Plot: Colombian terrorist Luis Cali (Andrew Divoff) takes an American prep school hostage as a means of gaining his drug lord father’s freedom. Privileged yet rebellious students Joey (Wil Wheaton), Billy (Sean Astin), Snuffy (Keith Coogan) and Hank (T.E. Russell) find that they are better equipped to deal with the threat than the mostly ineffectual government agencies sent to rescue them. With resourceful Billy as their leader, the students struggle to defeat the terrorists and save the school.
I remember seeing Toy Soldiers when it came out way back in 1991 and for some reason I’d never watched it since; I saw it pop up on streaming recently so I figured it was time for me to revisit it.
This is essentially Die Hard in a School with a group of “rejects” working together to stop terrorists who are holding their classmates and faculty hostage. It has a great cast including Louis Gossett Jr., Sean Astin, Wil Wheaton, Denholm Elliott. R. Lee Ermey and Andrew Divoff as our main villain Luis Cali.
When his father is arrested by American authorities Luis takes over an all-boys school and holds everyone hostage until his father is released. He has planted bombs around the school, so if his demands aren’t met it will be destroyed.
Sean Astin is our lead Billy Tepper, a kid who is a born leader but has a problem with authority; the takeover gives him the opportunity to prove he has what it takes to save the day as well as eventually graduate.
Andrew Divoff is at his villainous best here and he looks awesome with the slicked back hair and beard; Cali is a ruthless killer and yet still charismatic at the same time. I mostly remember Michael Champion from Total Recall playing a very similar henchman character, but he was good at it and suitably hateful.
I like how in Toy Soldiers the boys help out the FBI/Military but it never gets too silly where they single handedly save the day themselves. I always found the scene with Wil Wheaton the most shocking as he is a young kid who has never handled a firearm before and the result is believable and adds some heart to the story.
It is a little corny at times and is a product of the time especially the score which sounds more like it belongs in a whimsical Spielberg movie, but it’s still awesome especially during the action packed finale. This is deliberate as I was reading on IMDb that “Composer Robert Folk said that he was told that the film editor of Toy Soldiers Michael Kahn who is most known as Steven Spielberg’s film editor screened the film for Spielberg’s composer John Williams since Kahn apparently wanted Williams to score it. However Williams was unavailable because of other commitments”.
In terms of action scenes we get some shoot-outs and explosions; the film isn’t short on tension either keeping you on the edge your set throughout.
Overall, Toy Soldiers is an entertaining Die Hard-esque action picture with plenty of R-rated moments and a great cast who are convincing in their respective roles. Personally, this movie belongs to Andrew Divoff who always makes for a great villain and this is one of his best to date.