SMALL SOLDIERS (61)

Directed by: Joe Dante

Starring: Gregory Smith, Kirsten Dunst, Jay Mohr, Phil Hartman

The Pitch: Toys, programmed with military technology by unscrupulous manufacturers, go to war with each other - leaving their teenage owner caught in the crossfire.

Theo Sez: Does anyone in movies have a more treasurable sensibility than Joe Dante? It's not just the comic-book sense of mischief, or the fondness for outlandish effects (Sam Raimi and the Coens take those further, and use them more consistently). It's also the insistence on low-tech solutions, his heroes invariably ordinary folk having to improvise in extraordinary situations, using everyday objects for weapons ; it's the empathy with square pegs and misfits, those uncomfortable with the shiny blandness of conglomerate-led agendas ("Question Reality" reads a sign in our hero's bedroom) ; it's the way, almost alone among American film-makers, he gives teens an endearing klutziness, refusing to pander to the target audience's view of itself ; it's a general preference for amateurs over professionals, trees over satellite dishes, hand-drawn sketches over multimedia presentations, microbreweries over corporations, playful nonsense over rounded laugh-lines - all of it very much in evidence here. This isn't a particularly solid film, nor are its politics particularly original - anti-militarism is a lot more common in liberal Hollywood (most recently in THE SIEGE) than some critics seem to think - but, even as the script wanders (what's the point of the whole password business, except perhaps as a nod to GREMLINS?) the details delight (the attack of the Gwendy Dolls ("Gwendy! She's so trendy!"), the Spice Girls used as psychological warfare). There's a warm, laid-back, no-bull quality to it that's almost like an innocence - when it suddenly cuts surprisingly deep, when the peace-loving Gorgonite (sporting unmistakable Red Indian features) watches a violent montage of American history, or our young hero, reared in a world run by computers, asks "Is there a machine I can talk to?", it doesn't feel preachy, more a case of home truths in the mouth of a child. Not too great but hugely likeable - a breath of fresh air, or perhaps an evening in the company of a much-loved, mildly eccentric friend.