Super Mario Bros

Ok, now to go away from horror for a bit and take a trip back to the past. To the very first major motion picture to be based off a video game. You don't have to be a hardcore gamer to know who the Super Mario Bros are. Mario was everywhere for most of the 80's and 90's and in fact is still a pop culture icon to this day. But lets go back to 1993, i was six years old and i remember my older brother getting a Nintendo Entertainment System for one of his birthday's (not sure which one), and Mario was one of the games he got. I spent almost every waking hour playing that game, i just loved it. Then i see a trailer for a Super Mario Bros movie, and i so excited. By then we had also got the second and third one and i was also spending every waking hour playing it, but enough about my past and on to the movie review.

As a kid i remember watching it when it came out on video because i couldn't see it in the cinema due to it being certified 12 (i think), that's just to the best of my memory. But i remember watching it once, not really getting it and then never seeing it again until just recently. Sense its release it was a flop at the box office and got alot of negative reviews from critics, but has maintained a cult following. Why was it a flop and why did i not really get it as a kid? Well, the directors took a major risk by making it nothing like the games at all (bar a couple of reference's here and there), is it a bad thing? Well, not really if you just look outside the box.

Mario (Played by Bob Hoskins) and Luigi (Played by John Leguizamo) are Italian plumbers (one thing they got right) living in Brooklyn, New York. They meet this orphaned girl named Daisy who is digging for Dinosauer bones. When they go to check it out they find a portal to another dimension which is not the mushroom kingdom from the games, but a dystopian society (kinda like Blade Runner or Judge Dredd) run by Bowser, or King Koopa (played by Dennis Hopper). Another departure from the video game is rather than make Bowser just a lizard he is a humanoid descendant of the Tyrannosaurus Rex. Another character that is depicted differently from the games is Toad (you know, that annoying ass wipe who you always conveniently meet at the end of each castle to tell you our princess is in another castle). Instead of being a mushroom headed kid, in the movie he is a friendly street musician with a Texas accent who meets Mario and Luigi on the street.

Not to give too much of the plot away, i will give this movie the fair review it deserves. The costumes first of all are great, especially when Mario and Luigi put on their trademark red and green suits, complete with hats and these really silly but strangely awesome jumper boots. The Goomba's look nothing like they do in the game and are a bit silly, but their suits are great, kinda like a military uniform and punk rock hybrid. In fact, despite the movie being a flop, it was nominated for a Saturn award in 1994 for best costume and best make up.

Alot of critics slated it for being too dark and not child friendly, which i do agree, making a movie based on a Nintendo game, children are going to be you target audience. Critics also said there is no reference's to the games at all, which i full on disagree with. They are there, you just have to find them. Examples include the giant fungus helping Mario and Luigi throughout their journey, well thats a reference to the mushroom power ups in the game. You can also hear sounds from the game in some scenes. And the characters from the game are all there, including Yoshi, who's a very Jurassic Park esque baby T-Rex (Jurassic Park being released 3 years previous). Other game references include the Bob-omb and the names of several characters and villains on street signs.

So yea, not to drag on any more i will conclude by saying, this movie is a guilty pleasure of mine and its worth checking out or revisiting either for some cheesy fun or just for nostalgia value. As it is the first major motion picture to be based off a video game, its worth checking out, because its not the worst. There has been worse video game to movie adaptations (Uwe Boll anyone?), and hey, they just started to get comic book movie adaptations right, maybe they will get video games right in time. But until then, ignore what the critics are saying and check out this movie, because despite it being very little to do with the game, its actually a pretty good science fiction fantasy adventure movie.

7/10