Toy Soldiers Review - Sean before Samwise Gamgee

From time to time, we'll be reviewing old movies as part of our "Blast from the Past" section. This month's feature is on a 1991 flick called "Toy Soldiers"

Long before Sean Astin was known as the hairy-foot hobbit best friend of Mr. Frodo in Lord of the Rings, he starred in this Action / Drama flick called "Toy Soldiers". Don't worry, there are no living toys involved in this show ala "Small Soldiers". Instead, it's about a group of rebellious rascals who save their boarding school from a terrorist attempt.

At the beginning of the movie, I enjoyed all the typical male high school pranks Billy (played by Sean Astin) and his group get into. I was not exactly pulled into the show in the beginning, but the acting and situations were interesting enough not to change the channel. When the dean catches them in the act of one of their misdeeds, he does not expel Billy, despite his egging him on to do so, something the dean will realize later on to be one of the best decisions of his life.

The movie then delves into the action/thriller portion of the show when a terrorist by the name of Luis Cali goes to the school searching for the son of the judge who put Luis' father in jail. Unlucky for him, the son of the judge had been removed from the school. Unlucky for the school, Luis Cali realizes just how many of the students in the boarding school were sons of very prominent people, so he just decides to put the whole boarding school under hostage until the president releases his father.

Billy, innately rebellious against ANY figure of authority, decides to throw a wrench on the terrorist's plans of blowing up the school, by finding a way to send important Intel about the terrorist group and their plans to the task force in charge of the hostage situation.

Now there are a couple of tiny details about the movie that makes the movie a bit more interesting and complex. One is Billy's best friend, Joey Trotta, who happens to be the son of the New York Mafia head. The other is the country's policy of never giving in to terrorists' hostage demands.


What you get as a result is quite an interesting flick - nothing groundbreaking, but still worth your time. Sean Astin played the rebel perfectly, and the relationship among him and his other friends was very dynamic. There's even a bit of believable drama weaved into the plot. I was also pleasantly surprised that the movie was actually relatively realistic; that is, Billy didn't suddenly morph into a Chuck Norris type and beat all the bad guys up singlehandedly.