A film review by Jeffery Sanders

"Small Soldiers - Big Movie", that line has been plastered on at least two thirds of the buses in my city. While the soldiers are small, but bigger than the average action figure, the movie is not quite as big as one would hope. While Small Soldiers is in no way a bad film, it is not up to par with the high expectations I had for it.

Joe Dante - these two words generate excitement in the movie buff part of my mind. Joe Dante is the wildly offbeat director of Piranha, The Howling, Gremlins, Matinee, and the "It's a Good Life" segment of the Twilight Zone feature film. With a mediocre script, Dante can create a classic (Gremlins, Piranha) and he very rarely strikes out. Small Soldiers has a great script, yet the film remains in the land of the good, instead of entering the realm of greatness. Who's fault is it? Not Steven Spielberg, who produced the film with top notch values; Not Stan Winston, who shows off some off the most impressive special effects of his career. Unfortunately, the blame for the fact that Small Soldiers is not as great as Gremlins lies squarely on...Joe Dante.

Small Soldiers is about, basically what is sounds like. Small toy soldiers, supplied with ammunition chips and an urge to kill roam around a suburban neighborhood creating havoc and mayhem. The toy soldiers are the Commando Elite, a group of 5 amazing animatronic action figures. Led by Chip Hazard, voiced by Tommy Lee Jones, the commandos are voiced by actors who starred as The Dirty Dozen. Their mission is to destroy the peaceful Gorgonites, a band of misfit creatures searching for the fictional isle of Gorgon. Led by Archer, the Gorgonites are voiced by the cast of This Is Spinal Tap, and are much more interesting than the one-dimensional Commandos. Also thrown in to the mix is an army of mutated Barbie clones, created by Chip Hazard, and voiced by Sarah Michelle Gellar and Christina Ricci. They are known as the Gwendy dolls, and will certainly scare little children out of their minds. While the Commandos search for the Gorgonites, the human stars of the film try to protect the beasts. Fifteen year old Alan ( Gregor Smith ) is the first to realize that these toys are not very safe. Pretty soon everybody, including his beautiful neighbor ( Kirsten Dunst ), her father ( The late great Phil Hartman ) and many more realize the neighborhood has been turned into a warzone.

With such a cool story, how could this film fail? It doesn't, but it in no way lives up to the expectations one would make after hearing the story. A Joe Dante film had Joe Dante elements. This film only has a few Gremlin references and an actor who frequently appears in his films. There isn't as much cheeky self-awareness you would hope for and the film might as well have been directed by me. Performances are fine all around, but the toys aren't menacing enough to scare ( besides the dolls ).

But still, this is good summer entertainment. It is funny, fast and the finale is so wild and over-the-top it can't help but leave you with a good feeling once the curtain comes up. Small Soldiers, isn't as big as one might hope? True, but that doesn't mean you should miss it. It's still pretty large.

7.5/10

Size isn't everything.