The Wizard

Back in the mid-to-late 80's, Nintendo seemed to be the world ruler of video games with their 8-bit "Nintendo Entertainment System". Kids were krazy for it and what better way to help advertise in 1989? To make a movie about kids going around playing Nintendo games in the arcades!

If you have never seen The Wizard before, you might notice some famous actors starring in it, such as Fred Savage, Christian Slater, and Beau Bridges - they really went out of their way to get such great actors! The movie is about a kid named Corey Woods (Fred Savage), who lives in Green river, Utah with his dad, Sam (Beau Bridges) and his older brother, Nick (Christian Slater). Corey also has a half brother that lives with his divorced mom and his name is Jimmy Woods (Luke Edwards). Jimmy use to have a twin sister, but since the unfortunate "incident", Jimmy hasn't been the same. For some strange reason, the only thing Jimmy ever says is "California...” Jimmy's parents decide to send him to a home for his kind and try to help him. When Corey hears about this, he does not approve of it and decides to steal Jimmy from "the home" and go to California.

Corey and Jimmy stop at a bus station to try getting a bus ticket. There is a Double Dragon arcade in there and Corey gives Jimmy money to play it. While Corey is having money problems getting a bus ticket from the cashier, Jimmy is ripping butt on Double Dragon! Corey notices a policeman outside so he quickly grabs Jimmy's arm and try to hide from the police officer. As Corey was grabbing Jimmy, he was amazed when he saw that Jimmy scored 50,000 points on Double Dragon! Also during this scene, there is this curious young girl that decides to follow Corey and Jimmy. From there, all of three of them are on the adventure of their life time having Jimmy hustle people in Nintendo games, while trying to get to California!

What these kids don't know is that Jimmy's parents hire a man named "Bateman" to find these kids. Sam doesn't like the idea of someone getting paid to find kids so he decides to find them himself! Nick has been having problems with his dad, so he decides to tag along with him and hope for a better relationship with his father during the process.

I love everything about this movie! It's one of my favorite movies and has some terrific catch phrases such as "I love the power glove; it's so bad.” The Wizard is also LOADED with mess-ups! Anyone who has seen this movie is probably familiar with them. The most famous one has to be at the end when the reveal a brand new game for the video game tournament, which is Super Mario Bros. 3. When the three finalists play the game for the very first time, Jimmy and his friends already seem to know all the tricks to the game. Jimmy even knew how to get the first magic flute to activate the warp zone!

For those who are interested in buying this movie, there is some bad news. There is no DVD release of this movie, at least in the US. For some reason, the only version of the DVD is out in GERMANY! I know, what the hell? From what I have read, the German version does not have an English option, so we're screwed even more. Unless you're German, VHS is really the only choice you have. Don't let this not make you watch the movie, because if you haven't seen it, it's a movie you have to see to be considered good enough for me. Just try to rent it or buy the VHS copy, it's worth it.

I forgot to mention that this movie just isn't an advertisement for Nintendo, but for this company called "Vision Street ware" as well. Throughout the whole movie, you see kids wearing clothes that say "Vision Street ware". Corey's skateboard in the movie also has it labeled. Who knows, maybe this movie will make you want to buy something from Vision Street ware!

- Keranu, October 4th, 2004