Rent Small Soldiers (1998)

Great for boys of a certain age - including me :) - Small Soldiers review by RP

I remember taking a group of young lads to see this at the cinema way back at the end of 1998 - and they loved it. And that was the last time I saw it - until now. And lo and behold, today's group of young lads - grandchildren, now - also loved it!

You can take it at face value: high tech toy soldiers (the Commando Elite, sort of like Action Man) and their sworn enemy toys (the Gorgonites, somewhat gentler) are fitted with military grade electronics and miniature mechanisms, and programmed to (respectively) fight and to lose. The Commando Elite are ruthless and utilise all sorts of domestic hardware as weapons, but young teenager + girl next door help the Gorgonites escape.

That story outline makes it sounds ridiculous - and I suppose it is - but the animation, puppetry and CGI is pretty good and it's great fun.

Or you can look behind the action you'll find many film references and 'in' jokes (the director is Joe Dante, who directed 'Gremlins') and read the credits and you find that the Commando Elite are voiced by Tommy Lee Jones + cast members from 'The Dirty Dozen' and the Gorgonites by the cast of 'Spinal Tap'. There are a few other nice satirical touches, including using music by the Spice Girls as psychological warfare.

There is a certain amount of mild swearing at the beginning, but apart from that the film is great for boys of a certain age - including me :)

4/5 stars - great stuff.