Eric’s Review: This is an oft forgotten movie from my youth. It’s claim to fame is that it introduced the world to Super Mario Bros. 3, which to this day is one of the best video games ever made. The plot of the movie, in short, is this: A kid named Jimmy suffers from some sort of post traumatic stress disorder after the death of his twin sister, he is put in a home, but is broken out by his brother, Fred Savage. Fred and Jimmy go on the lamb and in the process start hanging out with the lead singer of Rilo Kiley. They find out that Jimmy is like Rain Man except instead of being super good at math and counting toothpicks, he is out of control good at video games. They decide to make their way to sunny California to compete at a conveniently held video game tournament at Universal Studios. They overcome some obstacles, including this wiener guy who was hired to find them, and this hotshot punk who is the current king of prepubescent gamers. They make it to the contest, play some Mario 3, and bring the family back together much to the delight of Beau Bridges and Christian Slater. The movie is essentially about video game battles, but attempts to get really deep, dealing with a lot of family issues, repairing broken relationships and such. At times there is too much drama, and not enough Battletoads, but I think the same can be said about a lot of things. There are some pretty obvious questions that are raised during the final show down where three kids play Mario 3 for the first time ever. The glaring question is how the hell did Jimmy know how to get that magic flute in the first castle in level one? There is no way he would know that having never seen the game before. It’s really tucked away and you have to have the flying aspect down pretty well and know that you can run by those skeleton Koopa Troopas after you stomp on them without getting hurt. You figure this stuff out quickly, but the kids only had ten minutes to play the game. Come on bro! Plus, if you want to get even dorkier you can point out that the championship was based on how many points the kids had, and warping to level four doesn’t all the sudden shower you with points, it just moves you ahead in the game and don’t have to deal with that big fish in level 3 that has an insatiable appetite for Italian flesh. In fact, since level four is harder, he wouldn’t get as many points as someone raking in all the easy points in level one. Of coarse, you can make the argument that he is a wizard and was rocking so damn hard that level 4-1 felt more like level 1-5 to him. Can you imagine?! Anyway, you could spend a lot of time picking apart the movie but that’s no fun. The simple fact is that Nintendo can cure certain types of mental ailments. Dr. Mario has done more for me than any other Doctor I can think of.
Eric’s Rating: 5.9 out of 10
Michelle’s Review: The Wizard is one of those movies that I had fond memories of from my youth. It’s a deliciously dated film that revolves around the almighty original Nintendo system. A time when Nintendo was cutting edge, there were 97 games available for it, and you could call a hot-line for help when you got stuck on a certain level of a game. While the film is a shameless plug for all things Nintendo, there is also a strange story line about a little boy (with what appears to be some form of autism or post traumatic stress disorder), who is super awesome at video games, but doesn’t talk other than saying California over and over again. His twin sister died a couple years earlier and he hasn’t spoken since. After his mother and step father decide to put him in a home, his half brother (Fred Savage) decides to bust him out and run away with him to California. On the road they meet a spirited ginger girl, who goes off with them on their runaway road trip. Along the way, they discover his amazing video game “Wizardness” and decide to enter him into this event called Video Armageddon, at Universal Studios Hollywood. All the while, they are being chased by an asshole who’s job it is to find runaway kids. And then their father (Beau Bridges) and other brother (Christian Slater) are also out on the road looking for them. While on the road, they go from arcade to arcade, prepping the little guy to do battle. Their main competition is this douchey, mullet clad kid named Lucas, who has the holy grail of Nintendo gadgets….THE POWER GLOVE! He keeps it in special suitcase with his name on it, which just makes it all the more cool. Clearly this kid is going to be tough to beat. The Video Armageddon doesn’t seem to be the most well organized event, but somehow the little guy makes it to the final 3, that also includes Lucas and some nerdy girl with braids. What they aren’t prepared for is the biggest mind blow in the history of video games, they must play a NEW game, the premier of Super Mario Brothers 3!!!! I can’t even imagine how amped people must have been when that game first came out. Somehow all three kids know exactly how to play this new game that no one has ever played before. In the end, little Jimmy wins the whole thing, and we discover the reason the kid screams California so often. Throughout the film he carries a little yellow lunch box, that turns out to be filled with mementos of his dead sister. He wants to leave the lunch box in California at this place with giant Dinosaurs, which is where he and his family used to go on their vacations. Man, if he had only said that from the beginning! When I was kid, I dug this movie because of all the super cool video games, and glimpses of Universal Studios. As an adult, not much has changed. The story is pretty darn weak, and it really is just a giant advertisement for Nintendo, but I’m a sucker for nostalgia so it doesn’t bother me all that much. The cast is actually pretty good considering the kind of movie it is, but no one is particularly very good in it. Seeing old Nintendo in all of it’s former glory is pretty neat, and hearing New Kids on the Block in the background will keep me appeased for an hour and 40 minutes. It’s by no means a good movie, but if you were a kid in the 80s or early 90s I think you’ll appreciate it for what it is.
Michelle’s Rating: 5.8 out of 10