Review of The Wizard

The Wizard (1989)
2/10
The Wizard...it's so bad. No really, it sucks.
24 May 2020
Warning: Spoilers
A score over six, are you kidding me!?! This is one of the most boring films I have ever watched and I am so glad I watched this film as an adult with the help of rifftrax because I have always been morbidly curious about it. The number one take away from this movie is that the makers of this film had very little knowledge of how games work, nor did the older actors. Two, girls were not playing Nintendo back then, when it was big the boys were playing it and most of the girls were rolling their eyes thinking it was stupid. There may have been a few here and there, but nowhere near enough to fill up a Nintendo competition so it looks like it is 50/50. I guess Hollywood was trying to make it out like girls liked stuff even back then that was primarily a boy thing just as they do Star Wars and comic films these days. Always wanting to undercut the fact video games, Star Wars and comics were built by boys. Once again, not saying girls do not like that stuff as they do like these things now, but it was almost all boys back in my time.

So, the story, a boy suffering from being a bit different is walking down the highway, he wants to get to California and his mother and father and other father who has two sons do not know why. Seriously, their family tree is a bit all over the place and quite frankly the fact his twin sister died just may be the reason for his problems. Well, still unsure why, but Fred Savage, the one person that may or may not be little Jimmy's brother takes Jimmy on a cross country adventure where they are robbed, beaten down and pursued by a bounty hunter who tracks children. During this trip Fred or Corey as he is referred to in the film, learns his brother can score 50,000 in Double Dragon in a matter of five minutes which is impossible as you cannot make that character go any faster and a girl ends up joining them as we need a love interest in a children's film and someone who can yell, "He touched my breasts!" which is really appropriate for a film aimed at kids. They decide to go to a video game competition, but have to go to Reno first for backstory and whatnot.

Once again, the makers of this film did not know squat about video games and quite frankly, it shows and takes the film down a peg, not that it is any good to begin with. The climatic finish they are playing Super Mario 3 and the girl keeps shouting to Jimmy to do this and that, but at this point this game was not released and this was its debut, how the heck does she know what to do? Then there is this kid named Lucas who is also really good at games because he has a whole lot of them and lives on an airfield. He seems like the real wizard of gaming as he is actually able to use the Powerglove effectively! Then there is nerdy girl who also qualifies cause I guess they had to put a girl in there and she and Lucas show such animosity towards each other it almost feels there should be a backstory between the two. Meanwhile, if they were realistic at all most of the competitors would be in their early 20s as they were the ones frequenting arcades and such and actually achieving those high scores, I mean Jimmy got killed twice in rather easy levels.

So, this film is just an advertisement with an overly complicated family tree and circumstances added on to pad the film which was over padded as it kept going and going and going. I did not see the need for the final confrontation with the bounty hunter and running through Universal Studios as we had two near captures and escapes at that point. The adults at the contest seemed like they would be hosting like a cocaine snorting contest and the film tries to convince us that girls too play Nintendo, which they do, but not the number they were showing (though notice how they made the finalist a nerdy looking girl). All this because no one could figure out why Jimmy was upset even though by the picture he showed of the family at the end their family was whole like a month previous as Jimmy and Corey were the exact same ages in the photo as they were during the film. Seriously, that was the best story you could come up with to get kids to a video game championship? I always figured this movie was horrid from the previews and I was right. If you enjoyed it, good for you, your nostalgia is painting a pretty picture for you as you gasped the first time you saw Super Mario 3 unveiled. I was more into Zelda myself.
3 out of 16 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Recently Viewed