Toy Soldiers

A boarding school where wealthy families send their troubled sons is seized by a Colombian drug organisation. The aim is to tie the hands of one student's father, the judge hearing the leader's case. The school's jokers and rule-breakers are the hostages. The film is not interested in the hostage crisis. It is interested in indiscipline turning useful: these boys were punished constantly at school, and it is exactly those habits that keep them alive during the siege. The form is late-eighties thriller: an enclosed setting, movement at night, a handful of gun scenes and a tightening clock. Daniel Petrie Jr. directed. He was principally a screenwriter, having written Beverly Hills Cop, and this is one of his first films as director. Sean Astin, Wil Wheaton and Keith Coogan play the students, with Louis Gossett Jr. as the school's dean. Who it is for: viewers who like nineties youth thrillers and single-location hostage films. Who it is not for: anyone after realism. The school's security collapses with implausible ease and the boys' abilities are frequently overstated.