Small Soldiers . Tucson Weekly . 07-20-98

Small Soldiers

DIRECTED BY: Joe Dante

REVIEWED: 07-20-98

Director Joe Dante and a team of five writers have given the Child's Play concept a military spin: Now instead of an evil spirit inside a plastic moppet, a super-destructive munitions chip has been mistakenly installed in the latest line of military action figures. The result is a bunch of wisecracking, pop-culture-quoting commandos who proceed to tear up part of a suburban neighborhood. Their mission: to destroy a similarly intelligent set of pacifist dolls, the leader of whose whiskered face literally implies "underdog." The movie contains loads of talent, including the late Phil Hartman and vocalizations by the primary leads from both The Dirty Dozen and This Is Spinal Tap. Copious special effects blend seamlessly with the live action, and the ideas are overflowing--the creators have even thrown in the kitchen sink (complete with garbage disposal). But unlike Dante's similar Gremlins movies, the anarchy becomes too chaotic for its own good. The satiric sensibility has no focus, and the human characters have less personality than the dolls. Though there are clever minds behind the screenplay, the hypocrisy is overwhelming: a mind-numbingly violent criticism of military figures? Which, by the way, are for sale at your local toy store? Talk about self-contradiction. Twelve-year-old boys will love it; everyone else can expect a headache.

--Woodruff

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