The first thing that should be made clear is that the making of this movie was said to be on par with Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. The fighting between the two directors was so bad that Bob Hoskins and John Liguizamo were constantly drunk while shooting it to deal with the toxic environment. The movie was written so unlike a Mario movie and it's clear that this never should have been a live action movie because they did not have the technology, nor the know-how to create a world like the Mushroom Kingdom.
So, what do they do? Make it BladeRunner, of course! A good old dystopian science fiction setting with depressingly terrible poverty, horrible mohawks and poor ridden in the streets. This was a terrible idea to put into something that already had a perfectly good artistic look to it. Super Mario Brothers Super Show caught the essence of Mario Brothers better than this movie, and they were on a fraction of the budget.
Now, does this make it a terrible movie? Not especially. The acting is not great most of the time, but it's also nice and campy, while also being downright hilarious when it comes to Toad. Sometimes, it's just so easy to get involved with the movie because the story is engaging enough to keep your attention, while also making sure you're not taking it too seriously.
This is not a movie for everyone, but it is a movie I can watch all the way through and get a good nostalgic feeling for times past. You'd never see another movie made like this for a kid's property. There are some serious adult themes while not being outright graphic with it. Also, Dennis Hopper's transformation at the end is quite nightmarish. Oh, did I forget to mention Dennis Hopper was here? Well, he's probably the best part of the movie. He's not what I would call Bowser or "King Koopa" as he is called in this flick, but he is most definitely putting up the best performance because he's doing it his way and the way he likes to do it. Hopper is fun in everything, watch Blue Velvet.
The special effects are decent for the time. As the special effects suggest, it was made by the same guys who made that weird 80's computer animated guy Max Headroom. It's obvious the original directors had a lot of influence over the movie, despite being fired during its production. Bob Hoskins swore off ever working with them again and judging by a lot of how the movie is edited, it's said that this was a horrifically choatic shoot.
For some reason, though, it has a raw charm to it. It's a movie that kind of never should have existed, but it's alright that it does. It's not a good Mario property, but you can find a lot of humor and a lot of very interesting and entertaining scenes because the movie is just so stark raving mad! It's not something you can show to just anyone. They need to have a certain taste for bad or camp movies. If it looks even slightly interesting to you, it's worth a shot. It wasn't popular with audiences and critics would never touch it again, but you should be the critic on this one. Perhaps the 80's nostalgia will find its way into your heart. Virtua Hope.
