Video: Explaining The Hot Mess That Was The Super Mario Bros. Movie

What were they smoking?

I'd say Tom Hanks is eternally grateful he dodged this Bullet Bill.

It's a laugh

I saw the documentary on the blu ray release. It sounded like an interesting film initially which is likely why they got cast members like Bob Hoskins and Dennis Hopper. The film ran out of money, a studio picked it up, and changes were made to the script.
It's a shame the film wasn't released with the story that was intended. It may have performed better.

That's a Ghoulie, right?

I've never actually seen this.i used to have a thing for "so bad,it's good" movies though.Like the dubbed Japanese monster movies and The Toxic Avenger 1 to 4.Maybe I would enjoy this or is it just bad bad?

For a second there, I thought it was an article about @gatorboi352...

It was a horrible movie, though. But nowadays, it's worth a watch because it's so bad that it has become good again.

I was walking the dinosaur when that movie came out! It was my jam when I was a naive little kid willing to take in anything that had my favorite plumbers attached to it! No matter how bad it might seem by today's standards I still enjoy a watch every so often and have fond memories of it.

During 90's era, there were some Horrible USA Movies that adapted from Japanese games. There was also Street Fighter by Jean Claude van Damme, the worst Live Action SF Movie ever but... Jackie Chan did it Perfectly even just only 5 minutes on City Hunter Live Action movie, of course after Jackie Chan struck by Electricity from SF 2 Machine, "Fighting" with his opponent with SF style and Finished it with...Chun Li costume. XD
Well, what a memories during 90's...

I love this movie. Haha.

My younger brother and I quote this masterpiece of junk quite often. "Goombaaa! Ahhhh!"

Edit: Personally, my most favorite part is when Mario's sneaking in to rescue the women, and one of them shouts, "HEEEYYYY, MARIOOOOO!!!!" Dang.

Nintendo obviously expected the film to be a success because it has an open cliffhanger ending. Presumably because the Koopa Kids, Tatanga, Wario or Wart were going to be an antagonist in the sequel.

@AcclaimDev Hollywood studios sadly are a bunch of holes in the ground and dumb-butts wrapped in tin foil.

To me, this movie was doomed the moment they decided to do a live-action Mario movie. At least some good came of it as a nice retrospective like this now exists.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE

Take us to your leader.

Seriously this is one of the most awful videogame movies ever. Only surpassed by Chun Li Origins.

Double Dragon was worse than this movie imo, and it had Alyssa Milano and Robert Patrick. But that Billy and Jimmy... woooo boy. That movie actually made SMB more enjoyable

@OorWullie
it's actually a pretty fun movie if you look at it as a B-Movie with Mario references. I went to a 20th anniversary screening of it a couple years ago and I had some good laughs watching it.

I saw this movis twice opening weekend. It was Memorial Day in the U.S. I also have the complete collection of collectible Slurpy cups from 7-11. AND I REGRET NOTHING!

TL;DR:

'90s.

I had the chance to watch that over the weekend. It's unfortunate there were so many changes. It looks like it had the potential to be a decent movie.

I recently watched this again too and it didn't go to the "it's so bad that it's good" category. It's not the worst but it's really dull watch despite all the craziness going on.

My dad took me and my cousin to see this, coincidentally followed by some excellent New York style pizza afterward. Not to mention, that Koopa action figure was one of my faves. So I've got some good memories associated with it. Would love to see a closer adaptation, whether its animated or live action again.

Still the best Video Game turned into a movie there is!

Sir, the Goombas are dancing again!

I'm genuinely curious: Are there any big budget video game adaptation movies that are generally considered pretty good?

@BulbasaurusRex I don't know about 'generally', but I really had a good time seeing the Warcraft movie. There are lots of fans of thr Resident Evil movies despite their story having very few similarities to the games. The upcoming Assassins Creed movie looks like it might do well. Oh and I heard good things about The Last Of Us - they took a big risk releasing it on the PS4 instead of theatres but everyone I know that watched it really enjoyed it.

Wreck-It Ralph was great too as a tribute to arcade games, and Bowser and Sonic are in it.

Oh and I think my kid enjoyed the Angry Birds movie.

I actually went and saw it in theaters, and liked it. It was humorous and entertaining, which is what you didn't really see in films recently...plus, I was a John Leguizamo fan, so that was another reason, plus...Mario was extremely popular and there really wasn't anyone that didn't know who he was. The film was different but enjoyable to watch, not really counting it as a 'B' movie because of the high budget...'B' movies have low budgets with low actors, not due to how much they made...this article does make me wonder though, if Tom Hanks would have been in it and the original script wasn't touched and the first director was to do it, would it still have been a success??? Mortal Kombat, which turned out to be a big hit when it released, looks awful now due to the special effects (plus, Goro looked horrible when it first came out)...just makes you wonder. If Mario was tried again as a live-action movie, would it work out this time? (granted that no actor would give it a chance after the reviews of the original). Video Games to Movies don't really work out. Many people tried to want Legend Of Zelda made, but there's only two directors that I could see pull it off...Steven Spielberg or James Cameron...just like Silent Hill (which was a pretty good film) could have been better and more scares if Wes Craven would have directed. It's not just the actors that make the movie it's also the directors. The Directors can chance the ideas the writer's have, as well as the actors. Danny Devito would have been a perfect fit as Mario, but then...Leguizamo would not have been able to play Luigi due to height. Schwarzenegger would not have been a good Koopa, but imagine who would have been...they would have to be a big hulking male figure...Dolph Lundren???

@Embassy Silent Hill was a pretty good one too for a creepy horror film...kept to the roots and offered some pretty good settings and designs (the sequel wasn't that great though). Mortal Kombat was actually a hit when it released too, just looks bad to this day and the sequel was just plain horrible to it. Pixels (although everyone puts down Sandler films) was also not that bad. The Wizard was very good if you look at the main plot that doesn't deal with games, but with a miracle child. Other than that, Ratchet And Clank was also a pretty good animated film...my kids enjoyed that, but they also enjoyed the Mario Film. They have yet to see the Angry Birds film, as I haven't heard from anyone that saw it yet...was it a good movie for kids, or just so-so???

@BulbasaurusRex Silent Hill, Mortal Kombat was a hit when it came out, but looks horrible now, and the Wizard was pretty good, but it's not based upon video games. Tomb Raider was also a hit but it wasn't that great. Other than that, until a few of game-to-film adaptions actually start doing good and make money, you won't see any great ones come...Directors, Actors, Studios and Writer's won't take them seriously until they begin to make decent money.

@Tempestryke you forgot about mortal kombat annihilation or what?

@BulbasaurusRex The first Mortal Kombat

I don't care for rated R movies, so I guess I'll just stick with the annual Pokémon movies until something else interests me.

@polivar4

Well I'm not crazy about it. But it's not Mario Bros. or Chun Li's Origins.

@MeloMan

I haven't seen that in years.

@BulbasaurusRex
Uh...hmm... the first Mortal Kombat is pretty fun, I actually liked Silent Hill, Wreck-It Ralph is a good movie and Street Fighter isn't great, but if you like camp and cheese then you'd enjoy it.

I still think Metroid and Castlevania would make a good movie IF Hollywood doesn't screw them up as they tend to do. Maybe Portal?

@JLPick

Well maybe if they didn't make em like utter crap, they might make serious money.

@Tempestryke Yes, "Wreck-It Ralph" is great, but it's not a video game adaptation. It's along the same lines as "The Wizard" (or a good version of "Pixels"), a celebration of video games that's framed by original characters in an original storyline.

@Tempestryke That's why I don't think the big fan-base ones should be done by a cheap director or writer...listen to the fans and then choose. Spielberg or James Cameron could bring a really good Legend Of Zelda movie to life...even Ron Howard could do a good job...some of the others though, wouldn't care, they'd just think that it's going to boost their rankings in hollywood.

@JLPick

So true. I mean how do they expect to draw in crowds and for them to be viable by cheaping out all across the board?

That's like saying your gonna open a Chinese food restaurant, putting half-***** effort into it, then blaming the kind of food for not bringing in customers.

We could have something good. Instead we get mediocre crap, with occasional semi-precious gems.

@JLPick

Actually I think Zelda would work wonderfully as a traditional animated film.

@Tempestryke Mario could work as an animated film too. Ratchet and Clank and Angry Birds worked, but...then they'd have to give a voice to Link and Zelda, which nintendo probably doesn't want to do (then they'd have to have voice actors in the games)...but, they could still silence him...I think Link had his tongue removed at birth!!!!

@Tempestryke And those gems get lost because of the others...but, if they end up getting somewhat of a hit, they ruin them with sequel after sequel...why do we keep getting Resident Evil movies...the first one barely had any gore or blood in it...you would have thought a zombie horror film (especially when there was plenty in the games) would have had gallons of blood dropped. I think I only watched Mortal Kombat because of Christopher Lambert being in it, and throughout the years, it was the CGI that made it look horrible, but the theaters were packed for a good long time...then came the sequel which was plain horrible and killed the comedy relief right away (which most people that saw the first one, ended up loving Johnny Cage).

Even as I saw the previews for Assassin's Creed, it still has that somewhat cheesy look to it. Uncharted was to come out, but to me...it wouldn't have worked and just would have been a copy of an Indiana Jones film. Castlevania could be a good horror film to bring to the plate, or even an animated Kirby or Jak and Daxter...with all of the Sonic series out there, I'm surprised there hasn't been a big theatrical movie of Sonic...could work out too.

@JLPick

Well they have given Link and the Marios voices before this in cartoons. Captain Lou Albano and Danny Wells voiced them and how can anyone forget the infamous Well excuuuse meee princess. I shamelessly own the box sets.

So if they got someone decent to voice them on an animated film it would be fine.

@JLPick

Considering Castlevania and Metroid's inspirations, it could be great!

As for sequels ruining them, it's not limited to vg movies. JAWS is a good example.

@Tempestryke Jaws 2 wasn't that bad...part 3 looks horrible now due to it being in 3D...Revenge was just plain horrible.

@Tempestryke who would you cast as Samus?

@JLPick

I personally lly like jaws 3.

@polivar4

Mmm. Not sure. What do you think?

@Tempestryke I did too, but the 3D element kind of ruined it at the end. Other than that, it had some pretty decent kills. The one thing that made the original that I loved was the fact that Spielberg decided not to use the color red in anything except the blood.

@polivar4 Kristy Swanson would be a good pick! She's got the body and she did action films before. I'd say Jennifer Aniston, but she'd only have the body...not the action sequences. Only a few other ones would fit the bill.

@polivar4 @Tempestryke Who's the chick who played in Kill Bill and Girl with the Dragon Tattoo?

@JLPick Jen is too old. Maybe Ronda Rousey? Since she can't act she wouldn't have to talk at all.