The Wizard (1989)
Making things easy tonight, one of the video compadres requested a movie tonight. Why did he choose it or where did the urge to watch it come from? I don’t ask questions when I don’t need answers - but he did assure me that this time he screened a review to at least not end up getting labeled “the guy that keeps picking the movies that he thought was harmless but had secret racism” to them. Nobody wants to be that guy. So anyways, tonight it’s a couple of nerds watching a nerd-movie about as old as I am about nerdy stuff. What nerdy stuff? Well, it ain’t no pinball, but let’s just say this kid is The Wizard.
Family trouble is a thing - but we don’t get the intricacies of that until much later on. Instead, we find a kid walking down a desert stretch of highway with a lunch box, where the police find him and bring him back to his mom. Seems this is a reoccurring thing for this particular kiddo, and his mom and not-dad dad (or lawyer? I’m still not entirely sure to be honest) have to come up with some way of keeping him from going on these unapproved cross country escapades, so it looks like he’s going to end up getting re-homed. Over to his brother’s place with his actual dad, we see things aren’t the best. It’s not that it’s bad necessarily, just there’s some tensions over some various things - so everyone is off in a huff that morning. After some shouting later, the youngest decides he’s going to break his brother out, and they are going to go to California - something his lunchbox brother always says. Thus begins a cross-country adventure as they meet up with some street-wise girl and the three road trip and hitchhike their way towards Californ-i-a. Oh, and the mom has hired an absolute goon of a kid-finder to bring him back, whose pretty much actively engaged with the dad in a death match over finding his lost kids. Oh, and there’s video games and a Power Glove.
Look, this is the not the golden years of child acting, and our main focus is on three young ‘uns for this movie. While I won’t say that it’s bad, I can also say that there is a reason why people got so impressed with some of the child actors of the modern age. In all fairness, it must be kind of rough to be a kid actor, as you don’t have years and years of getting beat down by the world with “experience” to really play out a ton of range - but it’s down well enough here that it’s not painful. Yeah, it’s kinda corny as heck watching it now - seeing anyone shine a golden light on something that was as trash as the Power Glove could tell you that - but I’m a fan of corny. It keeps me entertained. This does also extend to the adults - the dad and his kid-tracking rival are absolute road runner vs coyote levels of cartoon characters at points, and the actors do a great job of hamming the heck out it.
The characters aren’t horrible. There’s some family bonding growth by the end, and perhaps a little bit of personal growth here or there, but it’s also an element of it’s time. If a character, like the kid-tracker, is supposed to be not liked, they’ll resort to practically illegal levels to make them not liked. Usually this means some level of violence - but like, old days violence where everyone walks out of a car wreck like it’s nothing and people only get a bloody nose or a bruise from getting beat up. A rival character feels threatened they might lose? Better try to rig it by removing the threat from the game. Still, despite all of that at it’s core it’s tale is a classic story of grief and understanding, and the characters set it up and execute on it pretty well even without being overly in-depth. I mean, it’s a family movie, as one would say.
Dad and brother
Costumes are of the time. What does that mean? Standard blending in but not standing out, technically masterful job despite not impressing - the same thing I say about all “modern” set movies. It doesn’t exactly give me a ton to talk about when the most outlandish thing you see is a character dressed as a monster in a theme park, or some kid acting all cool with his coat and a Power Glove. They get a nice varied amount of settings in there, ranging from various spots roadside and inside, glam and glitz of Reno to bland desert junkyards. It might not be overtly eye catching, but it gives plenty to keep you from getting too eye-sore. Granted, some people might be appalled by classic 80’s fashion, which is assuredly not as neon as everyone remembers.
There are a ton of snaps of games in here from back in the Nintendo days. For me, it now serves as a reminder of just how old I am, but it’s nice to have those sudden flashes of “I remember that game, it was hard as balls” that reminds me that I was in fact alive for more than five minutes. Some things folks of a more modern time might feel a little confused or out of the loop about - similar to the channels going static at midnight in Poltergeist. I mean, I know of the Nintendo game helpline, but even I never really used that, so some elements are totally dated. It is funny however to look back on things like the Nintendo championships and the game competitions they would have in the old kid’s shows and think about how it was basically Esports before Esports was a thing. I will say that if you pay attention you’ll notice a bunch of continuity flubs, like the same truck dropping the kids off, only a couple of scenes later to find the kids in the back of it again and somehow behind the person searching for them.
Audio is there. It’s got some good songs I remember in there, but it’s mostly the same cheating “I listened to those regular” situations then the songs actually standing out in the movie. That said it does it’s job well. Balance is fine, and you won’t have a problem hearing lines for good or bad. Some of the deliveries, like I mentioned before, can be pretty corn-ball, but it all feels in good fun. For the thinking folks, there’s actually a decent amount here. Probably more so then intended, as with age things like “sitting in the back of trucks”, hitchhiking, and the safety of children running away and the repercussions on the parents are a bit different then when the movie came out. Past that though, the core understanding, bonding, and topics of grief are there - even if they aren’t always the center point, or elaborated on all that much.
The gamer squad.
It’s a fun little movie. Yes, it shows its age at times, and some folks will respect some aspects more than others - for example, folks who are into video games will appreciate the dad’s discovery of how fun or engrossing it could be, and the implied bonding aspect is a nice swing from the normal ostracization or demeaning of folks who enjoy them. The actors do a good enough job, even if it probably felt better back before we had a batch of really stellar kid actors to compare them to. Perhaps it doesn’t handle everything the best - as with any movie of it’s time - but it’s a charming little thing. It’s fun, and outside of that little bit at the end it’s largely a feel good kind of movie. Far better, you’ll be glad to hear, then the Power Glove, and by Power Glove I mean the Nintendo peripheral and not the band - the band is actually really good.