I’m in Los Angeles today for a couple of things, but I’ll be back home before you know it. In the meantime, take a gander at Sunday night’s double-bill at the Toronto Underground Cinema: “The Wizard” and “The Last Starfighter”, programmed especially for the folks at Gamercamp.
Two movies about videogames, and yet … not, exactly. I’ve written some words about ’em over at the NOW Daily, and if you’re curious you may want to read them. Or you might just want to shake your head and move on. I’d understand.
Fun fact: I remembered all the details about “The Last Starfighter” — Rylos, the Ko-Dan Armada, the name of Lance Guest’s character, Alex Rogan — straight off the top of my head. This is because I saw “The Last Starfighter” twice on its initial theatrical run in 1984, and evidently that stuff just stays in there. I wonder if I should be worried about that.
The appeal of The Wizard (during its theatrical run) was that the movie was released before the Super Mario Bros. 3 game. So it was the first opportunity most NES fans had to see footage from the game.
I always saw it more as a family-friendly, watered-down, heavily commercialized version of Tommy more so than the Rain Man connection you make.
Yeah, i’ve got Dan O’Herlihy’s dialogue stuck in my brain, how useful is that?