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Toy Soldiers is a film I didn’t see on its original release, so it’s good to finally check it out on this new Blu-ray premiere.
A group of terrorists are fighting a losing battle in a courtroom in Colombia when the leader, Luis Cali (Andrew Divoff), is mighty pissed off that his father, Enrique, has been captured by the US government and extradited back to the US to face trial. While we get what’s going on, the burnt-in subtitles don’t help by partially being absent during the conversation between the leader and the judge, but that’s a criticism I’d have to level at Columbia TriStar and no-one else.
This film came out in 1991, the same as Christian Slater’s comedy, Kuffs, where he was a cop partnered with a dog. I loved it when I saw it at the Keele Film Society, so upon its video release, I rented it and told my dad, especially to pay attention during a scene containing burnt-in subtitles (you need to see it to get it, so I won’t spoil it here). Alas, when we got to that point…. the subtitles were nowhere to be seen! My flabber had well and truly been gasted and the scene was left destroyed. I had to pause it and fill in what happened for him, but I was actually shocked big-time about this and even wrote in to Empire Magazine (since the internet wasn’t yet a thing you could log into and moan upon) and my letter was printed, but it didn’t result in the video being corrected – at least, I didn’t go and buy the retail version. And, in fact, there has never been a UK DVD release of the film but there is a US release if you have a DVD player capable of reading Region 1 discs (note that Blu-ray players aren’t all multiregion by default). But I digress….
Cut to the posh Regis boarding school, where Louis Gossett Jr rules the school with an iron fist as the Dean of students, as if he’s Sgt. Emil Foley having retired from the military, some years after bossing Richard Gere about in 1982’s An Officer and a Gentleman, and this time he’s the nemesis to student Billy Tepper (Sean Astin). Terrorists appear and take over the school because one of the high-up men involved in Enrique Cali’s case has a son there. You can tell these terrorists mean business as they use remote control explosives to blow up police trucks in the middle of nowhere, when it would’ve been much cheaper to torch it.
Andrew Divoff acts as a pseudo-Liam Neeson, saying to headmaster Denholm Elliott, that if the boy in question is still on school grounds, “I will find him… and I will kill *you*”
Toy Soldiers is largely a tale of terrorists taking over a school and facing resistance is even more relevant today as all hell broke loose as recent as last month when terrorists stormed the Charlie Hebdo offices and murdered ten members of staff as well as two policemen, but once the baddies arrive here, the film ends up being a load of predictable nonsense. It’s passable for a couple of hours’ entertainment, but nothing to really shout out and ends up looking like it wants to be Dead Poets Society as the lads all sit about in the dorms in their underwear, waiting for the world to turn.
As an aside, it’s quite amusing to see a hostage pushed out of a helicopter by the terrorists when, you can clearly see that under their billowy clothes, the stuntman is wearing a parachute!
And one daft moment which requires a spoiler warning even though the film is nearly 25 years old…
As I type, it’s only £8.50 on Amazon, so if you must buy it to have it on Blu-ray then at least it won’t cost you a great deal, but with a complete lack of extras, plus an absence of subtitles and only 8 chapters, I can’t recommend it if you’re not sure either way. With this release, the boat hasn’t been pushed back. In fact, it’s been left in the the harbour and needs restoring.
The Blu-ray print certainly brings 1080p high definition to the screen, but it looks a very ‘snowy’ print and has many flecks on it, but it’s still better than watching a DVD, so for its low price, you may still want to invest. Soundwise, there’s nothing going on in the rear speakers so it’s essentially the same as a Dolby Stereo soundtrack for all the difference it makes.
As for the extras… erm… where are they? There are none.
Someone at the distributors should go to the school basketball court and pick up all the balls they dropped with this release!
Toy Soldiers is out now on Blu-ray and DVD, and check out the full-size cover by clicking on the packshot.
| FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS |
5 7 7 0 |
| OVERALL | 5 |
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 119 minutes
Cat.no: 101FILMS118BR
Year: 1991
Released: February 2nd 2015
Chapters: 8
Picture: 1080p High Definition
Sound: 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio, DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1
Languages: English
Subtitles: None
Widescreen: 1.85:1
Disc Format: BD50
Director: Daniel Petrie Jr
Producers: Jack E Freedman, Patricia Herskovic and Wayne S Williams
Screenplay: Daniel Petrie Jr and David Koepp (based on the novel by William P Kennedy)
Original Score: Robert Folk
Cast :
Billy Tepper: Sean Astin
Dean Parker: Louis Gossett Jr
Joey Trotta: Wil Wheaton
Snuffy Bradberry: Keith Coogan
Luis Cali: Andrew Divoff
General Kramer: R Lee Ermey
Deputy Director Brown: Mason Adams
Headmaster: Denholm Elliott
Ricardo Montoya: George Perez
Hank Giles: T.E. Russell
Derek: Shawn Phelan
Jack Thorpe: Michael Champion
Enrique Cali: Jesse Doran
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.