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Blu-ray Review: Double Feature – TOY SOLDIERS and DECEMBER

Jun 21, 2021 Posted by in DVD/Blu-ray, Reviews | Comments

This month Mill Creek is releasing several double-feature Blu-rays sets. This release includes two films from 1991, Toy Soldiers and December, that both happen to star Wil Wheaton (though I’m not sure that that was the real purpose of pairing these two). Both films follow a group of boys at prep school, but the first is an action film, while the latter is more of a dialogue-driven period drama that feels more like a play.

    Toy Soldiers (1991)

    Colombian drug lord Enrique Cali (Jesse Doran) has just been captured and extradited to the U.S. to stand trial for his crimes. His son Luis (Andrew Divoff) is livid, and had tried to prevent this by taking a judge and others hostage in Colombia, but after that failed, there is fear he may try the same in the U.S. The judge presiding over the trial has a son who attends The Regis School, a prep school where the rich, elite and powerful send their troublesome sons, and so the U.S. Marshals take the boy away to safety in fear that Luis Cali may try to use him as leverage to get his father released…and they were right.

    Billy Tepper (Sean Astin) has been expelled from 3 schools in the past 3 years, and it looks like he’s hoping to add The Regis School to his list. Dean Parker (Louis Gossett Jr.) knows that Billy is an intelligent boy who could do well if he just gave the same level of dedication to his school work that he does to his pranks and schemes. Sometimes when disciplining Billy, Dean Parker has to hide his laughter and/or appreciation of Billy’s ingenuity. So when the school is raided by the terrorists, and 92 students are taken hostage, the dean knows that if anyone can handle the situation, it’s Billy. And sure enough, it isn’t long before Billy and his friends—Joey Trotta (Wil Wheaton), Snuffy Bradberry (Keith Coogan), Ricardo Montoya (George Perez) and Hank Giles (T.E. Russell)—start gathering intel and plotting a way to take down the bad guys.

    Toy Soldiers is like Die Hard in a prep school, and it really holds up well 30 years later! I have seen this film so many times over the years, and I was just as engaged and entertained this time around. What I like about the film is that there are real stakes. While there are some humorous moments, this is not a comedy or treated lightly like Home Alone. Luis Cali is a ruthless killer who will carry out his threats if need be. He has wired the school with explosives and has a small army and a military-level arsenal of weapons at hand. He has the records of all the students and is constantly looking for things to manipulate and use to his advantage. The film is also a thriller, and there is one particular moment that always has me on the edge of my seat every time I watch the movie. Billy Tepper is smart and always thinking of a plan. He knows the school like the back of his hand, including secret rooms and pathways that aren’t on any blueprints. The film explores the backstories of some of the boys—Billy has a problem with his divorced parents, Joey doesn’t like his mobster father, and so on. However, this seems to be more in service of the plot and not really to flesh out the characters. However, we do get a sense of the bond between the boys right from the start of the film.

    My Rating
    Film:
    Video:
    Audio:
    Extras:
    Highly Recommended

    Sony had previously given this film an MOD Blu-ray release in 2018, with just the theatrical trailer as a bonus feature. This release likely uses the same transfer, which has a very clean picture with a nice level of detail. I didn’t notice any artifacts or glaring issues with the video. I was so happy to finally be able to watch this movie in its original widescreen format—over the past 30 years I had only seen it on cable and DVD, where it was always chopped for Full Frame format. The disc includes a stereo audio track, so there isn’t the more-immersive sound of a modern action film. However, this never took away from my enjoyment of the movie, and the dialogue was always clear and the action sequences solid.


    December (1991)

    It is December 8, 1941, and the Japanese have just attacked Pearl Harbor. Five boys at a New England prep school, Green Mountain Academy, are debating why they will or won’t enlist to fight in the war. Seniors Russell Littlejohn (Jason London), Tim Mitchell (Brian Krause), Kipp Gibbs (Wil Wheaton) and Stuart Brayton (Chris Young) are all roommates in the same dorm room, but the topic of conversation soon causes some division among the friends. Kipp’s younger brother Allister (“Balthazar Getty”) also attends the school as a Sophomore and becomes a part of the discussion. Earlier in the day, Stuart had had dinner with the headmaster, where he learned that a bus would be arriving at the school the next day to take any seniors who were interested in enlisting to sign up. For Tim, it is an easy decision, and he is shocked and disappointed by the others’ lack of a sense of duty and patriotism. Some of them are scared, like Russell, who thinks of himself as the scrawny Steve Rogers who would get rejected anyway. Stuart, uses his father as an excuse—one of the most highly decorated soldiers of the first World War, whose accomplishments he could never match up to. And Kipp who recently read a book that changed him mind on war in general is also not planning to enlist. In fact, a book report in which he championed these anti-war ideals had just got him expelled by the headmaster earlier that day.

    December is a coming of age drama that plays out more like a theatrical play, with primarily just this core cast, only a handful of settings, and lots of dialogue. The scenes are pretty much a constant debate and discussion amongst different combinations of the boys, trying to convince one another whether they should enlist or not. As the boys make their arguments, the discussions veer into topics of fear, family, legacy, duty, honor, and patriotism, and they worry about what will happen to their friendships. While the film has a great cast, and some interesting discussions, it’s not one that I see myself watching again any time soon.

    My Rating
    Film:
    Video:
    Audio:
    Extras:
    Worth a Look

    The picture is presented in 4:3 format. I looked around, but I couldn’t determine whether or not that is the OAR. This is the first time the film appears on Blu-ray, but all previous DVD releases have also been in 4:3 format. The picture is overall pretty solid, however, it’s not as detailed as the first film on this disc, coming off a little flat. There is also some film dirt and debris that pops up here and there over the course of the movie. The stereo audio track is more than sufficient for this dialogue-driven film that doesn’t really have much action, except for one scene when the boys are playing games in the dining hall.


Both films reside on a single Blu-ray disc, which has a basic menu with a subtitle on/off option and a play button for each of the two movies. There is no slipcover, digital copy or bonus material included with this release.



What’s Included:

Films:

  • Toy Soldiers (1991) (1:51:51)
    • 1080p / Widescreen 1.85:1
    • Audio: English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio
    • Subtitles: English SDH
  • December (1991) (1:31:28)
    • 1080p / Full Frame 1.33:1
    • Audio: English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio
    • Subtitles: English SDH

Extras:

    This release contains no bonus material.



Final Thoughts:

Toy Soldiers has been a longtime favorite of mine and I was thrilled to see it finally get a widecreen HD release. I could watch this film over and over again, and 30 years later it still feels as fresh as ever. December has a great cast, but it felt more like a dialogue-driven play/debate that I likely wouldn’t rewatch any time soon. Mill Creek’s Blu-ray features solid audio/video, but no bonus material for either film. However, the disc is still worth it for the first film alone, particularly for fans who never picked up Sony’s expensive MOD release of Toy Soldiers in the past…it’s like getting a free bonus movie with Mill Creek’s release!