Product: Super Mario Bros. [VHS] (1993)
Rating: 2.0
Thank You, But Our Brains Are In Another Castle...
The Good Things*Some very slick special effects.*Some fun actions scenes (the police car chase was cool).*Some funny moments too (although much of it is quite corny. I still think the elevator scene was great, though).*Pretty good production design. Lots of scummy futuristic settings, props, and costumes (although nothing really resembles the original computer game).*The story idea is not bad (especially since the computer game was so surreal to begin with). They did a good job incorporating modern ideas about alternate universes, explaining what may have happened to dinosaurs, and describing the evolution of life. Well, much of this is BS, but it's good enough.*Good soundtrack (I still like the "Walk the Dinosaur" song).The Bad Things*The production design resembles something out of "Blade Runner," so it lacks the bright and fantastic settings and atmosphere of the original computer games. I think it would have worked better as a "Narnia" sort of thing instead of this far-out sci-fi. All around, it resembles surprisingly little of the original game, except for all of the names.*Also missing out on a whole bunch of the creatures from the original games (I guess they didn't have the time or money).*Wow, the opening is pretty dumb.*Some parts are just plain weird. Mario and Bowser appear in the middle of a huge crowd and throw some magic around, and nobody seems concerned. They even laugh when the mobster is turned into a monkey. This is kind of funny, but seriously, nobody cares that the world is coming to an end?!The Questionable Things*Extremely corny and goofy. Great for kids or people who don't like seriousness. Bad for most others.*Acting can be seen as terrible or acceptable.*Seriously, is this guy really named "Mario Mario?"As a movie, it stinks royally. But we got to consider that the original computer game was extremely strange and silly to begin with (what with a pair of plummers jumping on things, eating mushrooms to grow bigger, and eating flowers to spit fireballs; were they on drugs when they made these games?!), and translating it into a movie was bound to be disasterous. In that respect, the movie does okay. If you ignore the impossibilities and accept the goofiness, this is actually pretty fun and possibly nostalgic. Otherwise, it stinks royally.The DVD has okay video and sound quality. It's in widescreen, but is not anamorphic. Disc has no special features other than a trailer.If this review has not been helpful, feel free to leave a comment, telling me how I can improve.