Super Mario Bros. The Movie Getting 20th Anniversary Screening

[StewShearerOld]

Super Mario Bros. The Movie Getting 20th Anniversary Screening

Fans will be able to relive a dark moment in the history of the gaming industry on May 24th at the NuArt Theatre in Los Angeles.

Gritty re-imaginings have been a bit of a trend in film and games for years now. And while the Christopher Nolans and Tomb Raiders of the world might receive success and accolades, you have to question how hard their job really was. Batman and Lara Croft don't exactly come from bright and happy universes. The crew of Super Mario Bros. The Movie on the other hand, did something special. What else can you call transforming the colorful, child friendly world of the Super Mario games into a Blade Runner-esque dystopia complete with Goomba shock troops? It's the sort of awful that legends are made of.

Super Mario Bros. may not be a good film, but it still has fans and later this month they're in for a treat. It's been twenty years since the movie was originally released and a special screening is being held in Los Angeles to celebrate. In addition to the movie itself, there will be a Q & A panel featuring screenwriter Parker Bennet and production designer David L. Snyder, both of whom worked on the movie. The screening will be held at the NuArt Theatre on May 24th at midnight and is being hosted by Super Mario Bros. The Movie Archive, a website dedicated to the film.

While I am generally a person that believes in the sentiment of the "to each his own," there are some things that still leave you asking "Why?" I'd definitely place this in that category. Granted, I was maybe six or seven the last time I saw it, but even then the movie was pretty awful. If there was a detail of the games it could get wrong, it rarely wasted the opportunity do so. This isn't to say the Mushroom Kingdom should have been easy to film. The place is downright bonkers when you really think about it. That said, Super Mario Bros. The Movie is widely regarded as being a wretched experience and remains one of the prime exemplars of why some games are better off avoiding the big screen.


Source: Facebook


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[Erttheking]

Guess this movie made it to that same niche of entertainment as the Room.

 

[AstaresPanda]

why ? is was very...... poo poo

 

[MorganL4]

Oh, GOD!!! Now I feel old. I remember going with my dad to see this in theaters, now it's on its 20th anniversary? Wow...

 

[Something Amyss]

Guess this movie made it to that same niche of entertainment as the Room.

It is remarkably true to the games though. You need to consume a LOT of mushrooms to make it through to the end

Unless you go for a speed run.

 

[CriticalMiss]

Imagine how many more people would be interested if they instead burned the master copy of this film in front of an audience. You could make millions showing that.

 

[shogunblade]

I already did a defense of the movie, sort of [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.405837-2-50-Reviews-Super-Mario-Bros-1993#16871075].

I'd definitely go and see it, if I could. It's not The Room, but really, what movie could be? I'd just hope they'd let people dance during the "Walk The Dinosaur" scene and Goomba Elevator scene, one of which I quite enjoyed as a little kid, as well as an adult.

Now I wish I was there to see it, just thinking about it. Got a smile on my face already thinking about the Goomba Elevator.

 

[Nowhere Man]

Guess this movie made it to that same niche of entertainment as the Room.

It is remarkably true to the games though. You need to consume a LOT of mushrooms to make it through to the end

Unless you go for a speed run.

Niice!! These comments amuse me greatly.

 

[Big_Boss_Mantis]

Movie Bob said once that his dream job would be to direct a proper live-action version of Super Mario Bros.
(as a sidenote, my personal dream job would be to do a perfect script for a Metal Gear Solid movie trilogy that would be faithful to the source material AND also work as a good movie also. I already have a lot of it in my head, and Shadow Moses would be the SECOND one)

I really, really can't imagine how he (or anyone) could pull it off. Obviously he has something in mind...
But until someone proves me wrong, I find it impossible to make an live action Mario movie that works. Unless they use the tiresome trope of cartoon let loose on the real world. Like The Smurfs. Space Jam. Enchanted. Masters Of the Universe. And so on...

So, really, I don't think that people should consider this movie terrible. The idea of having a live-action Mario movie is flawed in it's conception. To me it is just not possible.
And I remember of finding it watchable as a kid. Not great, but mildly entertaining, if you could just ignore the fact that it was Mario-related.

I call for a movie defense force about Super Mario Brothers.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

Sorry, but I think I will have many other things I would rather be doing that day.

Like injecting myself with Plague and smashing hammers into my skull.

 

[LordLundar]

Guess this movie made it to that same niche of entertainment as the Room.

It is remarkably true to the games though. You need to consume a LOT of mushrooms to make it through to the end

I admit it, this is one of your best.

 

[kamay]

My brother and I basically forced my parents to spend money to go see this movie in theatres when it came out...even at 8 years old I knew this movie was a steaming pile of horse crap

 

[mechalynx]

Well, I like it, I liked it a lot. Don't know how old I was when I saw it, but it was an alright flick back then. I am however old enough to know that some things look better through the childhood nostalgia tinted glasses, like Donner's Superman for example. That and the fact that I basically live on the other side of the planet.

Still, I'd probably go, if only for the cosplay.

 

[xPixelatedx]

I call for a movie defense force about Super Mario Brothers.

I concur!

I enjoyed this movie. I didn't love it, but I enjoyed it, and this is coming from a HUGE Mario and Nintendo fan. But yeah, it is a guilty pleasure. Just like the Street Fighter Movie, it's just too campy for most people. I honestly think people were a tad too hard on it, especially when the question comes up; "What were you expecting?". Exactly, what were you expecting!? This isn't like a Resident Evil. The Resident Evil games actually have a story and events that happen. The Resident Evil movies are terrible because they choose to ignore these events. Super Mario Bros though... there was little to nothing to work on. Objectively speaking, Mario's "story" is complete, utter nonsense, and that's exactly the kind of movie it produced. The moment someone said "lets make this live action" only catastrophe could ensue.

Evidence that people are too hard on this movie: half the venom I see spitted at it questions what dinosaurs have to do with Mario. When this movie came out, Super Mario World was the latest Mario game. Super Mario world takes place in a dinosaur land. I don't know how people could forget this.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Funny thing is I actually remember liking this movie at the time. Of course I was like 11 or 12 at the time. In retrospect it is hardly an example of world class filming and it certainly puts the source material through a meat grinder and then a blender with some grit tossed in. However it did have a number of charming moments.

 

[katana-409]

I was 6 when I first saw it, and I liked it. I am 22 as I am watching it right now. I'm still liking it o_0

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

I actually rather liked the movie. Not in a serious sense, not in the same way you'd enjoy something like The Avengers or even a Die Hard movie. You gotta put yourself in that campy sort of mind set, that willingness to watch a movie that's so bad and silly that it actually manages to go full circle and become enjoyable. Then again, I also find Street Fighter: The Movie to be enjoyable on that same level (and no, not the recent "trying to play things seriously" Chun Li movie, that one was just the regular sort of bad). I mean really, these are movies that the writers basically sat down, looked at what they had to work with, and decided "Fuck it, I'm just gonna try and have as much as I can with this and see how it works out."

 

[Veylon]

I'm another one of those who like this movie. It was fun and creative and not afraid to be stupid. I wouldn't defend it as a good movie on any objective level, but it was certainly more enjoyable than the paint-by-numbers stuff that tends to fill the cinema.