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The Super Mario Bros. (1993)

tomatometer

13

Average Rating: 3.3/10
Reviews Counted: 23
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 20

Despite flashy sets and special effects, Super Mario Bros. is too light on story and substance to be anything more than a novelty.

No Score Yet...

Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 4
Fresh: 2 | Rotten: 2

Despite flashy sets and special effects, Super Mario Bros. is too light on story and substance to be anything more than a novelty.

audience

35

liked it
Average Rating: 2.4/5
User Ratings: 155,957

My Rating

Movie Info

The huge success of the video games featuring animated Italian plumbers the Mario Brothers led to this $42 million live action movie. The two brothers (Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo) live in Manhattan and are chasing Princess Daisy (Samantha Mathis), who wears a necklace made from a meteor fragment. Its powers can free a race of reptilian creatures from the city's sewers. The villainous ruler of the creatures, who are descendants of dinosaurs, is King Koopa (Dennis Hopper). Koopa has kidnapped

Jun 3, 2003

Cast

All Critics (25) | Top Critics (4) | Fresh (3) | Rotten (20)

Wildly overproduced and derivative.

March 26, 2009 Full Review Source: Variety | Comment
Variety
Top Critic IconTop Critic

This film's two directors and three screenwriters have clearly tried hard to breathe life into their nonstory, to the point where the film's intensity seems more crazy than cynical.

May 20, 2003 Full Review Source: New York Times | Comment
New York Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

This movie, which was directed by music video whiz kids Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel, is sweet and funny and full of bright invention. In short, it's a blast.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Washington Post | Comments (15)
Washington Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

As everyone knows, arcade-style diversions are not known for strong, original narratives or well-developed characters. In that sense, this film is worthy of its inspiration.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: ReelViews | Comment
ReelViews
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Bombs explode, cars careen and crash, people leap from dimension to dimension in this blaring, glaring picture. Kids might get a charge out of the mayhem. I got the vapors.

February 7, 2011 Full Review Source: Charlotte Observer | Comment
Charlotte Observer

As the ad campaign helpfully pointed out, "this ain't no game, it's a live-action thrill ride." Half-true: it is surely not a game, for it is typically held that games are pleasurable.

May 30, 2010 Full Review Source: Antagony & Ecstasy | Comment
Antagony & Ecstasy

Game over, man.

April 7, 2010 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | Comment
Empire Magazine

Despite eye-catching sets and smart casting, this first feature-length film to be adapted from a video game is a bloated muddle.

April 7, 2010 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | Comment
TV Guide's Movie Guide

It will baffle kids, bore adolescents, and depress adults.

February 9, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment

While it isn't as bad as it was initially built up to be, it is an early example of why videogames don't make good movies.

July 10, 2003 Comment
eFilmCritic.com

Super Mario Bros. is about as playful and challenging as an unplugged pinball machine.

May 27, 2003 Comment
Movie Eye

They should have used cheat codes to make this a winner.

February 6, 2003 Comment
Sun Newspapers of Cleveland
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for The Super Mario Bros.

One of the first awful video game to screen adaptation. This adaptation of the popular video game franchise, Super Mario Bros. To say that this film is trash is an understatement. This film is poorly constructed; everything about it seems out of place, poorly conceived, sloppy and lazy. I really don't know if Super

November 13, 2011
TheDudeLebowski65
Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski

Super Reviewer

How did we get this out of a simple video game about an italian plumber who has to fight monsters in order to save the princess. It really shouldn't have been that hard to adapt. Mario and Luigi aren't even brothers in the movie. The film's sets are completely ripped off from Blade Runner and the plot is

October 19, 2011
Christopher Heim

Super Reviewer

    1. King Koopa: Ba-bomb!
    – Submitted by Jett H (58 days ago)
    1. Luigi Mario: There's Mario Mario and Luigi Mario!
    – Submitted by Baurushan J (3 months ago)
    1. King Koopa: That 'koopa clown' is one mean, egg sucking son of a snake.
    – Submitted by Shelley M (8 months ago)
    1. The King: Slime-bucket.
    – Submitted by Shelley M (8 months ago)
    1. Toad: Aint got no water anywhere. Food is dead. So's the air. Got no resources. In a great big stupa. All because of the evil king Koopa.
    – Submitted by Shelley M (8 months ago)

Latest News for The Super Mario Bros.

June 3, 2009:
Wish List: 14 Directors and the Video Games They Should Adapt
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October 17, 2008:
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