A Look Back: The Wizard

Two incredible things happened last night for me. I was in party chat with the usual suspects and an argument broke out when I mentioned that I think the British Dr.Who reboot might be one of the top 4 or 5 sci-fi shows ever. This lead to the usual war of words with me/Rand on one side and Blind/Krueger trying to trash every show me and Rand enjoy. The battle lead to one of the most surreal 30 minutes of my life. Krueger likes to catch 'em all. He is a regular pokemon master that still plays until this day. I sat there in party chat and felt like I was surrounded by 8 year olds as Blind/Krueger discussed the greatness of pokemon. The second incredible thing to happen to me was that I watched a 1989 movie called The Wizard. These 2 events lead me to a blog idea. Taking a look back at some things from my childhood and seeing how they stand up now.

Most people are biased over things they enjoyed in their childhood, but I hope to do my best to be unbiased. An example is the fact that I rather enjoyed a Hulk Hogan 1989 movie called No Holds Barred as a child. I downloaded a bootleg earlier this year and was shocked at how much of a peice of shit the movie was. Watch the next clip for a prime example.

But back to The Wizard...the movie follows Fred Savage as he attempts to take his younger mentally ill brother, Jimmy, to California. The two run away because the mother and evil stepfather want to place the brother in an institute. Along the way, the two find out that Jimmy is the child version of Rain Man when it comes to Video Games. The movie has been called a 90 minute Nintendo commercial and for good reason. The clip below shows off one of the most well known gaming apparatus failures....The Power Glove. Watch or skip the clip until the end for the best line ever uttered in moving picture history.

"I love the Power Glove... It's so bad!" is the most beautifully delivered line.....EVER. The movie also showcased various NES games being played on arcade cabinets such as Ninja Gaiden, TMNT, Mega Man, Double Dragon, and in the finale of the video game contest... Super Mario Bros 3.

But despite being a Nintendo advertisement, The Wizard actually had plot. Some of the plot was good...some of the plot was rediculous and bad. Apparently the kid's parents split up after the death of Jimmy's twin sister. The normal kids, Savage and Christian Slater, live with their father, brother of The Dude, Beau Bridges. The mother and evil Step-Father for whatever reason have custody of Jimmy. Jimmy used to be a normal kid until he watched his twin sister drown. For the writers of the movie, trauma turns you autistic. And like most autistic kids in movies, Jimmy had a super talent to be discovered.

When the parents realize that the kids run away. The mother hires a private investigator that specializes in returning runaways and being a douche. The father and Slater go after the kids and the PI, who only gets money if he returns Jimmy, attempts general douchebaggery by causing various hinderance for the father. No one seemed to care about Savage running away too, as the mother only hires the PI for Jimmy.

The brothers meet a street smart chick that helps them reach LA for the video game contest. The Video Game contest has a prize for 50 grand that will help the girl buy a house and prove that Jimmy does not belong in a home.

Unlike No Holds Barred, which completely disgusted me. I rather enjoyed The Wizard. The movie contained the usual bad plot points, commercial tag lines, and general strangeness of found in movies like this. Despite all of that, the movie flowed nice and the characters were likable. While not as epic as I remember as a child, I can see why I thought it was. And looking back at it now...

4 Fros out of 5