A place for those who "Trust the Fungus"

Hi everyone, Cecil here.

I've been doing a review/behind the scenes show about movies for over a year now. I focus on movies that are either rare, unknown, or have a bad reputation they don't deserve. For my 50th episode I wanted to make sure and do something special so I had been saving Super Mario Bros for just this occasion. While doing research for my 50th episode I found this site. What an awesome find! I emailed Ryan here to make sure if it was cool if I got some resources from him. After his blessing I put the finishing touches on the episode.

I wanted to make sure to post it here and I hope you enjoy it. The show runs a bit longer than my usual show, due to the overwhelming amount of info and flat out awesomeness of the movie.

http://blip.tv/file/4941575

Any comments and criticisms are welcome. Also, let me know if I missed anything or what you think I should have included. I had to trim a lot out simply because it was getting just too long.

I made sure to give this site a huge plug at the end. This place is by far the most thorough fan site I've ever seen.

Here's to hoping one day we'll get a special edition DVD!

Thanks for posting your review here on the forums, Cecil! Frankly, it's an honor for you to have chosen Super Mario Bros. as the featured film for your 50th anniversary episode.

I haven't yet watched the video yet myself, but I wanted to get a first post in.

Okay, I couldn't help it. I took a peek at the video--only the first minute-and-a-half. And...

Oh. My. God.

Seriously, if the rest of this video review/retrospective/documentary is as good as this first little bit, it very well may be the most complete and honest feature about the film on the net. I'm extremely glad that the site was able to provide enough information and context for this video. Perhaps it'll do its job--just as this site does--to get people to view the SMB film in a different light. Dispel the preconceived negativity here.

More thoughts coming soon...

This is truly one of the best and most comprehensive reviews of the film that I have ever seen. Ryan had mentioned to me that you had contacted him about doing such a review, but I didn't except it to have so much depth. I'm pleasantly surprised. The film really deserves to have said about it all that you have.

You covered just about everything that's necessary for a review, though I would have liked to hear more about why the original fantasy script was replaced with a science fiction script helmed by Rocky and Annabel. There's some real meat there that would really help people understand that the difficulties with the production started even before the directors came on.

For example, the fantasy production drained a few million dollars that had to be slashed from Rocky & Annabel's budget. That's not good for any project.

Anyways, this was an amazing piece. I know that you weren't able to cover everything, so I don't know how much you really know about the movie. Considering your appreciation for it, I hope that you decide to stick around to follow our upcoming updates. There's so much more information coming that will make you feel as if you still don't know everything.

Thank you so much Phlibbit and Redstar! I'm so glad you guys are happy with it. I'd been wanting to cover this movie ever since I started my show. I'm glad I waited because the material I found here helped to make this one of the most comprehensive episodes I've ever done. I would have liked to include more material but it came down to a matter of time. My original cut was almost an hour! There was just too much to fit in and I decided to scrap some things here and there.

In hindsight I would have liked to trim more of the movie summary and leave in a bit more of the backstory. However I didn't have time to go back and re-record some of my audio so I opted to leave it out.

Originally I had some comparisons between the "darker" script and the actual movie. I also had more material about the movie from John Leguizamo's autobiography. It came down to a point where I just had too much and some things had to go.

While I do know about much of the history of the film, I consider you guys by far the experts.

Oh, and don't worry. I will absolutely be around here. I can't wait to find out what else you've uncovered. I'm hoping one day you can get an interview with Rocky and Annabel and perhaps see their side of things. Maybe some insight as to why they insisted on going in such an odd direction with the movie.

Thank you again!

cecil wrote:My original cut was almost an hour! There was just too much to fit in and I decided to scrap some things here and there.

In hindsight I would have liked to trim more of the movie summary and leave in a bit more of the backstory. However I didn't have time to go back and re-record some of my audio so I opted to leave it out.

If you're at all interested we'd love to watch a longer cut of the review. I'm sure you said so much more that's worth hearing.

Additionally, I wanted to comment on something that I had forgotten in my initial response: According to scriptwriter Parker Bennett, Mario and Luigi are actually blood-related. Luigi was not adopted. There's simply a big age-difference between the two as well as unclear dialogue in that scene.

cecil wrote:Oh, and don't worry. I will absolutely be around here. I can't wait to find out what else you've uncovered. I'm hoping one day you can get an interview with Rocky and Annabel and perhaps see their side of things. Maybe some insight as to why they insisted on going in such an odd direction with the movie.

We're working on something in that area, so keep your fingers crossed!


Also, I've plugged the review via our Facebook page. If you have an account feel free to Like it or recommend the page to others.

This is a great in-depth review. I have honestly never seen a review that actually talked about the movie in such detail and showed the whole movie! I would also love to see the uncut version lol. You sir are a prodigy! I salute you.

Redstar wrote:If you're at all interested we'd love to watch a longer cut of the review. I'm sure you said so much more that's worth hearing.

Hmmmm...that's something to think about. I'd like to go back and perhaps do a "director's cut". I'll keep that in mind. I can't get to it right now with the other projects I have lined up but I'll keep it on the list. If/when I get to it you guys will be the first to know!

Redstar wrote:Additionally, I wanted to comment on something that I had forgotten in my initial response: According to scriptwriter Parker Bennett, Mario and Luigi are actually blood-related. Luigi was not adopted. There's simply a big age-difference between the two as well as unclear dialogue in that scene.

Really? I went over the scene in the restaurant a few times to make sure and the way Luigi spoke about how he didn't know his mother or father and how Mario raised him, I took it to be that the Mario family adopted him. I wonder if there was more to that scene that was cut that could have fleshed it out more.

Oh well, can't argue with the guy who wrote it!

Redstar wrote:We're working on something in that area, so keep your fingers crossed!

Can't wait!

Redstar wrote:Also, I've plugged the review via our Facebook page. If you have an account feel free to Like it or recommend the page to others.

Thank you! I will spread the word, I know a few people who will be happy to see this on facebook.

Also a HUGE thanks for putting Good Bad Flicks in the news on the front page! I really appreciate how much you all are enjoying this. Makes all the work worthwhile.

Shotgunwaffles wrote:This is a great in-depth review. I have honestly never seen a review that actually talked about the movie in such detail and showed the whole movie! I would also love to see the uncut version lol. You sir are a prodigy! I salute you.

Thank you so much!

All right--got my full impressions on the video:

Your setup for the segment was perfect--the "clean slate" approach. It's definitely the best thing to do when trying to discuss the film with anyone that's just heard that it's bad without any context.

So glad you gave props to David L. Snyder. He's just another reason why the film has such an amazing and unique look.

Loved it when you showed the artwork of a "realistic" Mario interpretation and why it wouldn't work in live action in that carbon-copy manner.

Good breakdown of the cast, and saving Hopper for last.

Ugh, the infamous Hoskins quote. People that really hate the film like to bring that up first thing. It's everywhere. Although Hoskins probably did have a bad time on the film, there are also some pretty interesting positive quotes from him about the development of the story/script, etc.

Yeah, the backstory for the brothers is kind of vague--Redstar covered what we know about that.

LOL @ the "Joey" video.

LOL also at the mention of the spandex girl in the police station scene. We have an interview coming up in which the interviewee talks for a second about that.

Good that you mentioned the deleted de-evolution scene.

Great bit about Yoshi! Glad that our interview with Guy Himber proved useful. So glad to hear you mention that the Jurassic Park people actually took notice from him--lots of people don't realize that.

I loved how you mentioned the crowd scene at the end of the film in which Koopa de-evolves Scapelli and everyone laughs. One of my least favorite parts of the film; I cringe every time I see it.

LOVED the game references part.

"A construction site, with a monkey...are you freaking kidding me?" Priceless.

And of course, major thanks for mentioning the site at the end.

And mentioning the Best Buy ad with SMB in it. Good stuff.

Like Redstar said, more info about the fantasy version would've been good--but honestly, that's worth its' own documentary in and of itself. Plus, our site doesn't have a whole lot of info about it up--but it will.

If your original cut of the segment was about an hour, that would be awesome to see. Although we have a lot of info on the site already, it's going to get a lot better in the months to come.

Maybe you could revisit the film again for your 75th anniversary.

Thanks Phlibbit!

Yeah, I figured the clean slate would be the best way to approach this. Shortly before I started working on the video I was talking to someone at work who was like "I heard that was the worst movie ever!". That was when I knew I had to say something to try and dispel all those awful preconceived notions.

David L Snyder is great. I'm a huge Blade Runner fan. I even have the kinda cool video games. (and the awesome knockoff game, Rise of the Dragon, where you play "Blade" Hunter)

Yeah, the Hoskins quote is rough but it had to be said. I think overall though, his frustrations were all targeted at the directors. Sometimes though, a tough filming environment can make a film amazing. Look at how The Shining turned out! The scene where Hallorann explains to Danny what "Shining" is was shot 148 times.

The "Joey" video was from a forgotten HBO show called "Hardcore TV". I wanted to throw in some humor and that was the first thing that came to mind when I was working on this.

Someone mentions spandex girl? I can't wait to read!

I wish they had the devolution scene on the DVD.

Yoshi is still amazing looking. The interview you had on here was fantastic and helped to show it wasn't just some last minute thing they threw in.

Ugh, the crowd scene gets me too. Although for me it's Mario deflecting the devolution gun with the mushroom. Doesn't detract from the whole but it is cringe worthy.

Thanks about the game references! That took quite a chunk of time to do but it was totally necessary to prove that this was a Mario Bros movie and not some other flick with a Mario skin.

No problem for the plug, you guys deserved it. The video wouldn't have been anywhere near as good without your input.

I think what I will do is hold of for a little while and see what you guys have coming. There could be some more info about the Fantasy script and maybe a bit more on the backstory. I think its looking more and more likely that I will have to revisit this video and give it an update in the future. Or at the very least, a part 2.