Super Mario Bros. (35mm)

Super Mario Bros.

United Kingdom | 1993 | 104 min. | Annabel Jankel, Rocky Morton

March 27, 2025

Unstreamable

Two Brooklyn plumbers, Mario and Luigi, must travel to another dimension to rescue a princess from the evil dictator King Koopa and stop him from taking over the world.

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Thursday, March 27, 2025

Imagine dropping acid in a Chuck E. Cheese while reading cyberpunk fiction—that's Super Mario Bros, the original one. This gloriously unhinged 1993 adaptation transforms the cheerful plumbers (Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo) into dimension-hopping warriors fighting evolved dinosaurs in a dystopian parallel New York. Dennis Hopper, sporting a lizard mullet, gnaws through scenery as King Koopa while Fiona Shaw vamps it up as his second-in-command.

Nothing about this film makes sense, and that's why it works. The sets look like Blade Runner had a baby with a Nintendo reject, the plot treats "physics" as more of a suggestion than a science, and somewhere along the way, someone decided Mario should have a thing for muscle-bound lady cops. Hollywood and Nintendo tried to understand each other, but it became a spectacular, very memorable misfire.

Fair warning: If you're expecting faithful video game adaptation, look elsewhere. But if you want to see what happens when $48 million gets handed to filmmakers who've clearly never played Mario in their lives, you're in for a treat.

  • Director: Annabel Jankel, Rocky Morton
  • Principal Cast: Bob Hoskins, John Leguizamo, Dennis Hopper
  • Country: United Kingdom, USA, Japan, France
  • Year: 1993
  • Running Time: 104 min.
  • Producer: Jake Eberts, Roland Joffé
  • Screenplay: Parker Bennett, Terry Runte, Ed Solomon
  • Cinematographers: Dean Semler
  • Editors: Mark Goldblatt
  • Music: Alan Silvestri
  • Filmography: D.O.A (1988)
  • Language: English
  • Format: 35mm