In a fit of quarter-life crisis nostalgia, I recently re-watched The Wizard, that 90-minute Nintendo advertisement in the disguise of a feature film from 1989.  I remembered loving it as a kid.   With my Wii storage memory filling up with a spate of old NES games, I figured I owed it to myself to bask once again in the quest-narrative of a socially-awkward game prodigy.  And to witness a young Christian Slater steal scene after scene before peaking too soon in the following year's "Pump Up the Volume."

The best part of the film is this awesome poster.

Boy, is that film terrible.  Yes, there is delight to be had at watching Beau Bridges pummeling his NES controller while shouting lines like: "What the hell are you doing?  I had the magic key.  I got the cross. I was closing in on the barbarian!"   And those sparse moments throughout the plot peppered with old arcade games or that beautiful grey front-loading box do provide a quick lift of innocent euphoria. 

But as a movie, I let my rupie-tinted memories get the best of me.  The Wizard is more Zelda 2 than Super Mario Bros. 3: a great idea, with some moments of joy, but overall an unsatisfying experience.

Or am I totally off-base?  Think it's the ultimate tons-'o-fun cheese-factory?  Did you have a Fred Savage poster on your wall in 1989?  Do you have one in 2010?  Is the Power Glove really so bad?  Let the community know!