Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Why would I choose to watch "Super Mario Bros." when it was a critical and financial bomb? Well, IMDB recently changed their criteria for films to make their infamous Bottom 100 list and now this film is officially on it...at #96. And, since I have long been trying to see every Bottom 100 movie, I have a bunch of new pictures to watch and review.It's interesting when you read through IMDB's trivia about this movie. Apparently everyone connected with it except for the two directors hated it and hated making this film. I could only assume that I would hate it as well.Well, I did hate the film...for many reasons. Much of the problem is the plot. It often makes no sense (such as minions suddenly switching sides for no apparent reason), the dialog is among the dumbest I can recall in a film and the story is not at all the sort of thing I'd want young kids to watch...which is odd, since it's based on a kids' game! The plot, if anyone really cares is about Koopa (Dennis Hopper), a reptile who has used his evolving/devolving machine to make himself and many of his subjects in a parallel world look human. His goal is to capture Princess Daisy and use a meteorite shard to merge the two worlds and become dictator of both---though exactly how doesn't seem to have been worked out by Koopa. As for the brothers, they fall into the parallel world and battle Koopa to save the worlds.If I were describe the film in one word, it would not be terrible but TIRESOME. The film is dull, uninvolving and a bit stupid. I would NOT place it, however, on the Bottom 100...as there are many worse films which will never make the list because they were NOT made in the last 30 years--and the list is heavily weighted towards this. "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians", "Robot Monster", ALL of Al Adamson's and William Grefe's films and the terrible exploitation films of the 1930s and 40s (such as "Sex Madness" and "Reefer Madness") aren't even on the list--and these films are all, amazingly enough, worse than "Super Mario Bros." but were made during an era that has almost no representation on the list...not that this is a glowing endorsement! Would I put it on a Bottom 200 (if such a list existed)...easily!

This is a kinda bad movie. That being said, if you have little kids who are fans of the games they'll enjoy this. It's very different from the games but I still got a kick out of it.

I've seen a lot of bad movies and this is right up there with the worst of them. Considering that it had a big budget and well known actors, there's no excuse for it to be this bad. First of all, it doesn't really have anything to do with the video game except that they are trying to rescue the princess. Even though they don't even know that she is a princess. Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo as the Mario Bros. was a ridiculous idea. They are literally the least Italian people in the entire movie. At one point Leguizamo even starts using the French pronunciation of Mario. There's no gold coins. Our princess isn't in another castle. There aren't even any castles. Even if you don't care that it has nothing to do with the video game, it's just a terrible movie. Bad plot, bad acting, bad everything. This movie should never be seen by anyone.

I did not have the luxury of seeing this in my youth, but I did watch it in early adulthood out of curiosity and my memories of that experience were worth rating it 6 out of 10. However, after watching a review of the movie by James Rolfe, I was inspired to watch it again and set aside my prejudices stemming from the notorious reputation of badness this movie drags behind it. It was an eye-opening experience.Super Mario Bros. is a very good movie that became scorned in the public eye because of its association with the video game of the same title and being essentially the first major motion picture based on a video game. It also had the misfortune of being preceded by the Super Mario Bros. Super Show which has a very different format and probably set up a lot of unfair expectations as to what a Mario movie would be like. If we examine the Super Mario Bros. video game with the lens of a person craving a story, we find that there isn't much to go on. The plot is "a plumber saves a princess from a reptilian monster in a castle" and that's it. There are precious few details beyond that. The various enemies and objects and characters only exist for the purpose of enabling the game mechanics to function. Everything in the video game lacks any sort of deeper meaning; the only unifying elements (and I use that term somewhat loosely) are mushrooms, turtles, and pipes. What else could you expect from an 8-bit era platforming game? My point is this: as an inspiration for a full-blown story, the video game is effectively a one-sentence writing prompt. It shouldn't be a surprise that a Super Mario Bros. live-action movie is based largely on interpretation of the vague elements offered up in the video game. For the rest of the review, let's set aside the video game and focus on the movie as an independent work.Super Mario Bros. has all the elements of a great family-friendly action/fantasy movie. Two everyday normal guys trying to make a living stumble into events that toss up their normal lives and they wind up in a dystopian place. There are elements of sci-fi and film noir that are executed very well, but the film also never takes itself too seriously and the comedy is always around to lighten things up. In a lot of ways, this film is reminiscent of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, a work that is arguably one of the best movies ever made. There are obvious inspirations from other classics such as Blade Runner and Mad Max.It's not without its flaws, of course. There are some dull or just plain stupid moments that could have been cut down or omitted. Luigi's character sometimes acts in ways that have no believable motivation for doing so, even by the loose standards of a fantasy story in a family film. There are a lot of interesting elements that go unexplained which is a bit disappointing. There is a large set of people that are supposed to be vastly different but really just look like plain old humans in tasteless outfits and funny hairstyles (I can't explain in any more detail without spoilers but you'll know who I'm referencing when you get there) which is even more ridiculous because there is yet another closely related set of people that DO actually look different.Fortunately, the flaws don't detract very much from the overall enjoyment of the film. It's actually a lot of fun to look for the references to the elements from the video game; some are in-your-face obvious while some are subtle enough that you probably won't catch them the first time you watch the movie.I was surprised by this "bad movie." It was a lot more fun to watch than its reputation would have us all believe. If it hadn't been tied to such a vague video game and had to follow in the footsteps of the Super Show, this could have easily become a classic family film from the early 1990s. Many other reviewers claim to have enjoyed it in spite of its reputation and I'm happy to join them.