Product: Super Mario Bros. [VHS] (1993)
Rating: 5.0
My favorite movie of all time!
Super Mario Bros. is a movie with a troubled history.It initially was written as a fantasy movie by Tom S. Parker and Jim Jennewein with three foot Toad people and three foot Goombas, Hammer Bros, a turtle-shelled King Koopa and rolling green hills of the Mushroom Kingdom, with castles, green pipes and a damsel in distress-- that was one of the first drafts of the screenplay, written in 1991.In 1992, Rocky Morton and Anabel Jankel took over the project and wanted to take the film in a more 'adult' direction, so they hired screenwriters Parker Bennett and Terry Runte who wrote a Ghostbusters- influenced science fiction movie with thousands of references to the game, but alas, it was not meant to be. So then they hired Dick Clement and Ian la Frenais, who wrote a hard-boiled, balls-to-the-wall Mad Max inspired movie with fewer references to the game but had stronger character development and a better plot-- this is the script that Bob Hoskins, Dennis Hopper and Fiona Shaw read and decided to join the project, but were very dismayed when on the first day of shooting they were handed an entire new script by Edward Solomon and Ryan Rowe. As the filming progressed, the script changed many times. The directors wanted a more 'adult' sci-fi film, but the producers wanted something more family friendly-- it tried to be too many things at once. But in the end, we got a quirky and fairly original film.It pains me to admit this, but I didn't even know who Mario was until 1996.My parents never really bought into the video-game thing until the Nintendo 64-- which I got on either my ninth birthday or Christmas of 1996. The first game I got on that system was Super Mario 64, both of which (the very same console and the cartridge) are still in pristine condition to this day.However, it was not until the next year, 1997, a banner year, that I was made aware of the existence of a movie based on our favorite plumbers. I was watching a movie and I said to my Dad, "wouldn't it be cool if they made a movie out of Mario?" To which he replied: "Oh yeah, the Super Mario Bros. movie was on the Sci-Fi channel the other day, I wanted to call you but you weren't home," much to my shock and awe. Now, before you read on, you must know that when I was 9 or 10, Bob Hoskins was my favorite actor (and still is today) and I had no idea of his involvement in a Mario motion picture. So I said: "Oh my God, we got to rent it-- who plays Mario?" To which my jaw dropped to the center of the Earth when he replied "Your buddy, Bob Hoskins," who I admired for such movies as Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Mermaids. So we dropped everything we were doing and drove to the video-store and rented a copy of the movie.Well, it blew me away then, and it blows me away now, every time I watch it. Bob Hoskins, albeit hating his experience on the project pulled through tried and true and delivered a powerful performance as Super Mario and I was introduced to a bunch of other actors like John Leguizamo, who I would go on to admire in Romeo + Juliet and Land of the Dead, as well as Dennis Hopper who is in two of my favorites: Mad Dog Morgan in which he plays the titular character, and in Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, which to this day is the only movie I've ever seen him play a hero and not a villain. (Incidentally, John Leguizamo and Dennis Hopper appear together on screen as adversaries once again in George Romero's Land of the Dead, which you should check out!) Other actors like Fisher Stevens I would enjoy in the "Short Circuit" films, and Samantha Mathis I already admired for Fern Gully, and would go on to enjoy her in American Psycho, in which she plays Christian Bale's affair. I was so young when I first saw the movie, I didn't care that it wasn't exactly like the games-- but I appreciated that they just went ahead and made a movie based on Super Mario Bros. That's something that has truly withstood the winds of time-- I still love the movie today as much as I did when I was a kid.Even though it's not the best movie in the world, it is my favorite, and has been my favorite movie since the summer that, I think, truly concluded my childhood. In the years since, Super Mario Bros. continues to be a source of inspiration and happiness for me. And I thank everyone involved in the movie for that. And I know that in the years to come, with the possibilities of a director's cut on Blu-Ray and lots of special features, it will be a source of endless happiness for me for the rest of my life.For more great information on the Super Mario Bros. movie, check out [...]-- the Super Mario Bros. Movie Archive!