Reviews

another top notch mcfarlane release.... just stay away from that odst figure. 5 stars!

Reviews

Toy Soldiers is one of those awesome 80s movies that didn't try to wow the audience with believability. It's a good thing; too, because the formula used is a complete winner. It is just underdogs versus villains, precocious American teens defeating a vastly superior foreign enemy; it's the in-school suspension version of Red Dawn. The film centers on a prep school, Regis, and a group of unruly friends led by Billy Tepper (Astin), who has been kicked out of multiple schools before this one. Along with friends Joey Trotta (Wheaton), a mobster's son; Keith Coogan (Bradberry), the artist; Ricardo Montoya (Perez), the translator; and Hank Giles (Russell), the token. Together they form the school's upper-class leadership, the guys with the best pranks and Listerine-vodka, the admired school celebrities. Along the way they must match wits with Edward Parker (Gossett, Jr.), the tough-love approach Dean who serves as a mentor. When the school is taken over by South American terrorists who are armed to the teeth with machine guns, explosives, and ransom demands, guess which kids just happen to be part of VERY wealthy and very influential families, and therefore important in the ransom plot? Naturally, the Regis "Rejects" pause from zit popping to bravely band together and concoct a plan that may as well have been hatched in the Mystery Machine. Somehow, however, despite the fact that their plan requires the theft of a military HMMWV, and hinges upon a remote controlled UFO/plane hybrid owned by a kid named "Yogurt," the surrounding military and Parker agree that it's probably the best bet for success. You can't make this stuff up. From beginning to end, this movie is enjoyable. The acting is top-notch, and head terrorist Luis Cali - portrayed convincingly by Andrew Divoff - should get more attention for his fine work. Once the first act is over the direction doesn't allow for a dull moment the rest of the way. Great action, funny situations, heck, even the score is memorable. The only egregious flaw in this movie is the casting of pipe-cleaner thin Will Wheaton as a tough mobster son. If there is a worse casting misfire in Hollywood history I'd like to see it. This is a textbook, classic version of enjoyable, completely unbelievable movie. It's right up there with Red Dawn and Iron Eagle (in which Louis Gossett, Jr. also stars) for me, and not only will I watch all three whenever they come TV, I'll defend them as well. With the absolutely ridiculous premise of a boarding school being infiltrated and controlled by a South American terrorist group who fall to the logistics and strategy of a handful of mavericky kids who probably failed algebra and are inexplicably led by a 5-foot-nothing hero in Sean Astin, it just can't be taken seriously. But it's fun the entire movie, and I highly recommend it for a good, hands-off time. Jason Elin

Movie is very good. Cast of characters good. Seller is quick in getting movies out and they are top notch.

A group of rich boarding school students, who are known for their bad behaviour, become hostages in their own school when a Mexican criminal group takes over their school. The mexican group's leader demands that the US police release his imprisoned father or else he will start killing the student hostages one after another. The clever students help the police waiting on the other side take control of their school and eventually release all the hostages. The movie is quite fun to watch and is packed with action scenes.

I would order again form this seller. DVD arrived fast and in goos condition.

this movie has been a favorite of mine for years. glad to find it on amazon.com and for a reasonable price.

Reviews

the dvd was very good and right on time too. The toddlers just love the movie and watch it everyday thanks alot and have a great day

I did like some things about this movie. The special effects were spectacular. Tommy Lee Jones as a toy soldier was particularly amusing. Jay Mohr, David Cross, and the late Phil Hartman really steal the show. And best of all, it wasn't very PC throughout the movie. But everything else was really bad. The characters Alan and Christy were very annoying, Archer wasn't very interesting (I was actually rooting more for the human action figures), the script was pretty bad, and the Gorgonites were very very very VERY goofy and horrible to look at. It would have been a better family film if the script had some improvements going for it. But overall, I was entertained, and I find it to be a very average film. Grade: C+

Cripes, I forgot just how very neat and subversive this movie is. SMALL SOLDIERS is rated PG-13 and, indeedy, the surprising level of violence doesn't really lend itself to viewing from kids under, say, eight or nine years. Released a few years after Toy Story (10th Anniversary Edition), SMALL SOLDIERS' accomplishments in the f/x department, in comparison, probably don't come off as so jaw-dropping impressive. But Stan Winston and his crew did scrounge up some fairly awesome animatronic designs which, when meshed with the seamless CG work, pay off huge dividends. It's a really fun film, although, again, PG-13. Some of the things the bad guy toys get up to aren't really age appropriate for the younger ones. The premise is irresistible, about a not-yet-released line of action figures - sorted out in two different groups, the Gorgonites and the Commando Elite - which ends up in the hands of troubled teen Alan Abernathy, whose dad runs a modest toy shop called The Inner Child. The toys, created by a subsidiary of a defense contracting conglomerate, happen to be powered by experimental super microchips which allow them not only to interact, but to also learn and adapt. Sentient toys. To make it even more fun, SMALL SOLDIERS then skewers that sense of good ol' American jingoism and our infatuation with G.I. Joe, and it achieves this by introducing a twist. The murderous Commando Elite, ramrodded by gung-ho, buzz cut sporting Major Chip Hazard (voiced by Tommy Lee Jones, great again), are clearly the villains here and they promptly begin hunting down the Gorgonites (they call them "Gorgonite Scum"). And, as we learn, they're only too eager to frag the Gorgonites' human friends ("Civilian, declare your allegiance!"). The rag-tag bunch of Gorgonites are monstrous looking but are gentle and only long to seek their way home. They're led by the thoughtful Archer who, as voiced sympathetically by Frank Langella, quickly got me on his side. The Commando Elite is the featured line of toys, with the Gorgonites heaped along to serve as enemy fodder. As such, the Gorgonites are programmed to lose and, so, when the kid Alan goes looking for them after his dad's toy shop gets vandalized, Archer gravely declares: "My Gorgonite brothers are doing what the Gorgonites do best. They are hiding." That's the only way they believe they can survive. As kind of an encore to Gremlins (Special Edition), director Joe Dante ends up supremely trashing a suburban neighborhood in somewhere, Middle America. He's always had a knack for cartoon anarchy, and he serves up ridiculous mayhem in this one. He even gets around to spoofing scenes from PATTON and APOCALYPSE NOW. I loved the action, and there are times when you'll actually believe that the demented Commando Elite can do grievous bodily harm to humans. Particularly cool and a little creepy are the awesomely grotesque Gwendy dolls, having received the Frankenstein treatment from Major Chip Hazard and deployed to ambush the dolls' owner, a girl who happens to be Alan's next door neighbor and current crush. But since that girl is feisty Kirsten Dunst, she's soon back on her feet. There's the obvious humor which kids all over should get a kick out of. And then there's the funny stuff which may go over their heads: the broadsides against the military, the pop culture references, the juxtaposing of play versus violence. When the Commando Elite engage in suburban warfare, they even go so far as to blast Alan Abernathy's home with torture music, which turns out to be the Spice Girls. But, hopefully (as I get my preach on), the kids can pick up on one theme that never really gets old: the one about not judging a book by its cover and about beauty being only skin deep and is in the eye of the beholder, and other similar maxims. Of the live action performances, the one standout for me is Kirsten Dunst, her talent friggin' immense even back then. She plays her character as so sunny and irrepressible that she overwhelms whatshisname, the kid who plays the central character Alan. Jay Mohr, David Cross, and Denis Leary are okay, but their best stuff is in the DVD's Bloopers reel. The real draw are the action figures. Stan Winston and his animatronics crew did a job and a half with the designs, with ILM then integrating the CG to arrive at this place where intelligent toys are set realistically in place and believably, fluidly interact with live actors. Visually, my favorite is probably Ocula, a Gorgonite who in essence is a huge eyeball on three legs. Big names in the voice casting. To liven up that military spoofing even further, some of the surviving cast from The Dirty Dozen (Two-Disc Special Edition) are employed as voices of the Commando Elite (but for Major Chip Hazard). Meanwhile, Harry Shearer, Christopher Guest, and Michael McKean have a This Is Spinal Tap (Special Edition) reunion and handle the voices of the Gorgonites (except Archer, of course). Another cool bit of casting has Christina Ricci and Sarah Michelle Gellar as the Gwendy dolls ("Watch out, girls! Hissy fit!"). This DVD includes these special features: the movie trailer; the 11-minute Behind the Scenes featurette which goes into good detail about the film's CG/animatronics special effects; 5 minutes of funny Bloopers; 10 Deleted Scenes (totaling around 6 minutes), the last 3 of which feature special effects (the fourth scene is worth watching for the Gorgonites' reaction when they do an Internet search on "Gorgon"); Cast & Crew film bios; 8 pages of Production Notes; and a 2-minute sneak peek at the PlayStation video game. SMALL SOLDIERS happens to be Phil Hartman's final film role, and he goes out doing his trademark unctuous shtick. He lands one of the best lines in the film, I thought, except that we only get to hear it in one of the deleted scenes: Trying to placate the attacking Commando Elite, his smarmy character informs them: "We're not so different, you and I. I've been accused of being plastic all my life."

Admittedly, many kid's films are simply a ploy to sell toys and I'm pretty sure there were plenty of Colonel Chip Hazard action figures running around after this Disney film. Still, the mark of a really good kid's film is remembering those characters years later and wanting to see the film again. Tommy Lee Jones did such a good job creating the gung-ho Chip Hazard that it's hard to forget him even after ten years of kiddie films. The premise, a toy company's taken over by a company which also supplies the US military. When two enterprising toy designers create a set of action figures with advanced military functions, the war's on. Colonel Chip Hazard (Jones) leads his forces again the Gorgons led by Archer (Frank Langella). The only thing stopping these forces is one kid who's trying to stop his dad's toy store from closing. Honestly, while this film's billed as a children's movie, it's got a lot of deeper meanings from take-offs on a lot of the military films to thoughts on stereotyping sexual roles for toys. The one-liners still had me laughing. Well worth seeing again and owning for moments when you need a good laugh. Rebecca Kyle, June 2009

This was a very clever animated-live action computer animated film (at least for 1998) in which the toys come to life and look real. Once the action starts, it's a very interesting story with fun special-effects, some good, funny dialog and some neat references to past films. Sometimes it's tough to catch them all. On the bad side, it features typical Hollywood portrayal of a family in that the film has stupid parents. Also, there are the usual anti-military messages and anti- Republican cheap shots. The story has The Commandos (military, which means bad guys, of course) against the Gorgonites (peaceful, different-looking creatures.) Overall, an entertaining film with a good mix of genres.

Reviews

I bought this CD because I was going to be teaching a preschool ballet class. There were very few usable songs on the disc. They sounded too, well, classical - not "kid" enough for me. Maybe I just had the wrong idea when I bought it, I don't know!

This is wonderful classical music. If the kids like it, great! But, make no mistake about it, this is good for anyone. This is wonderful study music, reading music, or just plain relaxing music. Highlights include "Parade of the Wooden Soldiers"; "March of the Toys" (from BABES IN TOYLAND -- the reason I bought this CD); "The Sorcerer's Apprentice"; "The Little Train of Caipira" (no longer little when the music is over); and the audience favorite "Hoedown" (i.e. "Beef, it's what's for dinner!"). If you're into that whole thing of classical music sharpening a youngster's intellect, then this won't disappoint. If you're just into good old fashioned classical music in general, it won't disappoint you either. Also, I highly recommend to both groups the classical CD BUILD YOUR BABY'S BRAIN.

This is a wonderful album. Very high quality, and every selection is beautiful. My daughter (who usually asks me to turn my classical music off) loves to pretend to gallop like a horse during "Rodeo" and march like a soldier during "Parade of the wooden soldiers". This is a pleasure for the whole family!

I use this CD with my preschool music group. The kids love it! This CD enables children learn about classical music without over extending their attention spans.

Reviews

I adore Kreisler. As an amateur fiddler, I have performed Kreisler and know that his work is always invigorating to play. Joshua Bell allows his listeners the same fun hearing the music, lightly frolicking sometimes and passionately ripping through sensuous phrases other times. This is not music to "tune out" to. This is fully engaging, and for classical music lovers or Joshua Bell fans, one will not be disappointed in this album.

I never liked violin music until I heard Joshua Bell at the Hollywood Bowl in California. Since he doesn't play there every day and his playing evokes such emotion, I bought this album. It's terrific. I would see him or hear him in a heart beat so if you really LOVE violin classical music, you will love this CD.

I first discovered this whilst listening in the car in England to classic FM when they played SARASATE, Carmen Fantasy. We had arrived at our destination and we sat there for another l0 minutes while we heard the whole track. What can you say? Joshua Bell is brilliant. We bought the double CD mainly for this track, but it is all fantastic.

Joshua Bell's playing is simply enchanting. This recording is wonderful and I needed it as a reward after I fought the plastic case to release the two discs. The packaging - hard plastic case with a non-release hard plastic wheel in the center of the CDs - was so frustrating that I was considering breaking the case just to get the discs loose, but was worried I'd break the CDs instead, so I puzzled on with it. Luckily I figured out a way to use my scissors to pinch one of the three "teeth" that holds the disc in the case and was able to get the disc out without breaking anything. I have *never* seen a disc packaged like this before; requiring a tool to release the disc... Do I need to get out more?

This CD truly shows what a master Joshua Bell is, as he beautifully interprets and plays music from a wide range of composers!

Reviews

I bought this CD about a week ago to replace my old LP recording of Fritz Kreisler which I have owned for decades, but somehow turned up missing from my collection. What a joy this CD is! Kreisler playing Kreisler as only he can do. What is really impressive is that these are the original 78-rpm recordings from as far back as 1910! In fact, all but 4 of the 23 recordings were made between 1910 and 1929, and their fidelity is amazing when considering the limits of the technology during that period. His musicianship soars through the surface noise of those old 78's. It's all about listening to the master, not the technology. However, I did reduce the surface noise of the recordings in order to enjoy his playing even more. The producers of this CD very wisely minimized the amount of processing in order to preserve the content of the original recordings. They transferred the 78-rpm record masters to digital tape and removed almost all pops and clicks that may have existed. However, as they said ..."Radical methods to eliminate all surface noise have not been used in order to preserve the full-frequency content of the original recordings." Thus, the purchaser of this CD is free to use sophisticated signal processing techniques to remove the surface noise, if he is so inclined, and accept the tradeoff between noise reduction and loss of music quality. Actually, I have done just that, using a program called Wave Repair, and have had good results. Surface noise is essentially gone from the recordings, without affecting the music. Equalization was not used much since these older recordings are limited mostly to a 300 - 3000 Hz range, and drop off rapidly in frequency response outside of that range. A few of the tracks improved a bit to my ear, using low-end equalization. The bottom line is: get this CD if you love listening to Fritz Kreisler!

Last summer I had several nights of terrible insomnia. I turned on the FM classical music station; something I don't do very often. They played several selections from this CD. Both the compositions and the performances were unforgettable. After receiving and listening to the cd, all of these are excellent compositions well performed. This is a collection of Fritz Kreisler recordings going as far back as 1910. 1910! You might call those recordings Lucky to Have Any Fidelity. Yet you can hear performances that almost certainly don't exist in any other form. So these do indeed sound like 78 rpm records played on a 78 record player. The transfer engineers disclaim any attempt to use "Radical methods to eliminate all surface noise...." My own experience with using equalizers is that it is usually better to "leave it flat" or as is. Some of the comments indicate that people are bothered by it; I suppose young people who have only listened to digital recordings. If you only listen to perfect recordings, you will miss 90 per cent of the best music performances ever recorded, no matter the category. Just imagine people in the 1920's buying their first record player and hearing Kreisler's Liebesfreud while sitting on their sofa and thinking: could life be any better than this?

Probably the most definitive collection of Kreisler's music put on cd. Remarkably good sound quality considering the era in which these recordings were made (early 20th Century). Kreisler (in my mind) was the greatest violinist since Nicolo Paganini. The power of Kreisler's fiddle even pacified the sinister Ty Cobb (the most feared baseball player during that period, who sharpened his spikes before games to run down and shred the flesh of opposing players). Yes Cobb hauled around a phonograph on road trips, and spent endless hours alone being entertained by Fritz Kreisler in hotel rooms. A small but marvelous treasure for anyone who appreciates the majestic energy of music. All is well.

Besides the bacground hiss, I found I had to turn the volume up to max just to hear it. So when you play more than one CD the others will be normal volume but when Kreisler starts you hear nothing and have to turn the volume all the way up to have it at low normal levels. So I recommend passing on this one.

Sometimes the author isn`t the best performer of his own works. That`s not the case. I completely agree with the previous reviewer: yes, only Kreisler can play Kreisler. While listening to this music you so wounderfully feel the spirit of the old Vienna, that most technically perfect record couldn`t compare with this impressions. Treat surface noise of the records made in 1912-1946 as the scent of that distant time (by the way, nearly the age gone) - and you would be completely satisfied, because the playing by Kreisler is so scincere and soulful. So if you like Kreisler - don`t think twice. This is CD for you.

Reviews

the dvd was very good and right on time too. The toddlers just love the movie and watch it everyday thanks alot and have a great day

I did like some things about this movie. The special effects were spectacular. Tommy Lee Jones as a toy soldier was particularly amusing. Jay Mohr, David Cross, and the late Phil Hartman really steal the show. And best of all, it wasn't very PC throughout the movie. But everything else was really bad. The characters Alan and Christy were very annoying, Archer wasn't very interesting (I was actually rooting more for the human action figures), the script was pretty bad, and the Gorgonites were very very very VERY goofy and horrible to look at. It would have been a better family film if the script had some improvements going for it. But overall, I was entertained, and I find it to be a very average film. Grade: C+

Cripes, I forgot just how very neat and subversive this movie is. SMALL SOLDIERS is rated PG-13 and, indeedy, the surprising level of violence doesn't really lend itself to viewing from kids under, say, eight or nine years. Released a few years after Toy Story (10th Anniversary Edition), SMALL SOLDIERS' accomplishments in the f/x department, in comparison, probably don't come off as so jaw-dropping impressive. But Stan Winston and his crew did scrounge up some fairly awesome animatronic designs which, when meshed with the seamless CG work, pay off huge dividends. It's a really fun film, although, again, PG-13. Some of the things the bad guy toys get up to aren't really age appropriate for the younger ones. The premise is irresistible, about a not-yet-released line of action figures - sorted out in two different groups, the Gorgonites and the Commando Elite - which ends up in the hands of troubled teen Alan Abernathy, whose dad runs a modest toy shop called The Inner Child. The toys, created by a subsidiary of a defense contracting conglomerate, happen to be powered by experimental super microchips which allow them not only to interact, but to also learn and adapt. Sentient toys. To make it even more fun, SMALL SOLDIERS then skewers that sense of good ol' American jingoism and our infatuation with G.I. Joe, and it achieves this by introducing a twist. The murderous Commando Elite, ramrodded by gung-ho, buzz cut sporting Major Chip Hazard (voiced by Tommy Lee Jones, great again), are clearly the villains here and they promptly begin hunting down the Gorgonites (they call them "Gorgonite Scum"). And, as we learn, they're only too eager to frag the Gorgonites' human friends ("Civilian, declare your allegiance!"). The rag-tag bunch of Gorgonites are monstrous looking but are gentle and only long to seek their way home. They're led by the thoughtful Archer who, as voiced sympathetically by Frank Langella, quickly got me on his side. The Commando Elite is the featured line of toys, with the Gorgonites heaped along to serve as enemy fodder. As such, the Gorgonites are programmed to lose and, so, when the kid Alan goes looking for them after his dad's toy shop gets vandalized, Archer gravely declares: "My Gorgonite brothers are doing what the Gorgonites do best. They are hiding." That's the only way they believe they can survive. As kind of an encore to Gremlins (Special Edition), director Joe Dante ends up supremely trashing a suburban neighborhood in somewhere, Middle America. He's always had a knack for cartoon anarchy, and he serves up ridiculous mayhem in this one. He even gets around to spoofing scenes from PATTON and APOCALYPSE NOW. I loved the action, and there are times when you'll actually believe that the demented Commando Elite can do grievous bodily harm to humans. Particularly cool and a little creepy are the awesomely grotesque Gwendy dolls, having received the Frankenstein treatment from Major Chip Hazard and deployed to ambush the dolls' owner, a girl who happens to be Alan's next door neighbor and current crush. But since that girl is feisty Kirsten Dunst, she's soon back on her feet. There's the obvious humor which kids all over should get a kick out of. And then there's the funny stuff which may go over their heads: the broadsides against the military, the pop culture references, the juxtaposing of play versus violence. When the Commando Elite engage in suburban warfare, they even go so far as to blast Alan Abernathy's home with torture music, which turns out to be the Spice Girls. But, hopefully (as I get my preach on), the kids can pick up on one theme that never really gets old: the one about not judging a book by its cover and about beauty being only skin deep and is in the eye of the beholder, and other similar maxims. Of the live action performances, the one standout for me is Kirsten Dunst, her talent friggin' immense even back then. She plays her character as so sunny and irrepressible that she overwhelms whatshisname, the kid who plays the central character Alan. Jay Mohr, David Cross, and Denis Leary are okay, but their best stuff is in the DVD's Bloopers reel. The real draw are the action figures. Stan Winston and his animatronics crew did a job and a half with the designs, with ILM then integrating the CG to arrive at this place where intelligent toys are set realistically in place and believably, fluidly interact with live actors. Visually, my favorite is probably Ocula, a Gorgonite who in essence is a huge eyeball on three legs. Big names in the voice casting. To liven up that military spoofing even further, some of the surviving cast from The Dirty Dozen (Two-Disc Special Edition) are employed as voices of the Commando Elite (but for Major Chip Hazard). Meanwhile, Harry Shearer, Christopher Guest, and Michael McKean have a This Is Spinal Tap (Special Edition) reunion and handle the voices of the Gorgonites (except Archer, of course). Another cool bit of casting has Christina Ricci and Sarah Michelle Gellar as the Gwendy dolls ("Watch out, girls! Hissy fit!"). This DVD includes these special features: the movie trailer; the 11-minute Behind the Scenes featurette which goes into good detail about the film's CG/animatronics special effects; 5 minutes of funny Bloopers; 10 Deleted Scenes (totaling around 6 minutes), the last 3 of which feature special effects (the fourth scene is worth watching for the Gorgonites' reaction when they do an Internet search on "Gorgon"); Cast & Crew film bios; 8 pages of Production Notes; and a 2-minute sneak peek at the PlayStation video game. SMALL SOLDIERS happens to be Phil Hartman's final film role, and he goes out doing his trademark unctuous shtick. He lands one of the best lines in the film, I thought, except that we only get to hear it in one of the deleted scenes: Trying to placate the attacking Commando Elite, his smarmy character informs them: "We're not so different, you and I. I've been accused of being plastic all my life."

Admittedly, many kid's films are simply a ploy to sell toys and I'm pretty sure there were plenty of Colonel Chip Hazard action figures running around after this Disney film. Still, the mark of a really good kid's film is remembering those characters years later and wanting to see the film again. Tommy Lee Jones did such a good job creating the gung-ho Chip Hazard that it's hard to forget him even after ten years of kiddie films. The premise, a toy company's taken over by a company which also supplies the US military. When two enterprising toy designers create a set of action figures with advanced military functions, the war's on. Colonel Chip Hazard (Jones) leads his forces again the Gorgons led by Archer (Frank Langella). The only thing stopping these forces is one kid who's trying to stop his dad's toy store from closing. Honestly, while this film's billed as a children's movie, it's got a lot of deeper meanings from take-offs on a lot of the military films to thoughts on stereotyping sexual roles for toys. The one-liners still had me laughing. Well worth seeing again and owning for moments when you need a good laugh. Rebecca Kyle, June 2009

This was a very clever animated-live action computer animated film (at least for 1998) in which the toys come to life and look real. Once the action starts, it's a very interesting story with fun special-effects, some good, funny dialog and some neat references to past films. Sometimes it's tough to catch them all. On the bad side, it features typical Hollywood portrayal of a family in that the film has stupid parents. Also, there are the usual anti-military messages and anti- Republican cheap shots. The story has The Commandos (military, which means bad guys, of course) against the Gorgonites (peaceful, different-looking creatures.) Overall, an entertaining film with a good mix of genres.

Reviews

Toy Soldiers is one of those awesome 80s movies that didn't try to wow the audience with believability. It's a good thing; too, because the formula used is a complete winner. It is just underdogs versus villains, precocious American teens defeating a vastly superior foreign enemy; it's the in-school suspension version of Red Dawn. The film centers on a prep school, Regis, and a group of unruly friends led by Billy Tepper (Astin), who has been kicked out of multiple schools before this one. Along with friends Joey Trotta (Wheaton), a mobster's son; Keith Coogan (Bradberry), the artist; Ricardo Montoya (Perez), the translator; and Hank Giles (Russell), the token. Together they form the school's upper-class leadership, the guys with the best pranks and Listerine-vodka, the admired school celebrities. Along the way they must match wits with Edward Parker (Gossett, Jr.), the tough-love approach Dean who serves as a mentor. When the school is taken over by South American terrorists who are armed to the teeth with machine guns, explosives, and ransom demands, guess which kids just happen to be part of VERY wealthy and very influential families, and therefore important in the ransom plot? Naturally, the Regis "Rejects" pause from zit popping to bravely band together and concoct a plan that may as well have been hatched in the Mystery Machine. Somehow, however, despite the fact that their plan requires the theft of a military HMMWV, and hinges upon a remote controlled UFO/plane hybrid owned by a kid named "Yogurt," the surrounding military and Parker agree that it's probably the best bet for success. You can't make this stuff up. From beginning to end, this movie is enjoyable. The acting is top-notch, and head terrorist Luis Cali - portrayed convincingly by Andrew Divoff - should get more attention for his fine work. Once the first act is over the direction doesn't allow for a dull moment the rest of the way. Great action, funny situations, heck, even the score is memorable. The only egregious flaw in this movie is the casting of pipe-cleaner thin Will Wheaton as a tough mobster son. If there is a worse casting misfire in Hollywood history I'd like to see it. This is a textbook, classic version of enjoyable, completely unbelievable movie. It's right up there with Red Dawn and Iron Eagle (in which Louis Gossett, Jr. also stars) for me, and not only will I watch all three whenever they come TV, I'll defend them as well. With the absolutely ridiculous premise of a boarding school being infiltrated and controlled by a South American terrorist group who fall to the logistics and strategy of a handful of mavericky kids who probably failed algebra and are inexplicably led by a 5-foot-nothing hero in Sean Astin, it just can't be taken seriously. But it's fun the entire movie, and I highly recommend it for a good, hands-off time. Jason Elin

Movie is very good. Cast of characters good. Seller is quick in getting movies out and they are top notch.

A group of rich boarding school students, who are known for their bad behaviour, become hostages in their own school when a Mexican criminal group takes over their school. The mexican group's leader demands that the US police release his imprisoned father or else he will start killing the student hostages one after another. The clever students help the police waiting on the other side take control of their school and eventually release all the hostages. The movie is quite fun to watch and is packed with action scenes.

I would order again form this seller. DVD arrived fast and in goos condition.

this movie has been a favorite of mine for years. glad to find it on amazon.com and for a reasonable price.

Reviews

For years the family has watched the movie in black and white during Thanksgiving holiday. Now my grandchildren want to see it every time they visit me. The color version is absolutely beautiful. It is redone in color and also comes in black and white. We purchased this a month ago and than bought 2 more to give as gifts. The kids watch it over and over and wanted to give it as a birthday gift to friends.

This is a great DVD. I always loved this movie and now my kids got to see it and they loved it. This DVD even looks great in color too.

this is the original, there are several copies with similiar titles, but this is the real deal that I watch as a kid. my son in law loved it.vd

March of the wooden soldiers has been a Christmas season favorite since my children were toddlers. I have always been a fan of Laurel and Hardy. I was delighted to find that it had been released to DVD and that I could purchase it. I like the black and white version best, although the colorization isn't bad. I liked that both versions were included. It is a simple story of good vs bad and my grandchildren were amply entertained while learning a lesson.

They didn't air this movie on Thanksgiving in 2009, as they usually do, so I bought it to kick off my Christmas season with. This DVD has both the colorized version and the black and white version for purists like my dad. Great value and great buy!