'Trust the fungus!' (Super Mario Bros - The Original Motion Picture (DVD))

Member Name: pmcds

Product:	Super Mario Bros - The Original Motion Picture (DVD)
Date:	16/08/09 (62 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Passes the time

Disadvantages: Very disappointing overall production

The 1990s saw a few attempts at making films out of popular computer games. Success wasn't a word that was particularly associated with many of them, with Jean-Claude Van Damme and co flopping with Street Fighter, and Mortal Kombat fading into nothingness following an initially potential success. One that seems to have been forgotten is this film, Super Mario bros, which takes the immmensely popular series of computer games of the same name, and gives them the big screen treatment.

Mario (Bob Hoskins) and Luigi (John Leguizamo) are the Mario Brothers, and are plumbers who are down on their luck. Nothing goes their way, with the gruff Mario more of an old school kind of guy and the young and immature Luigi more interested in aliens and girls than learns the tools of the trade. A chance encounter with Daisy (Samantha Mathis) launches them into an inter-dimensional struggle against the evil King Koopa (Dennis Hopper), living in an alternative world where dinosaurs have developed into humanoids. The only thing standing in Koopa's way is our group of bumbling heroes and some strange fungus hanging around the world that Koopa lives in.

Ultimately, it's a pretty silly story, with Daisy supposedly being the princess who holds the key to Koopa joining the worlds and taking over both. It sort of follows the games in many ways, with the main characters showing up as well as some of the noises you may associate with the game. The problem is that it's pretty rubbish in most ways. For some reason, deviations to characters have been made. Hoskins and Leguizamo are pretty much okay as the Mario Bros. Their acting is a bit suspect at times, as is that of Mathis as Daisy. Dennis Hopper is Koopa, but whereas in the game, he appears as a dinosaur that can talk, here the only difference between Koopa and a regular human is that he has spiky hair. Amazing what hair gel can do!

Similarly, the character of Toad in the game is a little toadstool with the stalk being the face and body and a couple ofi arms and legs protruding from it. Here, Toad is a guy with a toadstool swirl on a baseball cap he's wearing. There are other 'lazy' anomalies as the film progresses, which are just a bit annoying and take the film too far from the game. In fact, the Bros only don their familiar red and green dungarees near the final third of the film.

It's all a bit wet (pardon the plumbing pun!), and the special effects are even less impressive. The fact that it was in 1993 is no excuse - look at the marvels films such as T2 achieved in a similar era. I understand that budget restrictions were probably heavily in place, but the whole thing just seems really lacklustre. The acting is below par, really, despite some comedic turns from Koopa's two goons, Spike (Richard Edson) and Iggy (Fisher Stevens), and while some of the action is entertaining, I shan't be giving this one another go.

There were no extras on the DVD, nor did I particularly want to see any. It's currently available for £5.18 from amazon.co.uk, but I can't say I would recommend it. It was enjoyable enough, and it passed the time, but I was highly disappointed with what should have been a very enjoyable big screen transfer for the plumber brothers.

Summary: 1993 film of the popular computer game franchise