I return to you, with another movie article, since people liked the previous one, might as well do it again, although this time, I don’t have a story with this movie, this was my first time watching it.
This movie has a reputation alright, and I was driven to watch it out of sheer curiosity, asking myself a simple question, is it really that bad?
So yeah, I won’t hold you anymore, I present to you, a glorified feature length ad.
What’s the Deal With The Wizard?
If you need to know, I watched the original 100 minutes long version, although there is a 2.5 hours long version floating around, 100 minutes is long enough, I will cover some problems, which are allegedly handled better in the longer cut a bit later in this article.
First, let’s see what this movie is about.
We follow a kid named Jimmy, whom for some reason is dead set on walking all the way to California (it is explained later), from Utah, besides that, he seems to have some trouble communicating, as well as certain hyper-fixations, this whole thing has become quite a problem you see, and his mom has decided that the best course of action, is to institutionalize him.
Jimmy’s half-brother, Corey, thinks that arrangement is nonsense, so, he sneaks his little bro out, and off they go to California, with no plan whatsoever, no matter, surely it will work out.
On their way, Corey notices that Jimmy is quite good at video games, a Wizard if you will, and that catches the attention of a girl, Haley, whom tells them about a competition taking place in Universal Studios, a gaming tournament, they reach an agreement, Corey will take Jimmy to the tournament so they can show that Jimmy is in fact highly functional and doesn’t need to be institutionalized, and Haley will get a cut of the price money.
Together, the trio makes their way towards The West Coast, training and getting money by having Jimmy beat unsuspecting people dumb enough to bet money over it.
But, high on their tail, are adults looking to bring them back.
First, let’s see what this movie is about.
We follow a kid named Jimmy, whom for some reason is dead set on walking all the way to California (it is explained later), from Utah, besides that, he seems to have some trouble communicating, as well as certain hyper-fixations, this whole thing has become quite a problem you see, and his mom has decided that the best course of action, is to institutionalize him.
Jimmy’s half-brother, Corey, thinks that arrangement is nonsense, so, he sneaks his little bro out, and off they go to California, with no plan whatsoever, no matter, surely it will work out.
On their way, Corey notices that Jimmy is quite good at video games, a Wizard if you will, and that catches the attention of a girl, Haley, whom tells them about a competition taking place in Universal Studios, a gaming tournament, they reach an agreement, Corey will take Jimmy to the tournament so they can show that Jimmy is in fact highly functional and doesn’t need to be institutionalized, and Haley will get a cut of the price money.
Together, the trio makes their way towards The West Coast, training and getting money by having Jimmy beat unsuspecting people dumb enough to bet money over it.
But, high on their tail, are adults looking to bring them back.
Yeah, its pretty a run-of-the-mill road trip plot, it also has the very predictable beats from the average movie for kids, adults don’t understand them, the second act low point, petty villains, they do something cool at the end and they gain the approval of the adults, you know the drill.
The movie doesn’t have high ratings, neither on IMDB nor on Rotten Tomatoes, but, is it really that bad?
Not really, the movie is average, I have seen garbage believe that, and this is no Nukie, nor Swamp Ape, is not unwatchable either, this isn’t The Borderlands movie nor Doom Annihilation.
Then, why is this movie so infamous?
Well, it was first and foremost, conceived as a way to promote Nintendo products and services, as well as Universal Studios, a fact which gave it much criticism at the time.
Most famously, and the two reasons most people know this movie exists, it shows the incredibly impractical and underwhelming PowerGlove, and, this movie served as the reveal of Super Mario Bros. 3 outside Japan.
At the time, Nintendo was short on ROM chips, and was too busy romhacking Doki Doki Panic to pass it off as Super Mario Bros. 2 for The West, so they had to delay Super Mario Bros. 3's international release, when Tom Pollack presented the idea for the movie, they saw this movie as a perfect opportunity to build some hype around the release, both getting onboard with the project, and even giving their blessing to show quite a lot of Nintendo games, and some services, like a part in which the kids call the Nintendo Power Line to get some strats on how to get better at games.
The movie doesn’t have high ratings, neither on IMDB nor on Rotten Tomatoes, but, is it really that bad?
Not really, the movie is average, I have seen garbage believe that, and this is no Nukie, nor Swamp Ape, is not unwatchable either, this isn’t The Borderlands movie nor Doom Annihilation.
Then, why is this movie so infamous?
Well, it was first and foremost, conceived as a way to promote Nintendo products and services, as well as Universal Studios, a fact which gave it much criticism at the time.
Most famously, and the two reasons most people know this movie exists, it shows the incredibly impractical and underwhelming PowerGlove, and, this movie served as the reveal of Super Mario Bros. 3 outside Japan.
At the time, Nintendo was short on ROM chips, and was too busy romhacking Doki Doki Panic to pass it off as Super Mario Bros. 2 for The West, so they had to delay Super Mario Bros. 3's international release, when Tom Pollack presented the idea for the movie, they saw this movie as a perfect opportunity to build some hype around the release, both getting onboard with the project, and even giving their blessing to show quite a lot of Nintendo games, and some services, like a part in which the kids call the Nintendo Power Line to get some strats on how to get better at games.
At the end of the day, this movie somehow got enough of a following, not only to earn itself the status of Cult Film, but for a re-release in 4k, with director’s commentary, and restored deleted scenes, in 2020.
The Bad Parts
Unlike The Last Starfighter, I don’t really expect you to go watch this film, either you know it by reputation, or have already seen it, and, this isn’t one of those “movies you need to watch before you die,” kind of movie, either way feel free to stay if you want to read me complain for once.
I am going to be fairly liberal on how much I spoil this movie, don’t go saying I didn’t warn you.
First, when the movie starts, it feels like I just walked in on someone watching a sitcom, and its one of those drama two-parter episodes, the movie just starts in the middle of the whole family drama involving Jimmy getting institutionalized, and its almost as if we are expected to know what is going on.
According to my research, the deleted scenes were mostly on this part, a lot of context was lost in the cutting room floor, and even knowing this information, I still feel it was for the best that they were cut, act 1 should be a nice and quick introduction to everything we need moving forward, this movie had to pick either not enough information and the watcher feeling lost (the original release), or, too much information and the watcher having to beg the movie to get on with it (re-release).
I am going to be fairly liberal on how much I spoil this movie, don’t go saying I didn’t warn you.
First, when the movie starts, it feels like I just walked in on someone watching a sitcom, and its one of those drama two-parter episodes, the movie just starts in the middle of the whole family drama involving Jimmy getting institutionalized, and its almost as if we are expected to know what is going on.
According to my research, the deleted scenes were mostly on this part, a lot of context was lost in the cutting room floor, and even knowing this information, I still feel it was for the best that they were cut, act 1 should be a nice and quick introduction to everything we need moving forward, this movie had to pick either not enough information and the watcher feeling lost (the original release), or, too much information and the watcher having to beg the movie to get on with it (re-release).
For a second, I thought I was watching the wrong movie.
And, this isn’t solely a problem of act 1, the entire movie had a lot of scenes that had to be cut, with most of act 2 feeling quite disjointed at times, with the kids doing their thing, then cutting to whatever the adults are doing, and then back to the kids, now somehow doing something else entirely.
The biggest victim of this, is one of the villains, PowerGlove kid (I genuinely forgot his name, not looking it up cause its funnier this way), who only shows up a few times, with his characterization either going for badass pro-gamer, or going for petty inferiority complex villain, there are times in which it does feel like I am seeing two different characters, I would have preferred it, if his downfall was solely brought upon by his own hubris, rather than his pathetic attend to tattletale the main characters to the adults pursuing them.
Most of the supporting cast suffers from lack of screen time, like Spanky, the teenagers in act 2, and Jimmy’s mom, all of them being painfully one-note, at least Spanky is cool.
And, the relationships in the main cast do suffer from this as well, with things either developing too fast, or feeling like they came out of nowhere.
Another issue I found with the movie, is in the obligatory act 2 low point that every kid’s movie has, if you are unfamiliar, this is the part in which the main cast fights with each other, and they each go their own way, before something in act 3 brings the gang back together. In this movie, this lasts a whopping, 5 minutes (maybe less, I didn't time it), making it quite obvious that they were just doing it to fill the checkbox.
For the rest of the bad parts, I don’t have much else to say, sometimes you can tell they aren’t actually playing the games, or another in which the in-game progress is inconsistent with whatever time they implied the person was playing, but this is just me being nitpicky.
Although, the tournament at the end, was quite cringe to watch. Cool set design tho.
The biggest victim of this, is one of the villains, PowerGlove kid (I genuinely forgot his name, not looking it up cause its funnier this way), who only shows up a few times, with his characterization either going for badass pro-gamer, or going for petty inferiority complex villain, there are times in which it does feel like I am seeing two different characters, I would have preferred it, if his downfall was solely brought upon by his own hubris, rather than his pathetic attend to tattletale the main characters to the adults pursuing them.
Most of the supporting cast suffers from lack of screen time, like Spanky, the teenagers in act 2, and Jimmy’s mom, all of them being painfully one-note, at least Spanky is cool.
And, the relationships in the main cast do suffer from this as well, with things either developing too fast, or feeling like they came out of nowhere.
Another issue I found with the movie, is in the obligatory act 2 low point that every kid’s movie has, if you are unfamiliar, this is the part in which the main cast fights with each other, and they each go their own way, before something in act 3 brings the gang back together. In this movie, this lasts a whopping, 5 minutes (maybe less, I didn't time it), making it quite obvious that they were just doing it to fill the checkbox.
For the rest of the bad parts, I don’t have much else to say, sometimes you can tell they aren’t actually playing the games, or another in which the in-game progress is inconsistent with whatever time they implied the person was playing, but this is just me being nitpicky.
Although, the tournament at the end, was quite cringe to watch. Cool set design tho.
The Good Parts
Yes, it did have a few things I liked, let me remind you, I don’t hate this movie, I just find it average.
The best part has to be the music, each time there was a montage or a long form transition, it was accompanied by an absolute banger, either some rock, or some blues, both really good and fit in quite well.
I did like that they showed a lot of games, mostly cause its pretty much a nostalgia trip now, watching Double Dragon, Ninja Gaiden, TMNT, etc. Was quite a nice sentiment of "yeah those are fun huh," and truly puts into perspective how much the industry has changed since then.
The best part has to be the music, each time there was a montage or a long form transition, it was accompanied by an absolute banger, either some rock, or some blues, both really good and fit in quite well.
I did like that they showed a lot of games, mostly cause its pretty much a nostalgia trip now, watching Double Dragon, Ninja Gaiden, TMNT, etc. Was quite a nice sentiment of "yeah those are fun huh," and truly puts into perspective how much the industry has changed since then.
And, finally, Spanky was the best character hands down, if I ever watch the longer version, its because wikipedia says he gets more screen time.
And, yeah, that’s about it for the good parts.
And, yeah, that’s about it for the good parts.
I Ran Out of Titles
So yeah, The Wizard is a fascinating movie, is it worth a watch?
Eeeehhhh… I mean, its alright.
It cannot be understated that this movie is first and foremost an ad, whatever your feelings may be about that fact are likely going to be what drives you to either forgive that and watch it, or consider it something irreconcilable and give it a pass.
I must confess that there were parts in the film that I did in fact enjoy, mostly because we are able to witness a simpler time, a time in which we could just play video games, carefree of whatever else may be happening in the world.
Yes its an ad, but its also a love letter to an entire generation of games, one of the greatest generations in fact, the one which was able to rescue the medium from a crash that almost destroyed it.
And for that, I can understand why it has such a following, even though I can’t really see myself as a fan of this movie.
Will you watch The Wizard, or will you give it a pass?
Eeeehhhh… I mean, its alright.
It cannot be understated that this movie is first and foremost an ad, whatever your feelings may be about that fact are likely going to be what drives you to either forgive that and watch it, or consider it something irreconcilable and give it a pass.
I must confess that there were parts in the film that I did in fact enjoy, mostly because we are able to witness a simpler time, a time in which we could just play video games, carefree of whatever else may be happening in the world.
Yes its an ad, but its also a love letter to an entire generation of games, one of the greatest generations in fact, the one which was able to rescue the medium from a crash that almost destroyed it.
And for that, I can understand why it has such a following, even though I can’t really see myself as a fan of this movie.
Will you watch The Wizard, or will you give it a pass?
Last edited:
