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.
A Revolta dos Brinquedos, Toys - Giocattoli, Játékszerek, Juguetes, Играчки, Tödliches Spielzeug, Παιχνίδια, トイズ, Žaislai
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…
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.
Turned off that Stuperbowl and decided to watch a feel good flick from my childhood instead. Everything is bright n vibrantly colorful like a video game. I love all of the various toys running around the toy factory! They're all so colorful and well crafted. Great cast that seems to be really having fun on set led by Robin Williams, LL Cool J, Joan Cusack, and Robin Wright. One of those fun gems I watched routinely as a kid growing up in the 90s. Nostalgic nerdgasm!!
Hoping this gets a long overdue blu ray release one day
Framed by a children’s festive pageant, Toys then dives into themes of nostalgia, loss, and forced visits from relatives - even if this ignores Christmas for a solid hour and a half of its run time, we’re still considering this a stop on the holiday road. Essentially showing a year in the life of a toy factory, Toys was released in December of 1992. As a kid, I watched this in theatres expecting a light Robin Williams comedy or at least something bursting with Yuletide spirit. It was a disappointment.
I have revisited this numerous times in life, more informed, but always wishing it was something it isn’t. This time was no different. The first quarter of the film, Michael…
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…
A battle of good versus evil shown in ways that really haven't been done in any other film before or since, Toys is a criminally underrated and immensely underappreciated gem featuring one of Robin Williams' most memorable and overlooked performances, written and directed with a ton of heart by Barry Levinson, exploring thought-provoking themes that are still relevant in today's day and age, and showcasing truly spectacular, unique, and visually dazzling art direction and production design.
Such a strange and bizarre film that I have honestly no idea who it was made for. It's so crazy and unpredictable that it kept me entertained for most of the overlong runtime but as a whole this isn't very good and certainly feels dated in a lot of areas. Robin Williams is typically solid but the plot is just weird and it sadly doesn't have a lot of laughs.
I really enjoyed the visuals and of course the film has a great cast. In terms of writing and the overall plot though it really felt like it was trying a bit too hard. There were plenty of moments which made me laugh for also a fair few moments where I just thought "Why?".
I did quite enjoy Michael Gambon's short monologue before the two sides go to 'war's, which for some reason had to be announced by his dying father. However it kind of lost any gravitas it had when he started mumbling some lyrics.
I really shouldn't have laughed as much as I did at Joan Cusack saying "Red usually means caution. Or beef if it's a bouillon cube", but it really tickled me.
This movie is even more bonkers than I remembered. I used to rent this at Blockbuster allllll the time. I remembered it being very colorful and fun. Well those are true and it’s always very funny. Michael Gambon made me laugh out loud a few times. Same with LL Cool J. It’s wild that this was such a passion project for Barry Levinson. What a weird director.
I don't think I can give this a number rating. It's bad, but weird to the point of it being almost good.
Amazing cast but this is a real dud of a movie.
The best part is seeing a Lamborghini LM002.
Repeatedly, while watching this film, I kept wondering exactly who it was for. Definitely not a kids movie - too much is over their heads, or too sexual, or honestly just boring. And there are no kids in the movie, really, which would have probably been a simple adjustment to make that could have really expanded the audience. For grown-ups, meanwhile, the whole thing feels childish and tedious.
Somewhere in the reviews I read afterwards to try and get a grasp of what people at the time thought of the film (not very much), I found a reference to Tim Burton, and it clicked. Burton may not have inspired the project - Toys was apparently a passion project that Barry…
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