Movies & TV

red dawn is, of course, trash. but Toy Soldiers is kind of alright, conceptually. i could see the material being revisited.

for those unaware, it's about a "last stop before prison" rural remote boarding reform school where expelled teenagers with behavioral problems are dumped, so it's students are a wack combo of clever social outcasts and the misfit children of the wealthy and connected. administration is pretty clever at shutting down the various illicit networks (gambling, contraband smuggling) but one kid has a real mind for organizing, coordinating and finding ways around the system.

then the shoe drops when some mercs seize the school and hold the connected kids hostage with some demands. they have things locked down enough that the law enforcement and even the national guard response is paralyzed. so the kids use their capacity for sabotage and misdirection to take back their school and free themselves. and not like some Home Alone BS... they murder the mercs. some kids get lit up too, it's a bit grim at points.

it's all very absurd, of course, but with some thoughtful updating, the right mix of intersecting arcs, and that sort of tone where the writers really attempt to try and come up with a clever scenario to enter the realm of the plausible.... it could be a cool movie with biting social commentary about the school to prison pipeline, inequality, imperial blowback, and how utterly useless a militarized law enforcement is in an actual crisis.