The Wizard (1989) on Netflix
PG19891h 40mAdventureComedyDrama
When their family decides to put nine-year-old Jimmy in an institution, his brother Corey sneaks him away toward Los Angeles. Jimmy's gift for video games points them to a California tournament.
- Netflix3.6/5
- IMDb6.1/1017,821 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes29%
Trailer
Plot summary
Jimmy Woods is nine, and two years after his twin sister Jennifer drowned he wanders off, carries a lunchbox and repeats the word California. The death split his family: he stays with his mother Christine and his stepfather Mr. Bateman, while Nick and Corey, his half-brothers, live with their father Sam. Christine and Mr. Bateman decide to commit him to an institution. Corey takes him from the house instead, and the two begin walking toward Los Angeles. Sam and Nick set out to bring them back, racing Mr. Putnam, the bounty hunter paid by Mr. Bateman and Christine to track Jimmy down. At a bus station the boys meet Haley Brooks, a teenager headed home to Reno, who tells Corey about Video Armageddon, a $50,000 tournament, and offers to help get Jimmy there for a share of the prize.
Cast
- Vince Trankinaas Tate (as Vincent Leahr)
- Dea McAllisteras Councelor
- Roy Conradas Bus Clerk
- Roderick Dexteras Trucker #1 / Wrecking Yard Man
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Wizard (1989)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- In an interview with Retro Gamer, director Holland said he argued with the studio that they were shooting way too much footage, but lost the argument and was told flat out by Universal to shoot the entire script; the original cut ran over 2.5 hours and nearly an hour had to be deleted for family viewing.
- Although the film promoted itself as the first public look at Super Mario Bros. 3, the game had actually already come out in Japan the year before and had already been covered by U.S. magazines Electronic Gaming Monthly and GamePro.
- In 1989 Tom Pollock of Universal Studios approached Nintendo of America's marketing department about a video game film, and, inspired by Nintendo video game competitions, envisioned a video game version of Tommy for younger audiences.
- The film officially introduced Super Mario Bros. 3 to North America, and the game went on to become the best-selling standalone video game.
- The Wizard was the directorial debut of Todd Holland, and it also gave a young Tobey Maguire his uncredited film debut, the first movie appearance of his career.
- Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times called the film "a cynical exploitation film with a lot of commercial plugs" and later named it one of the worst films of 1989, while The Washington Post's Rita Kempley wrote that it was "tacky and moribund", plagiarizing heavily from the 1988 film Rain Man.
