I think that was the universal impression of younger kids watching it (maybe a handful would have been primed by the Theodore Rex-Who Framed Roger Rabbit plot and set design continuum), it’s really down to how much the “off” part works for you in and around that other early 90s stuff
2 Likes
I saw this for the first time in 2018 or 2019 and I was blown away by how accomplished it is at being a gross, funny, cyberpunk dystopia movie. It’s some weird fucking dinosaur blade runner shit. I have no idea if I’d have liked it as a kid–I didn’t play any Nintendo products at the time and barely understood who Mario was “supposed” to be–but today, as an adult, it works for me in the same way that The Fifth Element works for me. Eccentric sci-fi, the kind of incredible gags that make you actively dumber while laughing at them–I really like that stuff now as an adult, and I can value media that really gets down in the dirt and wriggles around in wonderfully gross physical prop garbage the way SMB does. I think it’s extremely special and genuinely good and funny. So glad it exists!!
8 Likes
well i could understand not liking it as a kid, for sure
i liked the Mario movie as a kid, but also did feel like it was a little disappointing that it didn’t feature more things from the games in their original form.
i know i liked it because i know i thought the Street Fighter and Double Dragon movies were not good
1 Like
Despite liking both Mario and Jurassic Park even as a kid I found it corny that they had to somehow make it derivative of Jurassic Park.
3 Likes
I mean it came out at nearly exactly the same time so it would have been hard to make it derivative? Hollywood was hype about dinosaurs in the early 90s
mars attacks was almost based on the dinosaurs attack trading cards instead there was something in the air
10 Likes
I liked when the guy gets eaten by birds in We’re Back and there’s just a screw left
2 Likes
i didnt really understand hollywood production cycles as a kid i guess. the time between jurassic park and mario bros the movie was like more than 1/10th of my entire life at the time! it felt like forever
also shit like carnosaur was released around the same time which was definitely trying to jump on jp’s success
another reason i wasn’t fond of the mario bros movie as a kid, though i don’t think i really realized it in quite this way at the time, was that the whole dystopian urban nightmare thing was really played out in b and c movies at the time. it feels really weird and creative now, but everything was kinda like that back then. it just felt like such a bland interpretation of the mario world, which was so sunny and pleasant and fun.
6 Likes
I think quite a few contemporary reviews actually pointed this out with considerable confusion
1 Like
It was the '90s and there was time for production designers because everything was supposed to be a laser-tag version of Tim Burton’s Batman
I don’t think the Super Mario Bros. movie is very good at what it sets out to do but like a lot of these dayglo disasters there’s a lot of good pieces in it. Honestly what I get out of watching it is a lot like what I get out of modern AAA omnishamble projects, a lot of sumptuous craft in a state of disrepair.
or, the Super Mario Bros. movie is the Cyberpunk 2077 of the '90s
6 Likes
Ya you go into any video store in the 90s and like 1/3 of the shit on the rack is gonna be some Blade Runner knock off that’s probably way better than Mario. Definitely gonna have a lower budget (a plus), maybe have more colors, might even have boobs or extreme gore, also highly likely to have a cast made up of actual Italians*
I will never re-watch Mario or any other effects movie with a $30mil+ budget…not while tubi is still bringing the goods…
Man Cherry 2000 sucked didn’t it, I’d rather watch it than anything released by Touchstone Pictures though
I’m glad most people enjoy the Bob Hoskins movie though, he was great, he was also in Spice World, now that’s a movie I love…that’s a movie I love to death.
*Probably dubbed over but it’s still more legit than anyone in Mario OKAY
7 Likes
I can’t decide if it’s five degrees off a tone that would work or if it’s unsalvageable. boy those Beach Boys Airstream Mad Maxians were a thing
Kind of presages Fallout 2
And there’s that episode of the Ghost in the Shell show all about a guy who wants to sex his obsolete android wife
2 Likes
I first saw the Super Mario Brothers movie on cable as a child, having no knowledge that a Super Mario Brothers film even existed, it was really weird! but I appreciate what it was going for.
Finally saw Everything Everywhere All At Once. I liked it a lot. It had very good cinematography. Every actor really shines here. I did cry a little! I kind of wish it had more martial arts sequences. I do like that the film really commits to some of it’s more throwaway gags and turns them into very sincere moments. Here’s a doodle I made during the last section of the movie, which sums up my feelings (and is somehow sideways)
I don’t know if it’s the greatest film of the last decade or whatnot, that’s probably Fury Road (for me). But I enjoyed it. I’d watch it again to catch everything I missed.
3 Likes
Just finished watching Occult (2009) by Koji Shiraishi and I didn’t enjoy it as much as I enjoyed Noroi but I did still like it a lot. It’s a fun character study of this one guy who is doing a really good job being an unbelievably creepy asshole. Takes a bit to get there but once it does it’s very engrossing.
I like how Shiraishi always does something weird with the fake documentary format in these movies. The gag in this one is that he plays himself as a character in the movie, directing a documentary about this fucked up creepy guy. He does some entertaining stuff with that premise.
Final 20 minutes are hugely galaxy brained. The characters simply refuse to progress the plot toward the horrible shit you know is coming, and instead they discuss Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull for what feels like forever. Absolutely on the edge of my seat listening to these assholes talk about that shit. Amazing.
Whole movie is on Youtube here if you want to watch it:
Edit: should specify. The gag in this one, that Shiraishi is a character and a director in it, is the same as in several of his movies, but the outcomes are pretty extreme in a couple of funny and unexpected ways. Check it out!!
5 Likes
I saw Mario when I was 11 or whatever in the theater and still have an extremely vivid memory of walking out the back door into some bright ass sunlight in the mall parking lot after the post credits scene (because Ive always stuck around for the credits) and gushing to my folks about how great it was.
I was familiar with bits and pieces of the tv cuts of Bladerunner and Robocop. Hell, maybe my slightly older next door neighbor had even filled me in on the plot of Neuromancer by that point.
We already had the syndicated show and the Saturday morning series. I didn’t want to see that as a live action thing and could not picture it even working. This movie seemed like it had totally hit the mark.
It was so weird years later reading in the more candid years of Nintendo Power or later on seanbaby or I-mockery into the internet age about how the Mario movie was a disappointment or scarred kids or whatever. That was never my experience or that of any of my friends.
10 Likes
I ought to add that the Masters of the Universe and Punisher movies had already prepared us that adaptions were going to be big departures from the source material. The only surprise would have been Dolph Lundgren not getting cast as a dinosaur man.
4 Likes
High school me thought it was the coolest thing that Mojo Nixon was Toad.
3 Likes
The king being turned into a giant mushroom colony was pretty fucking rad, maybe the coolest thing about the whole movie. Also maybe making Yoshi into a pretty scary little dino was also rad.
The elevator dancing scene and the “Mario Mario” scene also live in my brain for eternity.
9 Likes
whoa i almost posted that mushroom king and yoshi were my favorite parts, yeah
6 Likes
Yeah, the dancing goombas are still something I think about all the time!
The king being Lance Hendrickson means I get to mention him twice here in one week.
3 Likes