The Wizard (1989)

Genre

Adventure | Comedy | Drama

Director

Todd Holland

Country

USA

Cast

Fred Savage, Luke Edwards, Jenny Lewis, Christian Slater, Beau Bridges, Will Seltzer, Jackey Vinson, Wendy Phillips, Sam McMurray, Frank McRae, Vincent Leah, Beth Grant, Lee Arenberg, Tobey Maguire

Storyline

Corey (Fred Savage) and his autistic brother Jimmy (Luke Edwards) run away from home and hitch cross country to compete in the ultimate video game championship.

Opinion

Last year's "Pixel" showed how bad video games turned into films can be. And according to some of the reviews I've read, "Warcraft" did the same thing this year. "The Wizard" preceded them all in 1989 as it is more of a very long commercial for Nintendo that will hardly engage and interest you, unless you are a kid obsessed with video games.

Since the main goal of the film was probably to promote the famous Korean company, the filmmakers didn't even think about proving the film with a solid plot and they eventually ended up with a story that is quite hard to summarize because of all of its subplots, most of which are completely useless, boring and sappy.

But it does get worst. Even though that's what the film is supposed to be about, it isn't even about the video games nor the competition. That's just something that eventually happens to, once again, advertise and advertise. In fact, when the two brothers run away from home, they have no intention to compete in that championship, they just want to go to California. And also they are running away for a mysterious reason. But then they meet this new character that suggests they go to this video game competition that takes place in California. How convenient is that?

On top of that atrocious script, there are also bland, uninteresting characters that are more one-dimensional than a piece of paper. And with that comes awful acting from all the cast. Maybe with the exception of Will Seltzer who kind of does a good job playing the villain. Yes, there is a villain, and it's the man who tries to capture the autistic brother to bring him back to the institution. And he's also the only slightly developed character.