Customer Reviews

The Toy

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

being a Big Richard Pryor Fan it's hard to get into this film.seeing a Black Man used as Property for laughs&whatnot is not easy to take&therefore i avoid this film.it's not something worth watching it has a few ok moments but nothing worth talking about.

Gleason and Pryor together in the same film. How could it miss? They have some really fine moments with the rest of the very funny cast. Some have objected to the story but if Pryor saw nothing wrong with the film I don't either. This is one of those wonderfully silly comedies from the 80s that takes me back. It's one of those films that's "never quite as funny as all that" but Pryor and Schwartz turn in good performances with eventually likeable characters. The friendship they form is great. Makes you feel good.

Scott Schwartz, who plays Gleason's son Eric, said he wrote a sequel himself but it's difficult to take him seriously for obvious (and painful) reasons. He went on to do adult films but mostly as the comic relief. You might remember him in A Christmas Story as the kid who sticks to the flagpole.

The anamorphic video on this DVD is top notch. I was so happy because I'd never seen it in widescreen. Some grain but this was most probably on the master copy. The sound is good and clear 2.0 stereo. I noticed an occational whine.

Bonus materials consist of 3 trailers, none of which is The Toy!! ...sigh...

So many people try to turn this movie into a battle about race. Lest we forget that Richard Pryor is the hero in this movie teaching the boy NOT to be racist, arrogant or judge people. In the end the Klan and the other racists get what they have coming to them. So enjoy this movie for what it is; Lighthearted, simple, fun and hysterical, nothing more and nothing less.

this was one of my favorite movies growing up as a child, I used to watch it over and over again during my summer vacations. to be honest, i do not think it was intentional to put a african-american man on this movie being bought by a white man. i just feel that richard pryor was the best comedian during this time (and to this day still is) and he was the best fit for this movie, just a coincidence. if there was some type of racial motivation, richard pryor would have not taken this role. people that make ignorant comments is what keeps racism going..

This movie is not about Jackie Gleason being a slave driver to Richard Pryor,it is just the opposite.Jack accepts the job of being erics "toy" for a good sum of money.The movie is a good flick i have enjoyed watching since I was a kid back in '83.I enjoyed it then and I still enjoy it now.I must have seen this movie at least 50 times and I havent gotten tired of it yet.Its like a fine wine,gets better with age.

if you read a few reviews up you will see someone say that eric says in the store "I want the black one!" "the black one!". wrong. The stores owner ask him what toy he wants and in a calm fashion he says "I want the black man". Please,no mis-quotes and taking things out of context. This is a great movie, I like a few others in here have been watching this movie from when i was a kid back in '83 and like others on here i watch it every chance I get.All in all this is a keeper.

I remember watching 'The Toy' as often as I could whenever it popped up on cable back when I was a young'un. For some reason, I found it unusually engrossing. Maybe it was the dumb hijinks of Richard Pryor and his spoiled-rich-kid 'playmate' (Scott Schwartz). Or perhaps it was Fancy's (Teresa Ganzel) gratuitous cleavage in every other scene she appeared in, thus kickin' up my prepubescent hormones a few notches. Whatever the reason, I made sure the channel clicker was set for the HBO channel whenever this silly little flick came on.

Looking at it as an adult, though, I cannot fathom what I ever saw in this movie. To me, the funniest part was the fact that Schwartz eventually ended up workin' in the porn biz. Actually, Ned Beatty dropping his pants on the orders of the kid's oil-tycoon dad (Jackie Gleason) in one scene was pretty entertaining too. It was sortuva tribute to his first pants-dropping role in 'Deliverance', which I consider one of the greatest unintentionally hilarious moments in cinema history. But, despite my bewilderment concerning my childhood enjoyment of 'The Toy', I'll often watch it whenever it pops up on cable, if for nothing more than the nostalgia factor.

'Late

Critics hated The Toy, but The Toy is actually quite funny, and it a very big winner is many many ways. Jackie Gleason and Richard Pryor. Two great comics...blended together in a comedy with a really bad plot, but one that 2 great comics that mkae sound better and make it alot more entertaining. The Toy is a movie about a rich spoiled boy who wants a best friend...so his rich and spoiled father gets him a 40-year old black writer to be his best friend.

Many people complain that this movie is terrible because Richard Pryor's character is portrayed as being a possesion of the spoiled kid. If you don't mind that, the movie is actually quite funny. ... I watched it quite a few times on that trip, and still watch it every so often when I am over at his house. It's by no means a classic movie, but is definitely good for a laugh.

the toy is a hilarious movie! Dont listen to anyone who says different. I think its a classic!