A place for those who "Trust the Fungus"

Now I know this may come off as unecessary or something or maybe its a bit uneeded and if Redstar or Phlibbit decides to move it or remove this thread, I'd understand. But this is just for me to spill out ALL of my thoughts on this movie. To say what I really think about it. Now this review won't be short as when I review stuff or when I read reviews, I don't like short unparagraphed reviews, mostly when they're just fan rants.

(example- WORST MOVIE EVER!!! Now imagine that as the premise of a review but spreaded out into 6 sentences about errors we haven't already heard of.)

I like long reviews that fully explain the reviewers thoughts, though then again short reviews are often more convienient for the reader mostly cuz they're short. But if your like me who enjoy big reviews this is for you.

First of all lets explain the cast:

10/10. What re you insane?! What is there to complain about here?! Bob Hoskins: No. John Leguizamo: No. Dennis Hopper: Well, he didn't really do anything over the top like he did in his other work but he still pulled off a pretty good Koopa. Samantha Mathis: Well, at some points, she seemed like she was yawning her lines out than speaking them but other than that No. Fiona Shaw: No, she was great as Lena. Especially with that slimy evil voice she provided.

The other cast members like Mojo Nixon, Fisher Stevens and Richard Edson also did their job well too. Again, vey little wrong with the cast.


Now for the plot:

6/10. Well what did you expect? The story is just Super Mario Brothers. Princess gets kidnapped by Koopa, Mario and Luigi save her. I mean sure there's added stuff like with the rock and the fact that he movie was based on dinosaurs which is interesting because dinosaurs were in the game but not developed enough.

The special effects and set/costume design:

7/10. Now for 90's these effects were pretty cool and the sets and costume were really good. Though I really don't get why they couldn't at least let Mario and Luigi wear something that resemles their clothes. What I mean is, all they had to do was have Luigi wear a green shirt and blue jeans and have Mario wear a red shirt and blue jeans.

That way, the costumes respresented the games but they fit the tone the movie tried to set up. But hey, the colored jumpsuits at the end represnted their game clothes so all is good. But anyway the sets were great! I really felt there was a bit more of dinohatten there than what the movie was showing. And you gotta love the signs and posters the town had.

Like for instance, there's one with Koopa having a chainsaw in hishand while the poster says "Koopa the eviromentalist". Or even references ot the games like there's one sign that has the name Fry Guy! And there were some neat animatronics, my favorite being the final stage of Koopa.

The Music:

8/10. I liked it, well not as much as roger rabit or back to the future. But it was a good score.

Overall:

7/10. Now why 7? Well because its not god awful but its not oscar worthy either. Its in between, just because its not the best movie of all time or because people hate this movie a lot doesn't mean you don't watch it. Everyone has an opinion, but it sucks that sometimes people just go with what the crowd says than go with what they say. And tihs movie does not deserve the onslaut of negativity it gets.

But here is the top 4 reasons why the movie wasn't a sucess.

1. Its a dinosaur related movie that was released in 1993: Now why would this be a problem you say? Well remember that OTHER dinosaur related movie called um, JURRASSIC PARK? Yeah which one would a movie goer choose, JP because it has a lot better special effects and interesting story, or SMB which also has a good cast but has inferior special effects, plot holes, and corny scenes, but will ALSO be released earlier? Some people actually think SMB is a knockoff of JP. Espcially since JP may have actually been anounced earlier than its release date. Giving Hollywood pictures enough time to add dinosaurs in SMB.

So people might think it was to cash in on JP's rumored sucess. And hell, some people don't even know JP was released after SMB so they might think the movie was changed to make it like JP which wasn't the case. But had the movie been released earlier or later then JP, it probably wouldn't been thought of that, probably.

2. It wasn't handled right: Now I was actually interested in the sci-fi look. I mean it actually could've been done right and osme parts of it are done right. Take the part where they infitrate the tower. That's exactly like when the Bros infitrated the castles. But then again some aspects were just screwed up. Like the Goombas could've actually been mutated deformed bits of fungus that Koopa had been expirementing on. But we got what we got and for some parts it was acceptable but it really could've reinvented the game franchise very differently than what they did.

3. Some of the crew didn't know the games: Now this isn't really required like, you don't have ot be a fan of a product to be the director of that product. But look at Peter Jackson's King Kong, not only has it honored the original by not being a carbon copy of the original but it also adds homages to the original. Or look at the latest Incredible Hulk Movie not only is it a good comic book movie but it also references the TV show alot. And that was because these people knew the material they were working on. They knew every bit of it.

This isn't the case with SMB, most of the crew like Bob Hoskins, Jeff Goodwin and others haven't heard of the games. I don't even think the directors knew what the games were they just studied it and made their vision of it. Which is fine I don't really care much its just that sometimes when your not really a fan of the product you working on, chances are its not gonna be very faithful but that's just me. I mean several people haven't been fans of certain products and yet their vision was successful. I mean look at the Hulk TV series, gthe series creator wasn't a fan of the Hulk but he still made a pretty tragic and great series.

4. It was the 1st US videogame movie to be released: Not only would this put much pressure on the filmakers but it would also make people think about the movie doing poorly. It was a gray area at the time, no one knew what to expect. Had the movie been released after a couple of other videogames, maybe that would've eased the filmakers. But nope, it was the first.

And that's my 2 cents on it. Overall its not a great film but its very rewatchable and it odesn't deserve the crap it gets.

1upmushroom wrote:First of all lets explain the cast:

10/10. What re you insane?! What is there to complain about here?! Bob Hoskins: No. John Leguizamo: No. Dennis Hopper: Well, he didn't really do anything over the top like he did in his other work but he still pulled off a pretty good Koopa. Samantha Mathis: Well, at some points, she seemed like she was yawning her lines out than speaking them but other than that No. Fiona Shaw: No, she was great as Lena. Especially with that slimy evil voice she provided.

The other cast members like Mojo Nixon, Fisher Stevens and Richard Edson also did their job well too. Again, vey little wrong with the cast.

I agree with you entirely. There's not a single member of the cast I'd outright replace, even if some of them didn't exactly look the part of put their all into it. Samantha Mathis as Daisy is perhaps the most disappointing character, but she still looks the part and, alongside her fellow castmembers, help define that role.

1upmushroom wrote:Now for the plot:

6/10. Well what did you expect? The story is just Super Mario Brothers. Princess gets kidnapped by Koopa, Mario and Luigi save her. I mean sure there's added stuff like with the rock and the fact that he movie was based on dinosaurs which is interesting because dinosaurs were in the game but not developed enough.

I think dinosaurs/reptiles are a hugely integral part of the games, especially in Super Mario World (obviously) and later titles. The prehistoric land of Super Paper Mario and Dino-Piranha of Super Mario Galaxy come to mind.

1upmushroom wrote:The special effects and set/costume design:

7/10. Now for 90's these effects were pretty cool and the sets and costume were really good. Though I really don't get why they couldn't at least let Mario and Luigi wear something that resemles their clothes. What I mean is, all they had to do was have Luigi wear a green shirt and blue jeans and have Mario wear a red shirt and blue jeans.

That way, the costumes respresented the games but they fit the tone the movie tried to set up. But hey, the colored jumpsuits at the end represnted their game clothes so all is good.

While this really didn't bother me before, now that you've mentioned it I do think they could have made a better attempt at color-coding the two brothers. However, one thing I did just notice is that Mario's pants/jacket in the early parts of the film are white with red trim... Almost like his Fire Mario pallet.

1upmushroom wrote:The Music:

8/10. I liked it, well not as much as roger rabit or back to the future. But it was a good score.

These three movies have probably some of the best music of the entire '80s and '90s.

1upmushroom wrote:2. It wasn't handled right: Now I was actually interested in the sci-fi look. I mean it actually could've been done right and osme parts of it are done right. Take the part where they infitrate the tower. That's exactly like when the Bros infitrated the castles. But then again some aspects were just screwed up. Like the Goombas could've actually been mutated deformed bits of fungus that Koopa had been expirementing on. But we got what we got and for some parts it was acceptable but it really could've reinvented the game franchise very differently than what they did.

That's actually a good idea as far as the Goombas, though I would prefer them to be unrelated characters. I really do love the idea of 7-foot, hulking Nazi dinosaurs.

1upmushroom wrote:3. Some of the crew didn't know the games: Now this isn't really required like, you don't have ot be a fan of a product to be the director of that product. But look at Peter Jackson's King Kong, not only has it honored the original by not being a carbon copy of the original but it also adds homages to the original. Or look at the latest Incredible Hulk Movie not only is it a good comic book movie but it also references the TV show alot. And that was because these people knew the material they were working on. They knew every bit of it.

It seems like a healthy amount of people who worked on the film did know about the game, with a good number of them actually having played and liked it. As you'll see in later interviews, the movie had a lot more heart than other video game adaptations that would come later.

1upmushroom wrote:And that's my 2 cents on it. Overall its not a great film but its very rewatchable and it odesn't deserve the crap it gets.

Hey, man. Good review. Sorry it took so long for me to respond to it, but I have now! Finally!