The Wizard (1989)

[Rattrap007 52]

Don't forget he Child bounty hunter guy on the phone a bit later says "Touched her breasts? She doesn't even have breasts.."

[HipGuide 196]

Would Fred Savage be the guest? He seems pretty cool. I mean, he does direct Always Sunny.

[Rattrap007 52]

Or get Christian Slater or Beau Bridges..

[sillstaw 414]

Would Fred Savage be the guest? He seems pretty cool. I mean, he does direct Always Sunny.

 

He also directed every episode of "Best Friends Forever" and is going to work on the upcoming Garfunkel and Oates show. So they've got to at least know someone who knows him.

[RyanSz 3140]

I don't know if I want Savage as a guest as the gang tends to hold back on trashing a movie if it deserves trashing as to not hurt the feelings of the guest, and this movie definitely needs to be trashed hard.

[dlo burns 129]

So do you guys think the sequel would be called the Wii-zard?

 

 

...I'll see myself out.

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3138]

I don't know if I want Savage as a guest as the gang tends to hold back on trashing a movie if it deserves trashing as to not hurt the feelings of the guest, and this movie definitely needs to be trashed hard.

I think he'd roll with it just fine. It obviously wasn't a career-killer or anything, and unlike other movies the gang has covered, they haven't had the opportunity to have a guest that has insight as to what it's like to star in what was essentially a feature-length commercial. There was probably a Nintendo guy on set and all kinds of crazy guidelines they had to adhere to. Come to think of it, this could very much be like the "No Holds Barred" of the video game movie genre.

[JeffKelly 2]

I listened to the Over the Top podcast the other day and it made me think we need the perfect companion piece, The Wizard, starting Freddie "Boom Boom" Savage, Beau Bridges, and Christian Slater in what is basically a 90 minute ad for Nintendo and severe child endangerment and neglect.

 

Seriously, it's the kid's version of Over the Top only instead of arm wrestling, you've got Super Mario Bros. 3 and a villain who says "I love the Power Glove. It's so bad," which was supposed to make it seem awesome but basically just summed up what a shitty product it was.

[flank 0]

 

I take it back. This movie is a prime candidate. Re-watched it with my kids. The boy has autism, clearly, so guess he'll have to be put in a home?! During Mario 3 in the final round of Video Armegeddon, this is supposed to be a brand new game that nobody has ever seen or played. But Fred Savage and that girl keep telling Jimmy what all the items are for. She told him, "Jimmy, that's the enchanted flute! It opens the Warp Zone!" How did she know that!?

 

 

I've watched this movie too many times, and while this is a massive wtf, I think (and I'm being generous here) that we're supposed to assume she acquired this info from the video game training montage where she calls up the Nintendo game tips place and apparently has the guy on the phone for a couple of hours.

 

Granted, the game hadn't been released yet, but mayhaps she cajoled some choice tips out of him. Those guys would have to get advanced copies of software so they could be on call for gaming montages on release day.

[JeffKelly 2]

Crap, sorry! I did a search and got an error, which I just lazily interpreted to mean that there was no prior topic.

[Bob Drillboids 181]

I finally re-watched this today and it was even more incredible/awful than I had remembered. I have so much that I want to say, but for now let me just point out that Huell Howser once filmed an episode of "California's Gold" featuring the tourist trap that Jimmy was obsessed with (Cabazon Dinosaurs). So now I have this fantasy that The Wizard will finally be chosen for HDTGM and James Adomian will be the guest. And at some point in the episode the gang improvises a scene where Adomian as Huell interacts with Jason or Paul as Jimmy and he just keeps repeating 'California' in that stupid wooden little kid voice. And Huell is completely overcome with joy because he's finally met someone who is both as simple as him and also equally obsessed with the state of California.

[Bob Drillboids 181]

I am now realizing that I just posted fan fiction involving a comedian...impersonating a dead and relatively obscure TV personality from a PBS affiliate...interacting with another comedian...impersonating a fictional little boy from a forgettable late 80s movie...on a podcast about bad movies. And I'm not about to apologize.

[Bob Drillboids 181]

This is a fantastic supercut of all the NES details they botched (hopefully it'll be of use in a corrections and omissions some day):

[Bob Drillboids 181]

I would also like to call attention to my favorite scene in the movie: Spanky driving the kids to Video Armageddon. In a film full of excessively physical and unconvincing acting (especially from Beau Bridges faux-playing the NES), the worst bit of overacting belongs to Spanky while he's driving that massive truck. He's yelling and smiling like a maniac and jerking around the wheel like a four-year-old with a new toy. Toonces was a more convincing driver. All the while, the truck is going straight as an arrow. It's completely bonkers.

[Bob Drillboids 181]

I couldn't find a clip of the above-mentioned glorious scene on youtube, but I did find it on something called anyclip. Please enjoy: http://www.anyclip.com/movies/the-wizard/arriving-at-universal-studios-arcade/#!quotes/

[Bob Drillboids 181]

Based on the director's (Todd Holland) pretty impressive resume (he directed episodes of Twin Peaks, Larry Sanders Show, and 30 Rock), I assumed he would have disowned this mess of a film. That doesn't seem to be the case. in honor of the 25th anniversary of the movie, he's been tweeting out photos in chronological order of the film shoot. The best one:

[Hagbard Celine 290]

 

The Power Glove!

 

 

It's SO bad.

 

[Johnny Unusual 525]

Just bringing this up again, because I would love to see it. I still maintain the Brothers Chaps would make for great guests (and Matt's worked with Paul before) but the Indoor Kids would also be great. Please let's see this one happen.

[Bugs Meany 69]

Spot on, Chase. I think that's the plot hole Tim was referring to. If you guys do this movie, you should get Fred Savage or co-star / future hipster goddess Jenny Lewis on as the guest...

When I want to prove my hipper-than-thou bona fides, I bring up my massive crush on Jenny Lewis circa 1989-1991. (I was born in 1980, she in 1976, so to me she was an "older woman," not a little girl.) I would repeatedly watch The Wizard, Troop Beverly Hills and check the TV Guide every week hoping they'd re-run her episode of Growing Pains, where she played the awesomely named Judy Jones. So it's not a stretch to say I liked her before anyone else.

[Ribelin2000 23]

Jenny Lewis was also on that short-lived coming-of-age TV drama Brooklyn Bridge, about the young Jewish boy growing up in the 1950's in Brooklyn. Lewis played the kid's Catholic-schoolgirl girlfriend. Anyone remember this show? It was on for two seasons on CBS.

[jarrycanada 2483]

 

It's SO bad.

 

 

speaking of ass holes with power gloves.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTidn2dBYbY

 

You'll know it when you see it.

[nthurkettle 148]

This movie must happen. IT. MUST. HAPPEN.

[Bagel Sauce 0]

I started listening to HDTGM about six months ago, and this was the first movie I thought of...Make it so!

[sillstaw 414]

A while back, Nintendo announced that they were going to hold World Championships June 14, around the time of E3. Fred Savage had a great response:

 

[jarrycanada 2483]

So I watched this movie tonight here are my notes..

 

So when Beau Bridges and Christian Slater are sleeping in the same bed together it hit me. they are at the same level of actors now same B list.

 

Jimmy is a lot like Timmy from southpark, was this the inspiration for TImmy, because I sure found myself thinking JIM-MY out loud. every time they said his name, even got the same ball cap.

 

The video game competition sure isn't contaminated by Video games. Nintendo

decided to take a more relaxed approach on advertising this year.

 

"Jimmy watch the Mushrooms!" -best line ever.

 

and the kids all end up in foster care, the end.

 

I'd give this movie 5 amazon stars.