“‘Small Soldiers’ Soundtrack”

Various Artists

Along with the mediocre movie for kids, the soundtrack for “Small Soldiers” is also pretty lame and weak as far as content goes.

As you scan through the list of songs by your favorite artists of the past, you’ll notice that nearly all the songs were remixed. Unfortunately, this hurts the album. But at the same time, it does give it somewhat of a modern-pop twist.

Queen’s “Another One Bites The Dust” is remixed into an urban rap tale by Pras, Free and Wyclef Jean. Queen Latifah does the honors with Pat Benatar’s “Love Is A Battlefield.”

Billy Squier’s “The Stroke” is remixed with a new drum machine beat to it, while the Cult’s “Love Removal Machine” and the Pretenders’ “My City Was Gone” are also messed with.

Even Cheap Trick didn’t escape the remixing ax, as Mickey Petralia makes them sound like they’re trapped in a cheap video game.

One song that didn’t suffer from remixing was Rush’s “Tom Sawyer.” DJ Z-Trip added to the already amazing song by giving it a kind of funky hip-hop feel with a lot of choppy choruses and hooks.

There are also two versions of a song called “War.” The first is performed by Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and features rockers Henry Rollins and Flea sharing their musical know-how with the Thugs. The end result is pretty impressive.

The second version, by Edwin Starr, is a funky call and response tune that brings back images of psychedelic trips and afros.

Although the “‘Small Soldiers’ Soundtrack” is weak, it still sticks to the theme of the movie — war.

Yet the problem with this album is that all the editing and funking up of the songs makes them appeal only to kids.

2 stars out of five

— Kevin Hosbond