The Incredible Genie (1999)
Simon is a brainy but bashful 13-year-old who could use a best friend. But when he finally finds one, it turns out to be a 4000-year-old genie whose wish-granting skills need a serious tune-up! Before you can say "Hocus pocus", Simon and his magic-challenged buddy unleash an outrageous onslaught of wildly off-target wishes - attracting the attentions of a government scientist with an evil plan. Now Simon is about to learn that when the chips are down, friendship is the most powerful magic of all!
Watch Trailer
Cast
Similar titles
Reviews
It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.
Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.
The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.
Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.
THE INCREDIBLE GENIE is a cheesy-as-heck kid's film from the late '90s, made by Full Moon Entertainment and shot in Romania like so many others. Watching it today, it's something of a laugh riot and not for the right reasons; the kind of film you laugh at rather than with. The story is about a put-upon schoolkid who finds himself associated with a goofy genie whose wish-granting abilities usually go wrong.The story is generally a mix of cringe-worthy humour scenes as the protagonist endures another pratfall at the hands of the magical being. The production is awash with incredibly cheesy and dated CGI effects of stretching necks and the like which look really, really bad and are a real laugh. The acting is wooden and attempts at drama with the intervention of some sinister government-agent type characters is a laugh too. It's the usual kind of production from Full Moon, then. I'd recommend sticking with WISHMASTER.
Truly uninspiring children's fare from Full Moon. The tag tells us that "Simon struggled to make friends" which is not surprising as Simon is played in a precocious and grimacing style by Matt Koruba (who is currently in the rock band 'Program the Dead'). Tom Fahn (a voice over actor primarily) is fun as the Genie but never has enough wit or charm to raise the film even to entertaining. Simon's mum is Stacie Randall, star of a few Full Moon movies and alongside the majority of the cast she is a little too sophisticated for the weak story. This is the primary disappointment, the script. Michael Davis is an immensely talented writer and director yet here he replaces charm with a misplaced notion that Simon is such a strong character that he can carry the film. Irritating, charmless and moronic in equal measures.
I wouldn't recommend this to anyone with kids. The "hero" is a thoroughly unpleasant, arrogant, nasty little know-it-all who deserves every bad thing that happens to him. He steals, assaults a police office, shows thinly concealed contempt for those who love him and a sneering superiority to any authority figure. Peers are fine and grown-ups are easily manipulated dolts. Special effects are good and acting is better than average for a kid film, but what a message! It's so wrongheaded, you'll feel like throwing something at the screen. Read other "positive" review and couldn't believe we saw the same film. Watch this and regret it...I know I did.
Don't call him Simple Simon! Simon's the smartest one at school and the other children hardly ever converse with him or sit with him at lunch...or anytime.In the same town, a scientist is working on paranormal phenomena, having just returned from an archaeological dig. As fortune may fall, Simon ends up with a lamp the scientist had discovered abroad. Shazam....it's a genie's lamp, yes! Simon finds the sprightly genie inside a pain at first (tricks do not turn out correctly) but warms up to the guy over time. Yet, when Simon's house changes in a noticeable way, things get lively very quickly. Will having a genie be a good thing or the reverse?This is a fun family film for a Friday night. The boy who plays Simon is a natural actor and the lady that plays his mother charms in a big way. There is magical fun and a romance as well. The genie is an absolute delight in every way, too. The ending was a bit of a disappointment as it defies logic but perhaps kids won't have any quarrels with that. Are you looking for something your family can watch together and everyone will be tickled? You do not need a genie...just take a stroll to the video store or library.