10 Wildly Underrated Action Movies Of The 90s

An all-boys boarding school filled with troublemakers from rich families is taken hostage by a group of Columbian terrorists. The rebellious youths must take back their school using nothing but their cunning... and a little help from the U.S. military. The movie is basically a mash-up of the best parts of Die Hard and Red Dawn.

In his original review of 1991's little-seen Toy Soldiers, Ebert eviscerated the film's lack of originality:

"Was there any way to make this material original? To find a new twist? Was there anything the filmmakers wanted to SAY about the situation? Did anyone connected with the movie notice that they were making a movie that, in essence, had already been made?"

Ouch. But what Mr. Ebert failed to appreciate is that this movie is...fun. It's so much damn fun. Something Ebert seemed averse to enjoying without some perceived sense of novelty. The action sequences are surprisingly intense (there's a whipping scene that's especially brutal), the dialogue is chippy, and the pacing doesn't mess around.

Besides, when has it ever been such a grave sin for one movie to share a similar plot to another movie? Especially when that movie features Sean Astin playing his only tolerable character not named Samwise or Rudy.