Toys (1992)

User Rating:

4.6/10   

Director:

Barry Levinson

Writers (WGA):

Valerie Curtin (written by) &
Barry Levinson (written by)

Release Date:

18 December 1992 (USA)

Genre:

Fantasy | Comedy

Tagline:

Laughter is a state of mind.

Plot:

When a military general inherits a toy making company and begins making war toys, his employees band together to stop him before he ruins the name of Zevo Toys forever.

Plot Keywords:

Toy | Uncle | Brother | Business | Weapon

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 8 nominations

Cast

Robin Williams	...	Leslie Zevo
Michael Gambon	...	Lt. General Leland Zevo
Joan Cusack	...	Alsatia Zevo
Robin Wright Penn	...	Gwen Tyler (as Robin Wright)
LL Cool J	...	Captain Patrick Zevo
Donald O'Connor	...	Kenneth Zevo
Arthur Malet	...	Owen Owens
Jack Warden	...	Old General Zevo
Debi Mazar	...	Nurse Debbie
Wendy Melvoin	...	Choir Soloist
Julio Oscar Mechoso	...	Cortez
Jamie Foxx	...	Baker
Shelly Desai	...	Shimera
Blake Clark	...	Hagenstern
Art Metrano	...	Guard at Desk

MPAA:

Rated R for language.

Runtime:

118 min | 122 min (FMC Library Print) (dvd release)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Canada:PG (Nova Scotia) (re-rating) (1994) | Iceland:12 (video rating) | Iceland:L (original rating) | South Korea:12 | Peru:PT | Argentina:Atp | Australia:PG | Canada:G (Nova Scotia) (original rating) | Chile:TE | Finland:K-12/9 | France:U | Germany:12 | Netherlands:AL | Singapore:PG | Spain:13 | UK:PG | USA:PG-13

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Baltimore Pictures

Trivia:

The black SUV that Patrick drives is a Lamborghini LM.

Goofs:

Continuity: When General Zevo is in the arcade playing "Tank Gunner" you notice that his score bounces. It's at -2400 at the point where he only shoots UN Trucks (each truck is -1000 points) and in the next seen he's at 1600 points, down to 400, then up to 3600, then down to -6000, then -3400, and finally -7000.

Quotes:

Patrick Zevo: I can't even eat. The food keeps touching. I like military plates, I'm a military man, I want a military meal. I want my string beans to be quarantined! I like a little fortress around my mashed potatoes so the meatloaf doesn't invade my mashed potatoes and cause mixing in my plate! I HATE IT when food touches! I'm a military man, you understand that? And don't let your food touch either, please?

Movie Connections:

References "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" (1964)

Soundtrack:

THE MIRROR SONG

One of the most underrated movies of all time

It's hard to think of a movie that divides its audience as deeply as "Toys" does. Few people will say this movie is "fair." Instead, people often call it the best movie ever made or the worst... and they mean it!

Even its severest critics grudgingly admit that it's visually stunning and has perhaps the best soundtrack of the decade ("Happy Worker" is a classic, and "At the Closing of the Year" is, in my opinion, the best Christmas song written in the past 30 years). It's clearly Oscar-worthy in the categories of music and set design.

Most people who've seen it agree that Joan Cusack's quirky characterization is wonderful and that the vignettes provided Robin Williams with a springboard for some of the best ad libs of his career. And the story, a whimsical fable of innocence versus corruption, is as unlikely to give offense as any you can name. So, you'd expect the movie's critics to say "I didn't care for it," instead of "Everyone associated with this movie should be ashamed!"

When I like something and others don't, I hesitate to say they don't "get it," but in the case of "Toys," it really is true. It's no coincidence that many visual references to the work of Rene Magritte keep popping up. "Toys" is a surrealist movie, and like any work of surrealism, it has a simple veneer over a more sophisticated message, one that defies explanation and works on the level of a dream. This movie is more "Mulholland Drive" than "Willie Wonka."

Whether you will like this movie depends entirely on how your mind works. Poets will probably love it. Engineers will probably hate it.