Just to get our categories straight: this is not a fantasy about toys coming to life in the manner of March of the Wooden Soldiers, The Nutcracker, or of course, as the computer animation may prod you to think, Toy Story. It is a piece of science fiction on the time-honored theme of machines, more specifically robots, rounding on their human masters after the fashion of Westworld, Runaway, Blade Runner. The robots just happen to be very small ones, toys in fact, but mechanical toys, "smart" toys in precisely the same sense as the "smart" bombs of the Gulf War, fitted with military-surplus munitions chips and lifetime lithium batteries. The science part of it is fast-talkingly unconvincing as well as boring, and the escalation of hostilities between a new line of G.I. Joe-type action figures and their custom-designed space-alien enemies (an illogical match to begin with) depends upon an unbelievable level of obliviousness on the part of the human bystanders. Still, the ideas are not all bad. To apply animatronic puppetry and computer-generated imagery to literal toys is a good way to contain and to minimize the crudities of such special effects. They are no doubt better contained in the humanoid commandos than in the free-form aliens, but the constant level-headed, dulcet-toned wisdom of Frank Langella as the voice of Archer, Emissary of the Gorgonites, is every bit as funny as the constant jarhead machismo of Tommy Lee Jones as the voice of Maj. Chip Hazard. The satirical comment on the American cult of violence is light but solid (the no-war-toys children's store is also a no-profits store); and the underemployed Ann Magnuson is given something entertaining to do with a tennis racket during the Night of the Living Dead climactic siege; and the Jerry Goldsmith music is stirring; and the "adult" allusions to Patton (also scored by Goldsmith, by the way), Apocalypse Now, Bride of Frankenstein, Titanic, et al., are more negligible than annoying; and it's nice to see that director Joe Dante still observes his personal tradition of giving a bit part to Dick Miller -- a tradition not nearly as old as that of the rebellious robot, but any tradition whatsoever in this amnesiac era increases in value. With Gregory Smith, Kirsten Dunst, Kevin Dunn. (1998) — Duncan Shepherd
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