1992 Directed by Barry Levinson
Leslie Zevo is a fun-loving inventor who must save his late father's toy factory from his evil uncle, Leland, a war-mongering general who rules the operation with an iron fist and builds weapons disguised as toys.
Cogently, flawlessly Dante-esque satirical look at War in the age of Consumerism (note my Capital Letters: I Mean Business). State-subsidized war morphing into consumerism may register as overly simplistic and didactic, but in fact both the military and the toy manufacturers are fucking capitalist tools, a brilliant insight. Construction-tank metal becomes toy-metal plastic (THEY ARE NOT THE SAME), the catalyst for a generation of youth misunderstanding the napalm-istic impact of video games (unlike Barry Levinson, who Understands War and the horror of its trivialization). Some might mistake its blunt premise as the confused, semi-senile satire of a man updating a decade-old script with piecemeal details, but in fact the film is an urgent wake-up call, a post-Persian Gulf earnest, decrying…
The main sin is that it isn't weird or demented enough (for a brief moment it shows signs of being sublimely strange); it's as if a bunch of studio suits tried to groupthink 'odd' and 'creative' and this is all they could muster.
It's other sins are:
an excessive run time,
an inappropriate love scene,
a virulently dated and awful soundtrack,
a half-finished production design,
the story,
and the resolution.
It’s beyond frustrating that a film that looks this visually unique and imaginative can be such an arduous bore to watch. The film is 2 hours long and yet there’s only enough plot to last roughly half of this time. The rest is padded with meandering dialogue and distractions that completely deter from the story. In any other film I’d possibly appreciate the films dedication to spending time with its characters in smaller moments, but this is not a film that holds either the time or place for such lengthy insight. With the exception of the wide-eyed and child-like Joan Cusack, the cast are either wasted in their positions or speak way too often, be it through horribly undecided accents (Gambon) or just general irritation (Williams). I just don’t feel like there’s much of anything here for anyone to fully enjoy, and its themes are touched on more interestingly in plenty more, much better films.
Bizarre fucking film, a passion project for director Barry Levinson, that oozes with creativity and imagination. It's a shambolic mess at times, too long, too indulgent, but it is carried by it's enthusiasm, it's design work and it's game cast,including Robin Williams, Michael Gambon, Joan Cusack and a very funny LL Cool J. It has some good values at it's core as well, in it's championing of traditionalism and innocence over consumerism and war toys.
Now a word on Robin Williams. never before have I seen such a unanimous outpouring of grief over the death of someone as we have seen the last few days since the tragic news broke. None of use knew him, but we feel like we…
I am a massive fan of Robin Williams works - & most notably pre-early 2000s from Mork and Mindy to Good Morning Vietnam, Hook, Jumanji, Flubber to lesser-known efforts in The Survivors and Fathers' Day and though a lot of people have made out the fact that not every film he has starred and appeared in have been masterpieces, there is one film in particular where I am somewhat unanimous and in full agreement with most people, but at the same time, it.... has some watchable scenes with Robin Williams in them - and that film is..... Toys.
When the military general decides to make weapons instead of toys when he tries to take over his brother's factory, Leslie Zevo, the…
I think I saw this film as a kid but all I could remember of it was those big green fields. The production design and the inventiveness of it is fantastic. Lots of clever stuff going on. In fact the first half of it is really enjoyable. Lots of quirky little jokes and moments, but then it falls apart right after the mid-point. The world, while ridiculous just sinks into insanity for no real reason. The third act is pretty ludicrous to get right down to it.
So while this film has a lot of fun to it, it's ultimately uneven. Glad I revisited it though since I didn't really remember it.
This is technically not a good film, but it's so creative and overjoyed by what it's doing - and genuinely funny - that I couldn't help but fall in love with it.
A general leave the army to save his deceased brother's toyfactory from the hands of the nephew. The latter being a Willy Wonka-wannabe who seem to spend the funds on vanity gags, instead of updating the factory's line consisting of creepy tintoys no child in the 90's could possible want! The general takes up the unfamiliar task, and figuring that ballet shows and Tori Amos only get you this far, he begin a market-research and invite actual children to test the products. Sounds sensible!
Oh! But the general is actually the villain!
I'm sure there is an audience for this movie's demented quirkiness. For me however, two things really stood out like sore thumps:
1. How did the audience of…
Its story is way too rushed, too thin and never seems to make its plot points have any sense during its runtime. Even its characters are so underdeveloped that you can't even appreciate what they bring to what little of the story there is either. However, it's surrealist vision to its production and costume design are way too innovative and breathtaking to fully say you shouldn't bother seeing it. Plus, Robin Williams and Joan Cusack are just so hysterical and downright charming with what little material they have. I'd also be remiss if i forgot to mention that the film has an extremely 90's Christmas song, "The Closing of the Year" that should be a staple to the Christmas music genre. Overall, it's difficult to justify the film considering its lackluster script, but it succeeds on so many other departments that it justifies at least giving it a shot.
Tobias Andersen 6,360 films
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Every film that has ever been nominated for an Academy Award in any category. Enjoy!
