Fred Savage starred as Corey in "The Wizard," a film populated with soon-to-be big-name stars such as Christian Slater and Tobey Maguire.

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When you're 13, your vision stretches far past your grasp. If you need to, say, kidnap your institutionalized younger brother and escort him hundreds of miles to the Video Armageddon Nintendo competition, tough. Do your homework and take out the trash.

Luckily, "The Wizard" was there to take the pain away. The story tracks a sublimely confident young man, Corey (Fred Savage), on his dogged quest to get little bro Jimmy (Luke Edwards) from Utah to Los Angeles. There he can show off his gamepad skills and beat down the competition. Surely, winning the tournament will convince Mom and Dad that Jimmy's not crazy.

Like the "Spy Kids" series, and, well, pretty much every other film with kids as heroes, "The Wizard" has kids doing things children either can't or shouldn't do. Corey and Jimmy hitchhike, tandem-skateboard down the freeway and hustle businessmen for cash at arcades. They're on the run from their father and older brother, as well as a psychotic bounty hunter.

"The Wizard" has been dismissed by those who don't understand its joys as a giant Nintendo commercial. Every frame of "The Wizard" is patently ridiculous, but that only enhances the film's excellence. For some people, at least.

"Who was this movie intended for?" Roger Ebert snarled in his 1989 one-star review. "No one above the age of reason will be able to abide it."

Assuming 28 is above the age of reason, my love for the film is evidence that Ebert is wrong. Granted, Ebert's words might well have been true when the movie was released, but now the generation raised by Mario and Luigi has come of age. The Internet Movie Database message boards are proof that we still love "The Wizard," which finally came out on DVD in America last month. It's one ultimate guilty pleasure for 13-year-olds of all ages.

Start with the cast. Beau Bridges is, pardon the pun, game in a thankless role as the father character, a clueless dolt who comes to love video games as he continues the hunt for his lost boys. A young Christian Slater hones his laid-back Jack Nicholson imitation act as the boys' older brother. And Jenny Lewis, now the lead singer of the rock band Rilo Kiley, is the epitome of early adolescent daydreams as Haley, a resourceful girl Corey and Jimmy hook up with at a bus station.

Savage owns the film with a snide authority that belies his age, and Edwards is tantalizingly oblique as the young video-game wizard who utters only one word: "California."

Look closely and you'll catch Tobey Maguire in a brief uncredited role as a video-game thug. Oh yeah, video-game thugs do exist.

The film is all about playing video games, traveling around the country at your leisure, scamming money from people and even snagging a little romance on the side. The screenplay seems to have been written by a 13-year-old, with all due respect to screenwriter David Chisholm.

How can you not adore a film in which a cocky gamer (Lucas, played by Jackey Vinson) violates "Rad Racer" with the Power Glove, an obscure controller peripheral wrapped around his hand?

"I love the Power Glove," Lucas says. "It's so bad."

It's something all right.

Chisholm had barely a passing knowledge of 1980s video games. His ignorance makes for all sorts of comical mistakes in concocting his drama, which is "Tommy" meets "Rain Man" with a little "The Legend of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link" mixed in for good measure.

"The Wizard" is a movie that was awesome in 1989, and it has only improved with age. It's a waft of nostalgic camp that would be priceless, if Amazon hadn't tagged it at $11.19.

I love "The Wizard. It's so bad.