

15:03and more

15:03into the story yeah the score just became bombastic you know i don't think it's unfair to say that

15:12at times this movie its score it sounded like something from a disney family film

15:20for a film that was you know fairly violent and disturbing at times the score was just uh

15:28too upbeat and you know i shouldn't be really surprised because the composer robert folk had

15:38previously produced the score for the family film never ending story 2 so yeah maybe folk wasn't the

15:47right choice i mean even then you know composers can do all types of genre films it's not necessarily

15:55an issue but i really think that the composer should have been reined in i mean where exactly was the

16:03musical supervisor overlooking this you know for anyone out there that's seen this movie you'll have

16:10to agree that by the third act with all of the triumphant themes that were blaring out it was just

16:18yeah too much

16:19a good score should complement the film's visuals that the audience see on the screen but in this case

16:30i found the score to actually be quite distracting i really feel that a much darker

16:40and a more kind of simple approach would have been more beneficial to the film's overall quality

16:49the other dislike i wanted to mention was the heroics from the edward parker character

16:58so at the end of the movie callie had billy at gunpoint and was about to kill him right before

17:07mr parker was able to save the day we saw lewis gossett jr's character smash through a window and prevent

17:17billy from being killed now having mr parker play the hero and save billy at the end you know that

17:26was

17:27fine and to be totally honest i was kind of expecting something like that to happen but

17:34my issue was in its execution you know seeing parker smash through the window with his hands and feet

17:44was uh yeah borderline ridiculous even from a practical standpoint parker had no run-up he was

17:54basically on a ledge and then suddenly you see him fly through this window he didn't have enough

18:00momentum enough force so yeah that was just ridiculous as well and even then when he smashed

18:09through you know and saved the day and you saw callie get shot by the other police i mean he

18:15wasn't

18:15covered in glass anything you know which he should have been you know there should have been glass

18:19sticking out of his head he went you know face first through a panel of glass it doesn't make

18:24sense i don't know i was just expecting something a little bit more realistic you know in line with

18:32what we'd seen previously in the film i know the score at that point was you know really bombasty

18:43but i thought that the actual story was gonna kind of keep grounded but yeah once mr parker smashed

18:51through the window yeah it kind of you know took me out of the movie a little bit i mean

18:58i could even

19:00understand if we saw one of the group one you know the friends in the group like smash through the

19:05window it'd still be silly but i can understand you know maybe a young kid that doesn't know what

19:10he's doing but for this middle-aged school administrator to do this it was just too much

19:19and you know when i think about it it didn't even need to be this way because you could have

19:27easily

19:27had an alternative where mr parker you know maybe with the gun that he had in his hand

19:35all he had to do was maybe shoot through the glass that would have distracted callie and he still

19:40would have eventually you know been shot and billy would have been saved there was no need for mr

19:47parker to suddenly play the action man it just was uh yeah it's just ridiculous didn't like it

19:56and so ratings for toy soldiers from 1991 i am going to be rating this movie a solid 4 out

20:10of 10

20:10this movie toy soldiers was a fun 90 plus minutes of action and suspense the filmmakers

20:21clearly attempted to blend the teen movie genre with the action movie genre and you know for what it

20:32was worth i thought they did a pretty good job at times yes this movie did remind me of an

20:4080s comedy

20:41with all the elaborate scams that the group were playing on the teachers but when the action really

20:50kicked in the movie felt like you know a diehard sequel with all the terrorists invading the school

20:57and taking over even though toy soldiers is technically a 90s movie its tone and sensibilities

21:08remained very much in the 80s if you'd have told me that this movie came out you know like in

21:181988

21:18or 89 then i would have believed you so even though it's a 90s film

21:27because it's it feels so 80s in a way it's kind of like a lost 80s relic if that makes

21:35sense

21:36if you haven't seen this one yet i would indeed recommend it it's uh yeah it's worth your time

21:43and if you're a fan of you know 80s or early 90s action films then definitely check it out because

21:51yeah you'll you'll love it and well that is all from me today guys thank you so much for checking

21:58out the video hope you've liked my review of toy soldiers i will be back next week once again

22:05don't forget to like and subscribe and of course take care guys bye bye

22:15you

22:26you

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