Alan, son of a toy store owner, tries out some new action figures: The Commando Elite vs. The Gorgonites. What he does not know, is that both sets of toys were designed to move, talk, and play back. The Commando Elite's purpose is to destroy the Gorgonites. Unfortunately, the toy designer who was responsible for the programming, bought highly intelligent military computer chips that are usually used for steering missiles, and are able to learn. Now, the Commando Elite, led by Major Chip Hazard, is up to destroying the Gorgonites, led by peaceful Archer, who hide in Alan's parents' house. Now, a battle, in which the destructive ability of creative computer chips against creative computer chips with a different attitude comes to light, is about to begin. After military manufactured computer chips are put in a line of action figures, they end up with minds of their own and try to invade an Ohio suburb, and do battle with another line of toys that have the same chips. Excellent Movie. Kristen Dunst is marvelous! The colonel played by Tommy Lee Jones was great. Even the addition of Phil Hartman was super. And I liked the early appearance of "The Doctor" (Robert Picardo) was a nice touch. I hadn't seen the movie in years, but this afternoon I sat spellbound as it wound it's story.<br/><br/>Kristen Dunst is an up and coming actress that I have liked since the two Spiderman movies. I have rediscovered several old movies with her in the them – Small soldier and Interview with a Vampire chief among them. She is a great actress with a wide range of talent.<br/><br/>This movie was GREAT. When missile technology is used to enhance toy action figures, the toys soon begin to take their battle programming too seriously.<br/><br/>On making the film, director Joe Dante recalled "Originally I was told to make an edgy picture for teenagers, but when the sponsor tie-ins came in the new mandate was to soften it up as a kiddie movie. Too late, as it turned out, and there are elements of both approaches in there. Just before release it was purged of a lot of action and explosions." There does seem to be some confusion on what the film was supposed to be or even what it is now. I avoided the film for years, thinking it was just a bunch of talking toys. Then director Jeff Burr (whom I admire) said to give it another chance, so I decided to give it a go and found it to be much more than just toys and actually a rather interesting and intelligent film.<br/><br/>And, to be fair, even if it was just the toys… the effects are pretty darn good. I don't know if it's animation or what, but it looks really good, far better than most other things of the time period (late 1990s).
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371 weeks ago