Film 2 (8/22/2005)

The Toy (1982)

Director: Richard Donner

Recommended by: nobody

Has Fentablar seen this before?: No.

Ok, that's it. No more making my own decisions. I'll start working on everyone's suggestions now.

Seriously, the film wasn't really that bad - it just doesn't translate very well today. The overall theme for the film is an important statement about race and class in American society - I could rant on this for pages but I will spare you (at least in this thread). This theme still applies today and has been done very well several times since The Toy - but the mechanism used to carry out that message does not really work today. I can't say for certain if it did or did not work in its own day, since I was far too young to see it with appreciative eyes then.

The film scores decently in the character development arena with dialogue which, while at times a bit threadbare, accomplished enough to create a level of sympathy for the film's players. In particular, the character Barkley was a fairly well developed supporting character, who was at first the only one sympathetic to Jack Brown's situation. (at this point I should point out that I will rarely summarize a plot in these reviews - that's what IMDB is for)

The Toy had a fair amount of humorous moments which were unfortunately stacked mostly in the beginning half. Coupling this fact with what I believe to be the film's poor aging, this makes the second half drag on in various parts until it tries to wake you up when Eric and Jack ride go-carts through Bates' party, ruining it and pointing out that Bates is friends with the Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. This scene seemed rather uncomfortably done, but I don't think that was due to the subject matter itself.

Ratings (scale of 1 to 5):

Plot Effectiveness: 2/5. As I've said a couple times (at least), this film doesn't translate well today. Regardless of that, I don't really see how the people who need to understand its message will be able to understand it in the way it was carried out.

Cinematography/Shot Selection: 3/5. Nothing special here. It didn't make the film any worse; it didn't make the film any better.

Overall Acting: 4/5. The only saving grace of the film, considering the poor dialogue they had to work with.

Score/Soundtrack: 4/5. I can't explain this short enough, so I'll give you the jist - pieces of the sountrack successfully add essence to one of the film's themes (cultural divide).

OVERALL RATING: 3.5/5

~Fentablar~