The Wizard

1989 "It's more than a game...it's the chance of a lifetime."
6.1| 1h40m| PG| en| More Info
Released: 15 December 1989 Released
Producted By: Universal Pictures
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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Synopsis

A boy and his brother run away from home and hitch cross-country, with help from a girl they meet, to compete in the ultimate video-game championship.

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sixstringpr Without looking it up. What won best picture in 1989? No one remembers and you probably have not scene it....but people are still watching this. I rest my case.
rollercoasterjustin This is like a Kids version of "Rat Race"Fred Savage takes his brother to California but along the way finds out his brother is super skilled at arcade games. They also meet Haley who is the typical "Not a love interest but one of the boys" types you occasionally see in pre-teen movies and TV Shows.One thing that I heard about it was that this was just a big commercial for Super Mario Bros. 3, And while it is in a way, There is still a story that for the most part has nothing to do with Super Mario. It's less obvious than Man Of Steel or Transformers 4 for example.Christian Slater and Beau Bridges are the Father & Son who try to get Fred Savage and his brother since they ran away.There are also several "Villains" that are pretty funny and have their spotlight.The only thing I did not like in the movie was that there was a lot of profanity for a PG Movie. If this movie was released today, It would probably be PG-13 and it isn't really needed.Also the movie ends on a sincere note.
mattboy07 There's a lot of things this movie is and isn't. It is a great trip down memory lane, a blast from the past, a reminder of all things late 80s and early 90s, and a shameless Nintendo promo. It isn't a work of art, a plausible scenario, or even a decent movie by its own standards.If you were born before 1994, this movie is pretty much a love letter to ye olden days when Nintendo was king of the living room and emotional strife was brewing in 9/10 American families. This has all the components of a story that could draw in kids at the time. Our story features Corey (Fred Savage) who steals away with his younger and emotionally disturbed brother Jimmy (Luke Edwards) to escape the mounting tension of their family that is falling apart around them. Along the way they encounter a feisty red-headed girl named Haley (Jenny Lewis) and discover that Jimmy has a natural talent for playing video games and beating anyone that he faces. Soon they devise a plan to escape to L.A. to compete in a video game contest for $50,000 and in doing so prove that Jimmmy isn't a lost cause and possibly saving their family in the process. However, they have to dodge the boys' father and older brother (played by Beau Bridges and Christan Slater), a kid bounty hunter, and beat the competition.Yeah, the plot is seemingly ridiculous, and it really is. At one point the kids resort to hustling money in arcades to pay for their cross country trip. Then they encounter the a 13 year old boy who lives by himself and only plays video games for sustenance (with the aid of the Power Glove) who plays the evil foil for the main characters. And finally, they go into a casino complete with preteen girls in full showgirl uniform selling concessions.As mentioned before, this is for people who were kids and remember the Nintendo Era in all its splendor. If you missed this gem growing up or don't care at all, you won't change your mind and should avoid this corny rose-tinted film at all costs. But if you want to inject some nostalgia into your eyes or haven't seen this since you were a kid, rent it off Amazon or track down a copy and have a laugh. We were dumb kids.
peterpants66 So back in the 80's there was this clever little gadget known as the Nintendo entertainment system, which brought all of us young and old alike together for some head smashin, hockey playing, mushroom eating good times...There were several things attached to NES back then that would transform a bystander into a hard core fan. One of those things which held much importance at the time was the magazine Nintendo Power. I have seen everything from early Atari with my grandad to Ps3, but never was there anything like NES. For what seems like ten years it had the market cornered and somewhere in that time the execs at NES decided, smartly i might add, to make a film with the best child star actor of all time, Fred Savage! At some point during this time there was a Major rumbling about this movie in Nintendo Power. This is pre-internet here, we had to get together and pass the magazine around to read about this movie, and the kicker was the secret game to be introduced during the climax of the movie. All i can say is this was a total watershed moment in NES history, peoples heads nearly exploded seeing Super Mario 3 on the big screen at the end. It's a movie packed to the brim with one liners and heart. And what i mean by heart is they didn't have to make a movie so utterly depressing about video games. Fred Savage's brother has lost his twin sister who DROWN, and he just wants to go to "cccalifornia" to put her things back inside a dinosaur. Well this movie confronts all kinds of issues, its a time-capsule and like i said its got a deeper plot then you could imagine for a movie about Italion plumbers. But they did it. And thank god for that! Ten thumbs up.