I imagine that if I'd had a stronger childhood connection to "The Wizard", then I'd be better able to appreciate it as an adult. I did see this movie in the theater - I was 9, so naturally I gravitated toward the Nintendo aspect - but no further rewatches until many years later. But it feels like a movie at odds with itself. You've got the competing interests of a family drama (and there's some fairly serious stuff going on here) with a branded product designed to sell NES games and a trip to Universal Studios. They don't gel. There's a "Karate Kid" feel with our contender training and strolling into the tournament, but once he's won (because he's supposed to), then we've got that whole family subplot we still have to sort out in the closing moments. Almost as an afterthought.I know this is a kids' movie and I have no problem with that. But the toy commercial cheapens the serious stuff. Although I do think it's very funny that Lucas Barton has attained his own Internet fame.5/10

A good way of telling if you will like this film is to watch the power glove scene. It shows exactly the nature of this film, and you wouldn't have it any other way. If you like cheesy films, you will probably like this.It is rather hard to vote a film such as this. On one hand, there is such blatant advertising for the SNES/Nintendo in general (as well as a certain amusement park) that it should almost be down-voted to a 1 or 2. It is also incredibly cheesy, even as 80 kids films go.But then on the other hand, this film has an odd goofy nature that really shows when it was from. It also contains some interesting and funny lines and memorable scenes, many which are spoken to or referenced today, for better or for worse.If you did not know, this film in general concerns a young group of kids trying to go to a video game championship themselves. There is an underlying plot, but why spoil anything else here? This film is bad but in a good way. It has just enough charm to prevent it from being bad. There is a whole lot of advertisement but it somehow does not feel as in the face as lets' say Mac and Me. Though it can't exactly be said that this film is good.7.3 Nintendiums out of 10

The problem with watching The Wizard now is the fact that it is so dated, and is no longer relevant to anybody, other than people amused by the classics, such as myself. Today's kids aren't going to want to watch this film simply because "it's old." Even I, a retro-Nintendo fan, was bored throughout most of this film.Reason being why this film was so big at the time was because kids everywhere were in love with the Nintendo Entertainment System, and wanted to see and play anything to do with it. Plus, not only was it a movie with some games referenced in it, it also had the sneak peek of Super Mario Bros. 3. I can't imagine the looks on a child's face as they saw some early footage of one of the greatest games in video game history. It's things like that juice-up the nostalgia meter, but don't do much to juice-up the likability of the film.The story is about two boys, Corey (Savage) and his brother Jimmy (Edwards), who run away from their parents after a family fights consume the house. Jimmy suffers from a serious mental condition, and remains silent for most of the film. Corey realizes that Jimmy is "a wizard" at video games. He seems pretty calm about his skills as well, and they soon meet up with Haley (Lewis), another runaway who tells them about "Video Armageddon," a big video game event that showcasing player's skill. Suddenly, they are en route to it.The Wizard's main problem is it is overly written and completely unrealistic, but I think that is what most kids will like about it. Home Alone was very over-the-top, but kids like it because the unlikely happened. Same thing happens with The Wizard. Though too many times these kids are put into serious danger, that no kid would escape. I find it incredibly hard to believe young kids aren't victim to trouble or abduction when they wander the streets aimlessly as runaways escaping kidnappers like they do it all the time.Every kid who saw this film came for the video game footage. Not the actual storyline. There are parts in the film where games are shown, saying they are on level three or something, when really, it's plain obvious to the character when they are on level. Any kid who was a huge fan of these games was most likely yelling in the theater "hey, he's not on level three," and frankly, if I was eight in 1989 I probably would've too.The film focuses too much on a senseless, congested storyline when it could be focusing on trying to construct more video game footage for the kids. If you told a child, around eight or nine years old, that this film as going to show five seconds of Super Mario Bros., they wouldn't bite. If you market the film like it centers around that game, then kids would bite. Nintendo could've banked from this a lot more had they simply gave kids what they wanted. It disappoints all around.Watching the end scene in 2011 doesn't really mean much now, because Super Mario Bros. 3 can now be bought for a few dollars off of Amazon, or at any retro-game used store. All I could think was how many kids screamed at the screen when they saw this come up so abruptly. That's all The Wizard is good for now. Memories, imagining, and nostalgia. Those three things only make for a paper-thin film.Starring: Fred Savage, Luke Edwards, Jenny Lewis, and Christian Slater. Directed by: Todd Holland.

by Dane Youssef "THE WIZARD" isn't any new moniker or fun new twist on the classic story of a little girl from Kansas who gets caught in a tornado and finds herself not only over the rainbow, but in a wonderland of Technicolor and strange characters. Well, at least not exactly. This "Wizard" dealt with kids in peril, feeling trapped where they were. Video games were their outlet. One boy so disturbed, he became mute and later committed after witnessing the death of his sister. The older brothers living with the father after the divorce. When a child is lost, a family is too. "The Wizard" open with a small, determined soul walking along a long stretch of road in the pursuit of something. Some goal, some destination. Some form of escape. There's something... he's looking for. He's on his way... somewhere. Somewhere special, somewhere important. Somewhere he needs to be. It fades in like a sunrise... where is he going? We don't know. This boy's name is Jimmy. And he has a goal. He tells us, "California..." Jimmy, in a major institution, yet breaking loose again and again like the family cat. One day during a visit, big brother Corey takes little Jimmy and the two break loose--together. At an arcade, Corey first-hand witnesses Jimmy is Bobby Fisher's predecessor at Nintendo. They use his skills to play for money. And because it's a road trip movie, they have to pick up a woman along the way. It's a PG flick for little kids (once again, Nintendo fans), so it has to a preteen like them--and they have to be just friend. Her name is Haley, an adolescent drifter. She claims to know the score... and she can raise the money to get them where they need to go. And Halley is one sizzling hustler. Wait 'til she's old enough to develop sex appeal to add to the mix. It was my mother who recalled that old song from the "He's A Pinball Wizard" by The Who and suggested maybe that's where the movie got its namesake. The little ditty of some soul who was a wonder at that one arcade game. It was his world. Whoever he was. Well, if anyone could relate to that... 'Would've liked to hear that on the soundtrack at maybe some point. A lot of the world said that the "Wizard" is stuffed to the gills with commercials. But no, they were wrong. "The Wizard" WAS a commercial. For Nintendo and Universal. If we'd gotten scenes where we see Jimmy's connection to these games, how he becomes Zen, there might have actually been some real significance. We're just watching video games being played. And... that's all we as kids wanted from "The Wizard." No really powerful piece of cinema, but to just see kids like us running loose without parental supervision and Nintendo being our source of rebellion. Children as resourceful as can be doing incredible things with the toys we played with and loved. Screenwriter/producer David Chisholm seems to have cobbled this together out of spare plot threads and gimmicks. Usually filmmakers do this when they're just doing the obligated rush hatchet job and don't have their heart in the project they're working on. And you can tell--Chisholm doesn't love this screenplay of his. This is no personal project for him. This is just a Hollywood crowd-pleaser designed to feed the cult masses. The choir (us) loves video games, lives for them, thrives on them. But the makers of this movie don't. They don't care about any of this except--"Here, buy this. Spend your money on..." For all of those who belonged to the mass cult of Nintendo, this was the third coming. Seeing it again now with older, more experienced eyes... like an old man going back into his childhood home, the bedroom we once lived in, the bed once ours, looking over our own toys and photos... and, and... what the hell was I thinking? Was that even me? Who was that?What is "Wizard"? A film of our adoration for Nintendo from our childhood, which weaved together our love of movies featuring us kids as the heroes and our undying love of the video games. ... Jesus, what were we thinking? Fred Savage stands as one of the finest child actors there ever was. The Savage was just that--even better. And Luke Edwards is all right for what this role calls for--acting terminally shy at all times. For a movie about the kids and their toys, "The Wizard" holds some surprisingly good adult performances. Steven Grives as the electrified Video Armageddon Announcer who's like a British Christopher Lloyd as the charged-up Master of Ceremonies. And Will Seltzer as one scummy bounty hunter who tracks down runaways. Beau Bridges, commendable. Christian Slater himself, a fine actor, very fine. Like fine china. And he's given virtually nothing to do in his "eldest brother" role. Hey, the kids don't care about Bridges or Christian Slater--they care about Nintendo. Well, there's not much Nintendo either. For some reason, after seeing "The Wizard" again with older eyes, I just somehow didn't feel like video games for the time being. I wanted to get out and physically do something. Take some real action with my life. It was a few days before I picked up a Game Boy. As I was playing my usual "Tetris" round and trying to break my old record, I was singing quietly to myself, "He's A Nintendo Wizard..."--Still A Game Boy, Dane Youssef