The Wizard (1989)

[Ofcoursemyhorse 1043]

This movie still gives me nightmares about trying to beat that fucking water level in TMNT when I was a kid.

[jarrycanada 2483]

i still got this song in my head and it's been a week since I watched it.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCHE0Tjw6MA

I kind of like this song now.

[Ofcoursemyhorse 1043]

It used to be when I heard that song I would think about the hitchhiking montage in this movie, now all that pops into my head is BMX breakdancing.

[nthurkettle 148]

Since it was pointed out after the "Lifeforce" minisode that Paul's Nintendo knowledge is lame, this seems like the movie they need to do so he won't be lame anymore. He'll be...

 

(wait for it)

 

....A WIZARD!

[Joven 373]

OK, so I had to pause the movie to post this, in the scene where the 'child bounty hunter'/'child abductor' is being stopped by the trucks after kidnapping the kid, there's a certain friend we might all know, one that's no stranger to child abduction and high stakes competitions located across state lines that minors have to endanger themselves to get to in the nick of time.

 

 

The video game tournament was not double elimination though.

[Ofcoursemyhorse 1043]

Beau Bridges came into my restaurant last night and is a super cool guy.

[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.

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.c...rcade/#!quotes/

That link is dead, found a new one on metacafe. So ridiculous. Bye, Spanky. http://www.metacafe.com/watch/an-q_yY4bYtbhY7t/the_wizard_1989_arriving_at_universal_studios_arcade/

[IRONicmerMAN 391]

They've crossed two lines from my favorite childhood memory films by doing Maximum Overdrive and Over the Top. This would be a third, and that would cut deep.

 

Coincidentally, all three involve semis. Maybe this is some grand, subtle trilogy which takes some serious dissection.

[nthurkettle 148]

There were so many movies, good and bad, in the 80's whose message was "Hey suburban white kids, if you don't like what's happening at home - just leave! Go to a cave, downtown, cross-country, outer space - doesn't matter! Things will work out great!"

[DaveJanes 0]

Hey all, I'm personally a huge HDTGM fan and I would have loved to have heard Paul, Jason and June talk about 'The Wizard' and maybe someday we'll get that chance. But in the meantime my buddy and I have a podcast about gaming that took a detour into video game movies. We would love if you would take a listen and join us in the revelry of this 1989 classic.

 

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-g392s-68e99e

[nthurkettle 148]

They really spend a lot of time making the third finalist, Mora Grissom, look like a big, useless, loser. I bet she's pretty cool, actually. She made it to the damn finals!

 

Hashtag justice4mora, you guys.

 

[Ofcoursemyhorse 1043]

I would have been Mora if I was ever playing Mario in front of an audience.

[nthurkettle 148]

The Netflix "High Score" documentary series has a segment about the 1990 Nintendo World Video Game Championships that included footage of the event - the finals were even at Universal Studios Hollywood just like in this movie. Anyone else watch and get a flashback to The Wizard?

[Funkdog78 16]

I saw this movie the weekend it came out lol.  My gawd it'd be fun to dust off this classic and take it for a spin with the gang.  First time we got a peek at both Super Mario Bros. 3 and the fn Power Glove! Rad yo!

[muttnik 476]

Love this dumb movie, hope it's covered sometime soon.

[Ofcoursemyhorse 1043]

They should absolutely do this movie. I think they're almost guaranteed to get to it eventually barring a potential situation where they might not cover it because they might know Fred Savage personally.

I'll offer up a weird defense of this movie. As someone who grew up in the same era as all these games coming out I think this movie was the first one I saw where it didn't portray the people playing video games as being essentially agoraphobic and by the end of the movie they've more often than not learned some moral that playing videogames is some character flaw.

Everyone just liked playing video games in this movie, all the kids played them even Fred Savage who was portrayed as the cool kid. Even Slater and Beau Bridges are into games by the end. And the climax of the movie is a grand moment where playing Super Mario 3 saves the day. I think it was the first movie that made me not feel shamed for playing videogames as a kid. 

[muttnik 476]

On 8/25/2020 at 8:38 PM, Ofcoursemyhorse said:

They should absolutely do this movie. I think they're almost guaranteed to get to it eventually barring a potential situation where they might not cover it because they might know Fred Savage personally.

I'll offer up a weird defense of this movie. As someone who grew up in the same era as all these games coming out I think this movie was the first one I saw where it didn't portray the people playing video games as being essentially agoraphobic and by the end of the movie they've more often than not learned some moral that playing videogames is some character flaw.

Everyone just liked playing video games in this movie, all the kids played them even Fred Savage who was portrayed as the cool kid. Even Slater and Beau Bridges are into games by the end. And the climax of the movie is a grand moment where playing Super Mario 3 saves the day. I think it was the first movie that made me not feel shamed for playing videogames as a kid. 

Man, the gamer stigma of the past is so weird to me, I'm retroactively bummed for your experience. Growing up, pretty much every kid played video games, and if they didn't have a home console they'd play at a friend's house who did. During downtime in class, Nintendo Power and other gaming mags were freely passed around. There was a waiting list to play Oregon Trail on the few computers our elementary school had. I don't recall any adults ever chiding us for playing games. My father enjoyed playing Zelda, and my mother enjoyed watching my brother and I play. She still brings up how funny it was listening to me play GTA III while she was on the computer. The only criticism I recall from them was not to waste money at the arcade on a game if they could buy it for our Nintendo.

I could never get a perfect alignment during the matching mini-game in SMB3. Either the bottoms or the middles would always be off. I'm still bitter about it.

 

[Ofcoursemyhorse 1043]

Yea it was kind of a bummer. Like I had friends who played videogames but the only games we'd ever talk about would be stuff like NFL Blitz or Smash Brothers. The thought of being able to discuss things like Final Fantasy or Kings Quest was almost inconceivable.

[RyanSz 3140]

On 8/26/2020 at 9:25 PM, muttnik said:

Man, the gamer stigma of the past is so weird to me, I'm retroactively bummed for your experience. Growing up, pretty much every kid played video games, and if they didn't have a home console they'd play at a friend's house who did. During downtime in class, Nintendo Power and other gaming mags were freely passed around. There was a waiting list to play Oregon Trail on the few computers our elementary school had. I don't recall any adults ever chiding us for playing games. My father enjoyed playing Zelda, and my mother enjoyed watching my brother and I play. She still brings up how funny it was listening to me play GTA III while she was on the computer. The only criticism I recall from them was not to waste money at the arcade on a game if they could buy it for our Nintendo.

I could never get a perfect alignment during the matching mini-game in SMB3. Either the bottoms or the middles would always be off. I'm still bitter about it.

 

Yeah it kind of changed around the turn of the millennium in how people viewed video games I feel. My parents would play everything from Mario Kart to Goldeneye with me on the N64, but then stopped when it came to playing the Playstation as they felt there were too many buttons, which is nuts considering what the N64 controller looked like. It's not like the cost of playing a home console was the reason people turned their noses at gaming, as everything has basically stayed the same price since the 80s, and is actually cheaper today if you consider inflation. I wonder if it's more to do with the growth of things like eSports or streaming that has caused people to treat gaming as an entertainment outlet akin to how horror movies were treated in terms of cinema during the 80s and 90s.

[Funkdog78 16]

Let’s get this one on. It’s got nintendo, Fred savage, it premiered super MB 3. Oh and the fn power glove.

[Jillybean 104]

I’ve seen this movie countless times and still have several questions.

1. When the parents and stepparents realize that Cory and Jimmy have hit the road, the stepdad says they have someone looking for Jimmy. When the mom and Beau Bridges ask about Cory, the stepdad says “Cory wants to run away. I mean, would it do any good if we brought him back?” What?!?!

2. Beau Bridges’ sons are missing but he stays up all night at a hotel playing video games. If he had enough energy to stay up all night, wouldn’t he use that time to keep looking for his sons?

3. At one point Cory, Haley, and Jimmy hitch a ride with a bunch of bikers. The kids are then wearing helmets. Why were those bikers carrying three kid-sized helmets?

4. After finding out where Jimmy is, does Mr. Putnam, the bounty hunter, tell Jimmy’s parents that Jimmy is headed for Video Armageddon? Because his parents show up at Video Armageddon and I can’t figure out how they know that is where Jimmy and Cory are going to be.

Please do this movie.