dan
09-27-2007, 05:09 AM
The best thing about Netflix is that I'm able to revisit old movies from when I was a kid without having to worry about getting burned out of $5. With that in mind, I got The Wizard the other night.
Some of you may know this movie. Certainly, people my age would. It's about a kid (Fred Savage) who runs away from home with his autistic brother. Along the way, he learns his brother is a whiz when it comes to video games (a pretty obvious homage to Tommy), and they decide to go to California, to a video game competition. Their dad and older brother (Beau Bridges, Christian Slater) follow them, as does an evil private investigator, etc. etc.
The movie actually held up fairly well, considering I hadn't seen it since I was about 8 or 9 years old. Obviously, I'm not as into it as I was back then, but it's still a worthy kids movie, the kind they don't really make anymore.
Few things:
-There's no mistake that Nintendo is the star of this movie. Once the plot gets rolling, there's not five minutes that goes by before a character is playing a game and talking about how great it is.
-Despite that, there is still a surprisingly deep storyline. I remember, when I was little, being confused by Jimmy's autism, as I'd never been exposed to that before.
-Funny to see Jenny Lewis (now the lead singer of Rilo Kiley) so young. Sadly, I've had a crush on her since I was a little kid, and I still do.
-"I love the Power Glove.... It's so bad!":laugh2:
-At one point, to get away from the evil P.I., Jenny Lewis's character (who's about 13) screams "he touched my breast!" in the middle of a casino, causing him to be immediately escorted out. There's a hilarious thread on IMDB about how this is a terrible example to set for children, that plenty of people are probably in jail unjustly now because of kids copying that line.:rolleyes:
-So many ridiculous moments, but it's funny. How do 3 kids enter into a contest in which the prize is $50,000 without any guardian whatosever?
-Like many of these movies from my childhood (Goonies, Little Monsters), I'm stunned at the level of language and inappropriate situations for a PG movie. This thing never would've gotten a PG if it were made today.
-and, finally, the thing I remember most about this movie is how it was the first time anybody had seen Super Mario Brothers 3. Very exciting moment for Generation Y, ya know.
Some of you may know this movie. Certainly, people my age would. It's about a kid (Fred Savage) who runs away from home with his autistic brother. Along the way, he learns his brother is a whiz when it comes to video games (a pretty obvious homage to Tommy), and they decide to go to California, to a video game competition. Their dad and older brother (Beau Bridges, Christian Slater) follow them, as does an evil private investigator, etc. etc.
The movie actually held up fairly well, considering I hadn't seen it since I was about 8 or 9 years old. Obviously, I'm not as into it as I was back then, but it's still a worthy kids movie, the kind they don't really make anymore.
Few things:
-There's no mistake that Nintendo is the star of this movie. Once the plot gets rolling, there's not five minutes that goes by before a character is playing a game and talking about how great it is.
-Despite that, there is still a surprisingly deep storyline. I remember, when I was little, being confused by Jimmy's autism, as I'd never been exposed to that before.
-Funny to see Jenny Lewis (now the lead singer of Rilo Kiley) so young. Sadly, I've had a crush on her since I was a little kid, and I still do.
-"I love the Power Glove.... It's so bad!":laugh2:
-At one point, to get away from the evil P.I., Jenny Lewis's character (who's about 13) screams "he touched my breast!" in the middle of a casino, causing him to be immediately escorted out. There's a hilarious thread on IMDB about how this is a terrible example to set for children, that plenty of people are probably in jail unjustly now because of kids copying that line.:rolleyes:
-So many ridiculous moments, but it's funny. How do 3 kids enter into a contest in which the prize is $50,000 without any guardian whatosever?
-Like many of these movies from my childhood (Goonies, Little Monsters), I'm stunned at the level of language and inappropriate situations for a PG movie. This thing never would've gotten a PG if it were made today.
-and, finally, the thing I remember most about this movie is how it was the first time anybody had seen Super Mario Brothers 3. Very exciting moment for Generation Y, ya know.