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.
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.
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…
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…
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…
It is hard to dislike even if at times it plays like a misfire. In its favour is that it is original and should, therefore, stand up to repeated viewings. Visually attractive but it could have been a tad shorter.
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…
This is a weird film. Like its set in a Willy Wonka type world but for toys and everything feels like a sort of crazy and surreal dream land, so that's part of it, but mainly it just kinda doesn't know what sort of movie it wants to be. Like on one hand it has this magical kids movie sort of feeling to it, especially in the first half of the film. Then it dives into the second half of the film where Michael Gambon goes from being a military general out of place in this world to full on sociopath and the movie feels so much more adult, especially with the spontaneous sex scene that really comes out of nowhere.
Robin Williams is fun if not very contained and everyone else in the film embraces the weird in the film but it just doesn't have the cohesion to really engage you.
Weird and long and hollow and gross and adorable and unhinged and exhausting and upsetting and plastic and pastels and Hans Zimmer and labyrinths and crying and laughing and violence and sing-a-longs and farting and Jamie Foxx and fire and darkness and riffing and toy war and parody and robots and rockets and patriotism and Christmas and family and true love and death and Wonka-ism and
Rewatched: What is a movie you loved as a kid but you know is a dreadful mess? I love the movie Toys (1992) so much, I used an instrumental version of "The Closing of The Year" for my wedding ceremony song. I know the movie sucks, but I can't help it. 8 year old Andy loved blonde-haired Robin Williams and his really bad schtick that doesn't fit the rest of the film. Visually, I still think the film is a marvel, but boy, talk about hammering in a pretentious message about war.....There are so many things that could've worked and I get glimpses of hope every now and then but then alas, the film fails to deliver the goods and…
it's a boring mess, brimming with ideas and visuals that are always only half-interesting and never used properly. that thomas dolby song rips though
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