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06/23/2004: Super Mario Bros. — The Movie!

Here’s my extremely scatterbrained review of Super Mario Bros., the 1993 film that took more than a few liberties with its video game subject matter. Here’s a surprise: I absolutely did not hate this movie. It’s ridiculous and stupid, but it’s got a lot going on, and some of it really works. Maybe it’s just that it’s so unbelievably different from any other movie I’ve seen. Maybe it’s just the Bob-ombs. The review is more an exercise in throwing a bunch of random shit at the html wall to try to convey the broad, silly themes of the film. In other words, it’s all over the place. Still, if you’ve never seen the Bob Hoskins version of Mario, I’d recommend a viewing.

Posted by Matt. E-mail me!

Discussion Thread: 260 comments

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I’ve seen this movie right when it was released to video stores sense my family was too poor to afford 4 tickets to see it.
It’s a good movie and a lot of comedy gold can be drawn from it.
A kid I knew back in highschool was 6′5” and had a tiny head. When I wasnt calling him tall I was calling him goomba.

Ghosted by Eddie @ 06/28/2004 4:06 PM EDT

I’m actually kinda surprised that this movie hadn’t been reviewed by you before, Matt. Oh well. Good job.

The best thing about the movie for me was hearing "Speed of Light" by Joe Satriani. That just instantly made it a bit better!

Ghosted by Ripplin @ 06/28/2004 5:06 PM EDT

the first and only time I sw this movie was when it was int theatres and I was 5. The only thing I remember from the movie (and surprisingly enough Matt, you actually didn’t comment on), was when the bob-omb was about to blow up, they had the worst plug for a company ever. I don’t know if this was removed in the video, but i will never forget that before the bomb blew up, it swicthed to a below shot of the bomb, and it was wearing Reebok white shoes. That’s the only thing I remember surprisingly.

Ghosted by Behn @ 06/28/2004 5:17 PM EDT

wait… did I say surprisingly? I meant thankfully… sorry about that guys. I saw it when I was 5, I loved it then. I gotta rent me this movie.

Ghosted by Behn @ 06/28/2004 5:20 PM EDT

Man the dude who reviewed this must have been really bored. I read untill the first picture then just looked at the pictures.
I too admit to watching it when ever it is on coz it is never on cable here so when it’s on free too air once every 5 years then i watch it the the goo stuff was cool…or was that mystery men?

Ghosted by ozechick5 @ 06/28/2004 8:31 PM EDT

This movie repulsed me when I first saw it (after the horrific reviews, I was too upset to want to see it in the theatres). I believe my parents were subjected to my ravings for days afterwards (Koopa is a GIANT SPIKY TURTLE, NOT DENNIS HOPPER! It’s supposed to be PRINCESS TOADSTOOL, NOT DAISY! WHY DOES TOAD LOOK MORE LIKE MEATLOAF THAN A MUSHROOM? WHY DOESN’T LUIGI HAVE A MUSTACHE????) etc. Time heals all wounds, but I’ve still not forgiven what they did to SMB: The Movie.

Icky. Putrid. Bad.

Ghosted by Team Rocket Rose @ 06/28/2004 9:25 PM EDT

Well, I’m probably one of the very very very very VERY few people who rate this movie my favorite movie of all time. Now, don’t think of me as a new gamer. I was born on March 12, 1988 and almost a year later I have my first memories of anything. Holding a controller and playing SMB. I’m a true Retro Gamer and I don’t give 2 $hits about what anyone says but SMB was a masterpiece. Nintendo hasn’t always gone in chronological order anyways (i.e. Legend of Zelda). So whos to say this wasn’t the start of their adventures in the Parallel Universe? I mean, somewhere in that vast wasteland, Koopa must have created more and more empires as themes as SMB1, SMB2 (the real one, not Doki Doki Whatever-the-hell), SMB3, and u know the rest. To you, this might not make sense, but, hey, neither did E.T. for Atari or the ill-fated Legend of Zelda series or the Phillips CD-I. See? There are worse things in the universe if you think about it!

Ghosted by Dennis @ 06/30/2004 1:29 AM EDT

Typo in my last post. It should read "the ill-fated Legend of Zelda series FOR the Phillips-CD-I. Sorry for the confusion!

Ghosted by Dennis @ 06/30/2004 1:32 AM EDT

Heh heh. I love this movie. It has it’s…."charm".

Ghosted by marril159 @ 06/30/2004 1:32 PM EDT

I havent read all the other comments on this article, so I’m not sure if anyone else pointed this out. The Large Mystery Woman who is based on the big fish from the games, also bears the same name as her video game counter-part. Her name is "Big Bertha". Also, the De-Evolution guns are actually modified Super Scopes, the Bazooka-like gun controller for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.

Ghosted by Syxx Gage @ 06/30/2004 4:54 PM EDT

you should do an article on "little shop of horrors"

Ghosted by Rachel @ 06/30/2004 9:06 PM EDT

i mean the most recent one (maby i should read the posts before i post) lol

Ghosted by rachel @ 06/30/2004 9:19 PM EDT

i dunno, but i only saw like 1 person mention the fact that daisy isn’t the princess of mushroom kingdom. but thats just one of the many mistakes the movie made…

Ghosted by Lena K14 @ 07/01/2004 1:46 PM EDT

im fairly sure that the "corpulant" mystery woman in red, is in fact, suppposed to be a spiky.You know, the little red things that Lakitu throws at you and you can jump on the damn things. ><

Ghosted by g-rant @ 07/01/2004 5:00 PM EDT

Lol….Mario Bros. was bad….but it was still better than ET.

ET was just plain gay.

Ghosted by Gobind Singh @ 07/02/2004 1:14 PM EDT

I think it’s too late to try to bring back Mario… he had his time… he’s old now.

Just my opinion… I did enjoy the video games when I was a kid… two thumbs up for that.

- Dave
Dave’s Daily

Funny, Strange, and Bizarre!
http://www.davesdaily.com

Ghosted by Dave @ 07/03/2004 3:19 PM EDT

The movie wasnt all that bad but the movie came out a long time ago

Ghosted by Dan @ 07/03/2004 8:51 PM EDT

I have a question…after watching this movie several times over the past 7 years, Ive always wondered if King koopa and Bowser were one in the same? This always bothered me because the name koopa in my mind was always synanamous with that annoying driver in the game Super Mario Kart, who was merely a turtle gone crazy. I have played all of the mario games, and i dont recall anywhere Bowser being referred to as King Koopa? Maybe this was a trick to leave options open for super mario brothers 2.

God help us all

benji

Ghosted by Benji @ 07/03/2004 10:20 PM EDT

Benji, Koopa is actually Bowser’s last name, since he is the King of the Koopas. So he’s Bowser Koopa. Or King Koopa. The little turtles are called Koopa Troopas(I think…I feel kinda blasphemous not remembering) So yeah, he can be called either one, but I always feel odd calling him Koopa, and I remember actually cringing when "Princess" Daisy said "You must be the great Koopa." It just sounds so dirty, and not in a good way

Ghosted by nothing important @ 07/05/2004 2:27 AM EDT

I believe in one scene the Bob-ombs are shown to be wearing Reebok’s I remember the cars and jsut about anything else electrical ran on the old "Bumper Car’s Electric Cage" type power deal. Come to think of it that was 1991 and they already had GPS as well. Yeesh. Anyways you guys never mentioned the "Hidden Scene" after the credits where the2 Koopa boys are pitching a game idea to 2 Japanese businessmen (One is supposed to be Miyamoto and I can’t remember who the other is supposed to represent)

Ghosted by Namrepus221 @ 07/07/2004 3:57 AM EDT

i loved this movie and always have. Long live Dago plumbers!

Ghosted by crowslament @ 07/08/2004 12:35 PM EDT

Ok ok. I’ll give this movie one ball. As in it sucked just one of my balls. I remember mildly enjoying it when I was 11 but seeing it recently has brought that down to a "I could have been watching something better."

Ghosted by Chazmyth @ 07/08/2004 7:24 PM EDT

L.M.W. is based on the big fish (which I know was mentioned already), named Big Bertha (not sure if that was mentioned in the 200+ comments here).

Great article. I was pissed that the movie had nothing to do with the game, but it wasn’t that bad once I got past that.

Ghosted by G'Noose @ 07/08/2004 7:57 PM EDT

Gee, where does one begin?

I guess at the beginning…

Well I still remember the day I saw this movie. Being an absolute nut about Mario at that time in my life I knew I had to see it.

I sat on the upper left hand side of the theater. I really feel sorry for the 15 people in the theater on that opening day. I was the only one who saw in humor in this movie. The poor guy who I sat behind thought I was down right stupid for laughing at the scene where Luigi and Mario get the Koopas to dance with each other in the elevator which I think is not in the video at all. Weird…anyways. I laughed so hard at that one scene never to see it again.

I do own the soundtrack and love it.

The best thing about this movie is the fact that a friend of mine after it was over looked at me and was like, “I don’t get it.” We used that against her for most of her high school career.

I have it on my list of top 100 movies.

Ghosted by Cathi @ 07/12/2004 11:10 AM EDT

I hated that movie. It pissed me off the way they screwed with my precious Mario Universe. And I think they tried to hard to enhance Luigi’s popularity by portraying him as a hip, young, sex god in this movie.

Ugh. Barf. BURN IT!

I think they should try again… and this time, have someone work on the movie who is actually familiar with the games.

Ghosted by duckyass @ 07/18/2004 5:05 PM EDT

Two other cool things about the movie that no one has mentioned yet:

Lance Henriksen plays the Mushroom King, who gets one line at the end.

There is one scene to reward people who sat through the ending credits, in which Spike and Iggy are pitching a video game idea to two Japanese businessmen.

Also, Spike and Iggy were both named after characters from the games. Iggy was one of Bowser’s kids in SMB3 and SMW, and if I remember correctly, Spike was a turtle who upchucked spiked balls and threw them at Mario in SMB3.

And yeah, it makes you wonder whether the screenwriters read the comic books, or whether it’s just a coincidence that Big Bertha has a crush on Mario.

Ghosted by Aaron Ackerson @ 08/27/2004 10:03 PM EDT

YOU ARE ALL F#####’ B#######.

Ghosted by FUCK YOU @ 08/28/2004 2:58 PM EDT

You fools, the best part is at the end when Samantha Matthis is trapped in that place with all the sparks and electricity, she bends all the way down and you see a whole LOT of of her assets. I’m thinking nippleage in a childrens film? WOOHOO!!!!

You’ll need to use the Jog function on your VCR folks.

Hey I was eleven ok?…

/Runs back to girlfriend…

Ghosted by JGN @ 08/31/2004 8:51 PM EDT

Large Mystery Woman/The big fish is named "Big Burtha", the fish that spit out smaller fish in underwater levels, Big Boss Bass was the big fish that jumped at you on water platform levels, saddly I know this type of info.

P.S. GREATEST MOVIE EVER, with Street Fighter coming in close second.

Ghosted by Tri-Clyde @ 09/01/2004 2:38 AM EDT

I’ve always enjoyed this movie. Not as a guilty pleasure, but as a pride at being one of a small handful of people who did. It’s kinda fun to love something that everyone else hates. You feel like you have it all to yourself and only have to share it with a few others. So what if it didn’t follow the games? I don’t think I would have watched it if it did … it would have had to be animated. *shudders* So what if the plot was corny? At least there were no holes in it. None that I saw anyway. It’s not the greatest movie ever, but it has always been one of my favourites. One of the best game-to-movie films ever, at least. But then Frogger could beat Tomb Raider.

Ghosted by Lucky @ 09/01/2004 6:35 PM EDT

Wazzup?! Well it could be a good movie. Just edit it a little.

Ghosted by Robbie @ 09/07/2004 1:29 PM EDT

Wazzup?! Well it could be a good movie. Just edit it a little.

Ghosted by Robbie @ 09/07/2004 1:30 PM EDT

This movie is one of my sick little pleasures. I bought it the other day for five bucks, just because.

I enjoyed the review. It’s as scattered as the film.

Ghosted by Jillian @ 09/13/2004 9:47 PM EDT

the fat lady is called big bertha that bitch is from the water world level she eats you if you get to close

Ghosted by logan @ 09/17/2004 5:41 PM EDT

i love this movie… after reading bits of your review, however, i completely hate it. thanks, ass.

Ghosted by xaanz @ 09/28/2004 10:10 PM EDT

Interesting tidbit to point out. Koopa’s head chief of police/guard/warren/whatever you want to call him actually looks more like Luigi than the Luigi they used for this movie does.

Ghosted by Mac Dragard @ 10/25/2004 9:54 PM EDT

i saw this in the theater with my dad when it came out, my dad played the game as much as i did. he was confused, i loved it.

sept 12, 2001. I flip to HBO, this movie is playing and it is the scene when New York begins decintigrating, starting with the Twin Towers. 8o

Ghosted by jesse @ 10/28/2004 8:31 PM EDT

i saw this in the theater with my dad when it came out, my dad played the game as much as i did. he was confused, i loved it.

sept 12, 2001. I flip to HBO, this movie is playing and it is the scene when New York begins decintigrating, starting with the Twin Towers. 8o

Ghosted by jesse @ 10/28/2004 8:31 PM EDT

I loved that movie… I know why everyone hates it… and I think they’re all stupid for not overlooking the simple reasons for the changes.

#1: They had to make it make at LEAST some semblance of sense. Thus they changed the story a little to fit into a real world setting, BUT still stayed true to the characters.

#2: There has to be conflict in a movie. and with this being an action movie… there has to be danger related to the conflict. THUS The gombas aren’t just walking mushrooms.

#3: Yoshi is a large reptile. in the movie he actually looks like a reptile.

#4: I’d really like to see you people make a better mario movie. The one that WAS made was entertaining, had a great cast, and stayed true to the characters and ideas while changeing things to fit it into a real world setting. All in all… this is probably the best movie made from a video game ever.

Seriously.

Ghosted by Morden Night @ 11/05/2004 2:07 AM EST

Call me CR-AZY, but I absolutely LOVED this movie. I remember my family and I seeing it back in the Summer of ‘93 after getting a family portrait taken (which still exists to this day, and I am looking at my very own 3×5 version as I type this), but I digress. I didn’t really understand the concept too well as a nine-year-old, but I do remember falling in love with one major positive this movie possessed that I have never laid eyes on before: John Leguizamo. I guess it was at that time I realized I was a woman because I was enamored with this sexy young man playing Mario’s much younger(???) brother, Luigi (which I always thought was strange, I mean, sure, I’m glad they made movie Luigi into not just such a fine piece of ass, which has made me appreciate him all the more to this day, but also clean-shaven, but I always thought of Lu-Lu being about four years younger, tops). Anyways, I know the Nintendo/Super Mario Bros. elitist would consider my opinion sacrilege, but who really cares? I still love this movie, nonetheless, and am willing to admit to more Nintendo heresy: I also liked the Donkey Kong Country computer-animated kids’shoe released a few years back and would love to have both on DVD someday.

P.S., I’m still a fan of John’s to this day.

Ghosted by Thema @ 10/06/2006 7:06 PM EDT

Hey the movie could at least have some better nintendo themes to it.. it could have been better

Ghosted by Anonymous @ 10/16/2006 2:33 PM EDT

You missed a couple things that I think you`ll find funny.

I think Koopa`s cousins were supposed to represent the hammer brothers, and the unlucky street chump who got turned into a Goomba, was supposed to be Toad.

Ghosted by Shawn @ 11/17/2006 10:35 PM EST

I never seen that movie b4 but, it does look like a cornball movie…. =/

Ghosted by Lorf Dranzarr @ 12/15/2006 11:42 PM EST

Luigi was missing his mustache in the movie.
Also,the fungus,in the movie,has something to do with the mushrooms in the video games.
That’s why Mario was able to use that mushroom as a shield at the end of the movie.I liked the little raptor in the movie,it was really close to resembling Yoshi.Also,if they wanted Mario to use fireballs,they could have given him a flamethrower.I didn’t see anything actually wrong with the movie,though,I liked it a lot.

Ghosted by Grifforzar @ 12/19/2006 1:15 AM EST

That was the worst movie ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ghosted by The keebler elf @ 01/08/2007 12:21 PM EST

hi i love your movie i have seen it 18836 times now and it is fabiless

Ghosted by Emma @ 01/10/2007 3:18 AM EST

lol, this movie is so stupid, yet I’m so addicted to it. I would even buy it on a HD-DVD or Blu-ray.

Ghosted by Berdo @ 03/16/2007 12:59 PM EST

I thought this was a great movie. I even showed it to my entire school body on feild day. they love it. Well, they loved the Bob-Omb anyway. I guess you can say Bob-Omb was the star to our eyes.

Ghosted by Nathan the Bob-Omb @ 05/23/2007 5:38 PM EDT

Here are some rights and Wrongs in this movie.
When we first see Mario and Luigi they are plumbers from Brooklyn, RIGHT. Mario and Luigi’s outfits towards the end realisticly match, RIGHT.
Yoshi looks like a Dinosaur RIGHT, Bob-ombs do what they do RIGHT, Samantha Mathis makes a Decent Princess RIGHT Koopa is Dennis Hopper with spiked hair and a Buisiness suit instead of being In a Lizard Costume which would be more threatening and relevant to the Games WRONG!!!!
This movie is good until Mario and Luigi get to Dinohattan which should have been called Mushroom land or Kingdom. Where are all the various lands? the only scenery that matches to the Games is the walls to Koopas Building (should have been a Castle) which look like fortress walls in SMB3 and the desert scene where Mario and Luigi Interigate Iggy and Spike.
Oh and the Mushrooms are Realistic but they don’t do what they’re supossed to do Luigi just grabs one and nothing happens. I don’t Know! they could have made it to work like the Starman. and why are the Goombas the only henchmen koopa has. They could have had koopa troopas and rip the costume idea from Razar from 1990’s TMNT2. According to the sigh one one of the buildings their is a Bullet bill reference BUT Since when is Bullet Bill a Store of a Place to hang, they’re bullets that koopa could have shot at Mario and Luigi!. If I Could i’d do the fans a Favor and rewrite this movie like they did for Superman, Batman and TMNT and give it a CGI/Live action realistic 2000 look. cause this movie wasn’t made right.

Ghosted by gregory Mazurkiewicz @ 05/27/2007 12:57 PM EDT

God I love this film, I don’t care how many of the game’s elements are in it. It features a fat plumber and a skinny plumber who are brothers of Italian origins and it has Bob-ombs, therefore it is Mario enough for me. Bob Hoskins is god.

Ghosted by ThinkTank @ 07/10/2007 6:46 PM EDT

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 23rd, 2004 at 6:41 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.