Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		1.0
Audio		2.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		1.5

The Wizard Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman August 21, 2018

It's difficult to watch The Wizard without thinking of The Who's Pinball Wizard and the film Tommy, both stories of arcade game savants. The comparisons largely end there, though. The Wizard is primarily a drawn-out commercial for Nintendo and the then-upcoming game Super Mario Bros. 3. The film released back in the heyday of the original Nintendo Entertainment System and the company's dominance on the video game marketplace, a marketplace the Japanese giant has been trying to recapture ever since, with various rises and falls along the way. But the 8-bit era certainly belonged to Nintendo, and The Wizard follows the story of a traumatized young boy who just so happens to be a gifted video gamer but who really just wants to come to terms with his dark past. The film is not remembered for its character drama, but it's nicely interwoven into some of the surrounding noise and silliness and proves more satisfying than the video game play that appears on the screen for many of the film's key scenes.

Young Jimmy (Luke Edwards) has been hospitalized since his twin sister tragically passed away. He never speaks but aims to go to California and frequently breaks out of Greenriver Hospital in an effort to make the trek on foot. But his latest escape attempt has raised the possibility of placing him under the care of an institution with even more restrictions, something his half-brother Corey (Fred Savage) just won't allow. Corey himself runs away from home, breaks Jimmy out of the hospital, and joins him on his journey to the Golden State. Along the way, they meet Haley (Jenny Lewis), a young girl about Corey's age who is trying to get home to Reno, Nevada, which is on the way to California. The two quickly discover Jimmy's gift for video gaming and exploit his talents to make some money by wagering his skills against others. They also find renewed purpose in their California destination, trying to get there in time to enter Jimmy into a major video game tournament with a grand prize of $50,000. The journey is fraught with peril, including a bounty hunter (Will Seltzer) hot on their trail, who is himself dogged by Jimmy's father (Beau Bridges) and his older half-brother (Christian Slater) who are also on Jimmy's and Corey's trail. Along the way, Jimmy, Corey, and Haley meet Lucas (Jackey Vinson), an expert gamer who will be Jimmy's greatest threat at the championships.

The trio’s adventure is filled with conveniences and contrivances and a video game machine around every corner that allows them to make a little much-needed money along the way, essentially selling poor, pitiful Jimmy as no match for older, supposedly wiser players who are conned into making a bet with the kids to give them the funds needed to move on. But it’s fairly repetitive through its middle stretch, with the threesome traveling from stop to stop, encountering video game players, taking them for their money, and usually losing it soon thereafter to a few bad actors or angered losers. They are almost always invariably forced back to square one, keeping only the ground they’ve gained en route to the championships in Los Angeles. And, small world, of course, they meet Lucas along the way, the intimidating older boy who wields Nintendo’s Power Glove like some digital excalibur, proclaiming him king of the 8-bit kingdom. Poor Jimmy shies away from the challenge but is, of course, ultimately maneuvered into place to take on this nemesis in the finals.

The movie has received some criticism for an excess of Nintendo product placement, but The Wizard is a video game-themed film, so it’s at least a natural fit, though perhaps not in those instances when Sam and Nick slow down from their frantic (and surprisingly violent) search for Jimmy to play a little TMNT along the way. Sam, who doesn’t see the attraction in video games, quickly becomes obsessed with them, which is an interesting commentary by the video game industry to depict a father desperate to find his missing son taking time out from the journey to lose himself in a game. A few minutes to unwind in the motel room, maybe, but it’s a curious narrative choice that more than anything else feeds the product placement wolves. Otherwise, seeing these old games and hardware is nostalgic fun in 2018, which includes the infamous Power Glove (which I had at one point but never could get it to work right) and various clips from old games that were a big part of many childhoods back in the 80s, especially the Ninja Turtles game (I put in lots of hours into that one and even more into the Arcade game sequel). There’s even a look inside Nintendo’s (pay service) help line, which I actually called once to get directions through Platoon’s labyrinthine first level (directions which turned out to be inaccurate).

The movie really does prove more interesting away from the arcade cabinets and NES game consoles. Jimmy’s journey is heartfelt, his character wounds deep, and his pains are only slowly revealed as the film moves on, and not entirely so until the end. Jimmy really seems to care little about his skills as a gamer and certainly not much for the prize money up for grabs. His journey is more personal, and its resolution is rightly the film’s end note, not the grand finale at the contest. Corey and Haley enjoy a nice little bit of chemistry as their relationship blossoms over the course of the film, and the secondary story isn’t bad, either, which is essentially a father-son bonding road trip. Bridges and Slater make for an agreeable father-son duo brought together by a shared purpose, proximity, and video games. The two are dogged by a nasty bounty hunter who serves as little more than (somewhat violent) comic relief.

The Wizard Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

To be blunt, The Wizard's 1080p transfer is one of the worst Universal, or any studio for that matter, has released. The movie appears heavily processed, with rough and uneven edges, edge halos, regular wobble, and smoothed-over details. Poor definition is evident even in close-up, where faces offer little more than a trace of the inherent details that once were. Obviously, various landscapes and locations seen on the road to California fare no better. Roads and rock formations are robbed of the inherently rough textures that once existed. Bus stations and storage rooms and motel rooms and the big, plastic-y fake looking arena where the game finals are held were all certainly once home to gorgeously complex details that have long since been obliterated. The image appears on the verge of digital collapse in every shot, like it's literally going to crumble on the screen into tiny little digital chunks. It's dishearteningly flat, and there's nearly no saving grace. Maybe colors find a halfway decent presentation on occasion, but for the most part they're fairly dull, absent nuance, and very flat. Skin tones are hopelessly pasty. Black crush devours darker shots. Blu-ray doesn't get a whole lot worse than this, especially from a big studio and a somewhat high profile title.

The Wizard Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Wizard's DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless soundtrack fares a little better than the video presentation (OK, a lot better in totality) in that it at least reaches a baseline competency. Front end spread is fairly good. Musical clarity doesn't completely lack, and lyrics and dialogue alike image nicely enough to the center. While there's obviously no surround engagement, a few effects push around the front nicely enough, and the occasional ambient effect flutters through, particularly in casinos and higher traffic areas like the crowded room in which the game finals are held. Additionally, various arid, empty exteriors offer a few sonic surprises here and there, too. There are some awful lip sync issues in spots. "What is this kid, some kind of cyborg?" at the 34:13 mark is probably the most egregious example, though it could be chalked up to poor ADR editing, too.

The Wizard Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of The Wizard contains no supplemental content. Subtitles must be toggled on and off in-film via a crude pop-up menu. No top menu screen is included. Needless to say, no DVD or digital versions are included, and the release does not ship with a slipcover. As a random aside, speaking of covers, does anyone else find it interesting that Fred Savage is wearing the Power Glove on the cover artwork but nowhere in the movie does it ever appear with anyone but Lucas? It's also ironic that Nintendo made the highly sought-after peripheral the exclusive property of the film's villain.

The Wizard Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Wizard offers a blast of nostalgia if nothing else. The story is flimsy and repetitive but there's a little bit of built-in heart, too. Through repetitive dealings, the film builds up its characters to decent enough heights, enough to keep the viewer interested and engaged in their journeys. Unfortunately, the Blu-ray is a mess. The image is, frankly, a disaster. Extreme processing is the hallmark, and each shot has been extensively noise reduced, laid to waste by the video transfer equivalent of a nuclear bomb. Audio is at least not a total fail, but no supplements are included. Fans should wait for a considerable price drop before even thinking about picking this one up.