Friday, January 7, 2022

The Wizard (1989)

A charming if somewhat troubling film. Poor Jimmy (Luke Edwards) is a troubled kid, bad affected by his broken family. He keeps trying to run away to "California", finally his brother Corey (Fred Savage) helps him get out of his children's home. After meeting Haley (Jenny Lewis), who also seems to be wandering around small town America without anyone batting an eyelid, they discover that Jimmy is ace at video games so plan to head to LA to take part in a lucrative video game competition...

Complicating matters is that a creepy lost child hunter (Will Seltzer) has been sent after them, though amusingly Haley accuses him of being a child molester to get them out of one jam. Jimmy and Corey's father Sam (Beau Bridges) and big half-brother Nick (Christian Slater) are also after them...

So, a fun children's adventure in some ways, and a feature length Nintendo advert. However, the film does include a number of adult themes and in reality the kids would have probably ended up dead (or worse). But if you just enjoy the fantasy for what it is then it's a very enjoyable film.