Toy Soldiers

Directed by Daniel Petrie Jr., Toy Soldiers follows several rebellious students, including Sean Astin’s Billy, Wil Wheaton’s Joey, and Keith Coogan’s Snuffy, as they prepare to fight back after their school is taken over by terrorists (led by Andrew Divoff’s Luis). It’s a pretty irresistible setup that’s employed to middling and predominantly underwhelming effect by Petrie Jr., as the filmmaker, working from a script written with David Koepp, delivers an oddly sluggish drama that contains too few standout sequences and a proliferation of somewhat unappealing protagonists – with the latter reflected most keenly in Astin’s competent yet perpetually obnoxious turn as the ostensible hero. The meandering midsection undoubtedly suffers from a palpable let’s-get-on-with-it-already type of vibe, and although Petrie Jr. has peppered the proceedings with a small handful of compelling sequences (eg Billy attempts to deliver information to the outside without getting caught), Toy Soldiers is, by and large, unable to generate the excitement and thrills that one might’ve anticipated based on the premise – which, despite Divoff’s scenery-chewing and entertainingly larger-than-life work here, cements the picture’s place as a disappointing misfire that could’ve benefited from a shorter running time (ie 111 minutes is fairly absurd, ultimately).

** out of ****