A video-game wizard takes a road trip from Utah to a $50,000 championship match in California in this warm-hearted family adventure. Corey (Fred Savage) sneaks his heavily traumatized brother Jimmy (Luke Edwards) out of the institution where his stepfather has placed him, with brother Nick (Christian Slater), their father Sam (Beau Bridges), and a greedy bounty hunter in pursuit. But they're in for a surprise when their resourceful traveling companion, Haley (Jenny Lewis), realizes Jimmy has an uncanny knack for video games. -Back of VHS Box

Summary

Priceless memories of my childhood flash before me when I now look back and remember the time when I first had the pleasure to see The Wizard. The year was 1993. Back when the Philadelphia Phillies were actually considered to be a good team and the ice cream man used to stop for children. It was back then that I happened to be looking for a good movie in the old bin selection of Bayside Videoes (a now-closed video store down the Jersey shore). While browsing the racks, I came across a box of Super Mario flying on the front cover and an internal impulse that I have no control over immediately snatched it to read the description on the back.

"A whole movie based on video games?", I asked myself. "Coolio!" (One of my "made-up words" for cool before a rapper with bad hair had the change to soil the good name.) My cousins and I placed it on the counter with a few Friday the 13th and Child Play movies. (Hey, slasher horror movies were "in" at that time, especially when you knew you were too young to watch R-rated flicks!)

Thinking back on the movie now, I can't really recall any of the plot or story; only that 'Super Mario Bros 3' was a featured game in the film. It is sort of weird to think of the effect that cinema has on the mind. That was around 8 years ago as a child and I can still remember Mario in it; however, no matter how hard I focus, I still can't remember what I ate a day ago for breakfast. Intriguing.

Welcome to present-day time. While browsing through Amazon.com last year, I saw that they were selling the movie. "Hot dogs!" (Some bad habits never change I suppose.) Five days later I placed it into my VCR and watched the movie as if I had never seen it before.

Even if it is far-fetched and unbelievable, The Wizard's primary goal was to be made into a fun family flick using the most popular toy around as a puppet to pay the bills. No arguments here. And to make that short description even shorter; it's ideally a simple, summer pick. That's why I find it amusing to see so many people ranting by calling The Wizard a "90-minute Nintendo commercial". Truth be told, this is not the most brain-stimulating piece of work on the market (even for kids); but 90... no, 95%.. 97% of the stuff coming out of Hollywood today can be labelled the same way.

I understand that the main reason for Nintendo wanting to be in the movie was probably to build up hype about their system and the all-mighty 'SMB 3', but I would also like to think they wanted to put together an all-around enjoyable viewing for the entire family. There is probably a moral somewhere here, I'm just too tired to look any further for it.

I loved the movie, being a Nintendo fan. And I even used to have a little crush on Haley. (blush) She so sweet! But critics, of course, hated it and labeled the tape as commercialism on the big screen, or what have you. Nevertheless, I enjoyed watching it. And if you are at all interested in seeing it for the first time, have shame on yourself for hesitating to do so! It only helps if you also like video gaming and the "big N".