Small Soldiers

[Punisher Rising]

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Does anyone remember this forgotten gem from 1998? This movie was a childhood favorite of mine, I was obsessed with it in my preteen years and watched it daily and had a ton of the merchandise from it. It's basically Toy Story, Gremlins, The Terminator and Child's Play all thrown together. A very fun and entertaining movie that has a decent plot, great effects and some cool action scenes, and the toys themselves are all awesome. It's too bad the movie was something of a box office bomb in 1998, released during a very competitive Summer that year, and a sequel doesn't seem likely to ever happen. The movie has at least gotten somewhat more recognized in the years since, and it deserves it, it's definitely an underrated gem and it never fails to brighten my day on any occasion.

 

[Ipodman]

Cool movie!

FUN FACT: Tommy Lee Jones is in it.

I remember watching it as a kid and being scared of the Barbie dolls. I still am.

Isn't there a sequel that went straight to TV or something?

 

[Punisher Rising]

There never has been a sequel to my knowledge, not counting the kids' novel, Small Soldiers: The Gorgonites' Quest, which takes place after the first movie. I have that book, it's not a bad read and definitely worth tracking down if you liked the film.

Apparently, it seemed there was actually an attempt to get a sequel made in 2007, but the plans for that seemed to have fallen through. I was always surprised this movie never had a cartoon series or a series of comic books.

 

[Ipodman]

Was too violent for kids probably

 

[Punisher Rising]

I don't think it's that bad violence-wise, I've seen PG movies with much more extreme violence than this.

 

[Ipodman]

But kids will get frightened at how violent the toys are...

Theres a scene where the Barbie dolls I think attack the humans, that scared me quite abit

 

[redhawk23]

great movie

Fun Fact #2 this movie has kirsten dunst in it

i have the play station 1 game whcih is set within the fictional world of the toys. pretty awesome actually

 

[Punisher Rising]

I have the PS1 game as well, it's pretty good. It was interesting to get a look at the mythology of the Gorgonites' homeworld and piloting the heavy walkers the Commandos use was a lot of fun.

 

[Ipodman]

I remember when it was in cinemas, there was some controversy in my country because the commandos were the bad guys and the monsters were the good guys

 

[Punisher Rising]

That's ridiculous. Some people these sort of things too seriously.

 

[KnightBat]

I've always enjoyed this movie and agree its underrated.

Sad Fact 1: Phil Hartman's last movie.

 

[Dr. Evil]

Didn't Frank Langella have a voice-over role in the movie?

 

[Wolfwood]

I was going to show this to my 2nd graders awhile ago, but decided to rewatch it beforehand. Man, was I surprised at how much cussing there was. As a kid, I hadn't really noticed, but looking back it's kinda surprising.

Related Fun Fact: Denis Leary is in this movie.

 

[Punisher Rising]

Didn't Frank Langella have a voice-over role in the movie?

He did, he did the voice of Archer, the Gorgonite leader.

 

[Doc Ock]

Highly underrated movie IMO, I still love it to this day.

 

[redhawk23]

whoa frank langella played Archer?

 

[TNC9852002]

I don't think anyone forgot this movie if they were born in that era..

 

[Doc Ock]

I don't think anyone forgot this movie if they were born in that era..

Excellent point!

 

[Punisher Rising]

whoa frank langella played Archer?

He sure did.

I don't think anyone forgot this movie if they were born in that era..

I think it's forgotten in the sense it's not really that well-known a movie and was hugely overlooked when it came out (I remember it didn't do very well at the box office and wasn't really a talked-about movie, despite months of big hype leading up to the release). Maybe "forgotten" isn't the right word to use as simply overlooked and underrated, a movie that never achieved the success it deserved.

 

[Ipodman]

I don't think anyone forgot this movie if they were born in that era..

Excellent point!

So we are all young people here?

 

[Punisher Rising]

I still have a lot of my toys from this movie packed away. Good times, Commandos and Gorgonites being flung all over my room

 

[Ipodman]

Maybe some hollywood insider will see this thread and make a Small Soldiers reboot.

Or at least a live action 'toy story' movie, using cgi or whatever.

Oh wait, Night at the Museum!

 

[Doc Ock]

So we are all young people here?

Indeed! But i'm in the last year of my teenage days. Then I hit the big 2 and 0......

I still have Commander Chip Hazard action figure on a verrrry high shelf....gathering dust.

 

[Punisher Rising]

I guess the sequel they tried to write a while ago never took off. Wonder why this movie wasn't so successful back when it came out? I remember 1998 was a big Summer for movies and was pretty competitive, so I guess this just simply had the misfortune of getting lost in the shuffle amidst the other blockbusters that year. I do remember the release date was changed after Phil Hartman's unfortunate death a few months before.

 

[Ipodman]

The "monsters" team has some cool character designs....