Super Mario Bros

A legendary franchise put to shame. Continuing with my video game movie month, I am doing my review on the May 28, 1993 film Super Mario Bros., based on the Mario video game franchise, which I watched on March 21st, 2022. Starring Bob Hoskins, John Leguizamo, and Dennis Hopper, it takes place in Brooklyn and an alternate dimension in the present day and is rated PG.

Brooklyn plumbers Mario and Luigi go after Luigi’s new girlfriend Daisy after she is kidnapped and taken to an alternate dimension. They learn that this world is inhabited by humans evolved from dinosaurs. It is ruled by the tyrannical dictator President Koopa, who plans to use Daisy to merge the two worlds together so he can take over our world as well. Can the Super Mario Bros. take down this Koopa?

This was the first ever live-action movie based on a video game. It is quite clear that the filmmakers had no idea what they were doing. This is considered to be one of the worst films ever made. I have to say that’s 100% accurate. Since there are so many faults with this movie, I will go over them one by one.

Considering that Mario is probably the most famous video game franchise in all of gaming, it’s pretty pathetic how much they got wrong from the games. Apart from some character names being the same, it’s completely different. From Yoshi just being a raptor straight out of Jurassic Park to Bowser, or President Koopa as he’s called here, just being a human dictator, it’s a straight up insult to the game’s longtime fans. The biggest insult comes in the form of the Goombas. In the games, the Goombas are just small, mostly harmless minions that walk by. Here, they are completely deformed transformed minions who are supposed to be useful, but all they do is look creepy and get way too distracted by dancing. There’s also the problem that Luigi is given more focus than Mario despite the latter being the mascot of Nintendo. It was overall a bad representation of the video games.

The story in this film might sound interesting at first, but early into watching, you realize it makes no sense. So much needs to be explained because everything is unclear. Even the explanations that are given just raise more questions. It’s explained that Koopa can’t just go to the other dimension without merging because it wasn’t available until recently. If that’s the case, why can’t he just do it now? Nothing is stopping him. It’s a weak plot.

The biggest problem with the film is the actors. From what I’ve heard, Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo hated being in the movie so much that they didn’t put much care into their performances as they just wanted to be done with it. That becomes very easy to believe when you watch the incredibly awkward interaction with everyone throughout the movie. Given that they are the stars Mario and Luigi, it is a big disappointment. Dennis Hopper was embarrassing to watch as President Koopa. This might be a problem with the writing too, but he has so many corny lines that it’s hard to take him seriously. He’s just pathetically silly unintentionally. They gave him the line, “See you later, alligator”, which is completely unoriginal. Even scenes that are supposed to be funny with him just fall flat. A running gag involving him ordering a pizza and expecting it doesn’t work because whatever comedic aspect they were trying to accomplish isn’t being used. Easily one of the worst movie performances ever.

Overall, this movie deserves its status as one of the worst movies ever made. However, I have to say, I would actually recommend this because it’s so terrible that it ends up being enjoyable to watch. It’s not good for the right reasons, but as long as it entertains, does it really matter?