Review: The Wizard

Directed By: Ted Howard

Distributed by: Universal Studios

Movie Rating: Unknown

Ah, the 80’s…The glory days of some of the great 8-bit consoles that resurrected gaming from it’s near death experience with Atari.With great games like Super Mario Bros. and Mega Man, there are also cash-ins. Among these quick-buck plans stands the movie known only as The Wizard (or Joy Stick Heroes if your in Germany or some other country I can’t think of right now), but unlike many cash-ins failures that came before it, The Wizard has so much campiness and cheese for Nintendo fans, from yesteryear to today, to poke fun at, which makes it the cult film it is today.

(“I love the Power Glove…it’s so bad…”)

The film tells the tale of Jimmy, a young boy who is suffering from the mental disorder inflicted on him by his twin’s sister’s death, which has separated his family ever since. One day, his half-brother Corey breaks him out of the institution that was holding him, as they run away with their sights set on California, along the way meeting a girl named Hayley, and discovering that Jimmy is uber-er, I mean…very skillful at video games. the three later decide to enter him at the Nintendo World Video Games Championships being held at Universal Studios Theme Park (commercalization at it’s best). Together, they head for Cali, while they get chased down by a sleazy private investigator hired by Jimmy’s mother and stepfather, and also by Corey’s father and older brother.

Nintendo advertised the living sh*t of the movie, by adding big-name actors like Fred Savage and Christian Slater, having a bunch of NES games featured, from Ninja Gaiden to Mega Man 2, and even giving kids a sneak peek into Super Mario Bros. 3, which was unreleased in America at the time, in the form of the tournament’s final game. This movie was BIG for Nintendo gamers in the 80’s, it was THE MOVIE. Everyone wanted to see it, so they could talk about it for months on end. Unfortunately, due to the campy style of the film and the not-so-great acting, most kids were disappointed, while parents were bored to tears.

The movie as a whole is your basic fun 80’s kid adventure movie. The plot is easily predictable but fun nonetheless, the acting, as stated before, isn’t oscar-worthy, but since it was basically made for kids it was cool, and the comedy is decent and easy to swallow. All that aside, the movie was really about the games. All of the games were showcased in a accurate way, but know that The Wizard is notorious for its many video game related errors. For example, when Jimmy was playing Ninja Gaiden and Double Dragon, critics and fans alike (myself included) noticed how he never took any damage, as well as how the high score (50,00 on DD for example) never matched what was on the screen. Another example is that the background music never matched what was going on the screen as well, because they were pre-recording of other people playing.

Overall, The Wizard is a cult classic film among many Nintendo fans like myself. The film was a decent and cool film that mostly anyone can enjoy once they get through the campiness within itself, and see the awesome feature-length comercial for what it is…a decent and cool film.

Overall: 7.5/10

- OtakuMan-Z