Parents' Guide to

Mad Props

By Jeffrey M. Anderson, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 13+

Flawed but fun docu about memorabilia collecting; language.

Movie NR 2024 89 minutes
Mad Props Movie Poster: Tom Biolchini looks up at several movie props hovering above him

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

  • Mad Props Movie: Tom Biolchini (left) speaks with two collectors in front of a shelf full of their prize props
  • Mad Props Movie: Alec Gillis, who made monsters and creatures for many movies and TV shows, is interviewed
  • Mad Props Movie: Tom Biolchini stands in front of a bookshelf, trying on a stormtrooper helmet

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What's the Story?

In MAD PROPS, viewers meet Tom Biolchini, an enthusiastic prop collector who's looking forward to an auction in which he hopes to buy the Sports Almanac from Back to the Future Part II and the Holy Grail from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. He wonders what it is that drives prop collectors like himself to devote so much time and money to the hobby and goes on a quest to meet some of them. He chats with a collector of Scream memorabilia, visits the Prop Store in London, drops by the Outsiders house/museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and travels to the Cinema and Miniature Museum in Lyon, France. He sees spaceships, gremlins, a coat from Blade Runner, and many other treasures. He eventually hangs out with special effects veteran Alec Gillis and actors Lance Henriksen and Robert Englund, reminiscing about Aliens and other movies. Biolchini concludes that props, once thrown away by studios, should be considered an art form and that collecting them offers a physical, tangible connection to the movies that move and inspire us.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say: Not yet rated
Kids say: Not yet rated

Flawed but fun, this documentary doesn't have much of a thesis (and it lacks consideration for people with limited means), but it's filled with joy and a love of movies. Host Biolchini—an upper-middle-class White guy who's able to drop $140,000–$150,000 on a single item—isn't terribly relatable. He considers himself a nerd, but he's not very nerdy. And he asks the same handful of questions to everyone he meets ... and gets largely the same answers. Viewers will quickly understand that collecting props gives fans a physical connection to the movies that they have the strongest emotional connection to. That's fine, but it's not really enough for a feature-length doc. The film perhaps could have gone deeper into the history of props or talked a little bit more about the psychology of collecting and amassing things.

Things get better when Biolchini encounters special effects legend Alex Gillis (Aliens, Jumanji, Starship Troopers, Prey, etc.) and hangs out in his workshop along with actors Englund and Henriksen. It's exciting to get a glimpse of one of Rutger Hauer's outfits from Blade Runner, which spent decades languishing in an attic. And there's an oversize Gizmo from Gremlins, created specifically for close-ups. By the time Mad Props gets to its closing credits—with a montage of Biolchini blurting out "no way!" every time he sees something new—viewers will realize that we're all, to quote one of the collectors, "nerds of a feather."

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about Mad Props' connections to violence. Does collecting prop weapons or memorabilia from horror and monster movies celebrate violence? Why, or why not?

  • How does the movie handle consumerism—i.e., the idea of spending lots of money to collect (and continue collecting) things?

  • What did you learn about prop collecting from the movie? Where could you go to find out more?

  • Are props a form of art, as the movie argues? Should they be displayed for everyone to see, or is it OK for private collectors to keep things?

Movie Details

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