Super Mario Bros.: The Movie may not be fondly remembered today by film fans, but it still has its place in movie history as the first film inspired by and based on a video game. X-Entertainment has approached the film with a "stream of consciousness" style of writing, cranking out a rambling review that occasionally skews off on unusual tangents (you know, like the movie itself).
More importantly, do they fit the criteria of what we Nintendo fans think of when envisioning Mario and Luigi on the big screen? I'm not sure I appreciate the question. You had to expect some liberties. It's not like they could've had Hoskins yell "woo hoo" over and over again with Luigi repeating whatever he said in a slightly deeper voice. They're plumbers and they're good guys, and Mario's the fatter of the two. That's all we could've asked for. A Kuribo's Shoe for Mario would've been a nice concession, but there's always the sequel. Then again, he did kinda have a Kuribo's Shoe. Only it was made of metal. Yes.
Come to think of it, I don't believe I've seen the movie since it was originally in theaters back in 1993. I rounded up a group of friends to go with me to see the movie and we all crowded into the Searstown Mall theater (now with *two* screens!) to watch what we had hoped would be cinematic greatness. Instead we ended up with Super Mario Bros.: The Movie. Life is like that sometimes. I had high hopes though. When the film lit up the screen and the familiar opening notes of the Super Mario Bros. theme echoed throughout the theater, a friend turned to me and said "Admit it, you loved that." Damn right I did. It was all downhill from there, but at least those opening notes were true to the game. One of these days I'll watch it again. I think if I were to see the movie without any expectations, it might be somewhat entertaining.
