Super Mario Bros.: The Movie...2!

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ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

http://smbthecomic.com/

Well...sort of.

A webcomic has recently started that's a sequel to the first movie. Personally, I actually liked the original movie. It takes a LOT of liberties with the source material, but I think it's a lot more fun than people give it credit for.

The creators actually went as far as to speak with the screenwriters for the original film and talked to them about what the sequel might have looked like.
 
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

Ravenpoe said:
Interesting read on how the Super Mario Bros movie ended up becoming what it did.

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9123782/the-strange-case-super-mario-bros-movie
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Um ...

Jim Jennewein and Tom S. Parker (The Flintstones) wrote the first known draft in 1991, a Princess Bride–esque revisionist fairy tale fantasy that seems to have lost traction when director Greg Beeman (License to Drive) was either fired or quit. He was replaced by Morton and Jankel, who had followed up the sly is-it-subversive-or-is-it-sellout sensation Max Headroom with a failed remake of the film noir D.O.A. It was this husband-and-wife directing team's idea to set the Mario movie primarily in Dinohattan, an alternate-universe version of New York City. Though very, very loosely inspired by the Dinosaur Land of the game Super Mario World, Dinohattan would visually bear no resemblance to the mostly bright worlds of the Super Mario games; the Max Headroom team was going for a dark, hyperrealistic satire. Joffe cheerfully termed it "a wonderful parody of New York and heavy industry. We call it the New Brutalism."
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What the fuck? I'm trying to find the right insulting term for this two art geniuses who felt a film adaptation of a colorful kid-friendly video game was the right place to experiment with their bullshit, but I can't find it.
 
Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

Quotemander Prime said:
Um ...



What the fuck? I'm trying to find the right insulting term for this two art geniuses who felt a film adaptation of a colorful kid-friendly video game was the right place to experiment with their bullshit, but I can't find it.
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It also became apparent that no one involved with the final version of the movie had any idea clue what the game even was.
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

What's most hilarious about that read is that throughout the entire production, where almost no one wanted to even be a part of it, they all knew that it would make ridiculous amounts of money because of "stupid kids." Oh Hollywood. As much things change, as much things stay the same.

Though I don't see them trying to make such huge departures on franchises these days. Arguably Man of Steel, but at least the majority of the movie still resembled Superman.
 
Shawn

Shawn

I think one of the important factors to consider about Super Mario Bros the Movie was that at the time adults just didn't play video games. Well... of course they did. But not nearly as many as do today. The home console industry was only about a decade old, so most of the people behind the desks and in the director chairs probably never cared to play the thing. It was just a kids' toy to them. So when you get your hands on an IP that sounds like your drunk cousin just snorted cocaine and is now trying to tell you a story, you would likely consider it as good a time as any to experiment with new ideas.

I enjoyed the film as a kid, and I think I still do to a degree. To me, it's not really Super Mario Brothers: The Movie. It's something else entirely. And as something else entirely it works for what it is. The sets are cool. The creatures and effects are sweet. The action scenes are fun. I could totally handle a viewing of this every once in a while.

Also, even if you can't get past the fact that it's Super Mario Brothers and it's nothing like Super Mario Brothers, consider it a re-imagining. Kinda like a American McGee spin on a childhood favorite.

The comic, so far, is interesting. I'm not sure where they are going with it, but I like the writers interpretation of "Toad".
 
Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

Shawnacy said:
It's something else entirely. And as something else entirely it works for what it is. The sets are cool. The creatures and effects are sweet. The action scenes are fun. I could totally handle a viewing of this every once in a while.
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No.
 
Bowielee

Bowielee

Even divorced from the source material, the Mario Brothers movie failed on every single level of film making. The actors were obviously just there for a paycheck. The special effects were OK at best for the time it was produced. The script was a meandering clusterfuck. No, it was neither fun to watch nor entertaining on any level.
 
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

Shawnacy said:
It's something else entirely. And as something else entirely it works for what it is. The sets are cool. The creatures and effects are sweet. The action scenes are fun. I could totally handle a viewing of this every once in a while.
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I don't think so. Leguizamo's performance was terrible. The tone was all over the place. I think it had some neat ideas, but even separated from the source material, it's a slopped-together piece of movie. It doesn't hurt like some movies do, but anytime I tried watching it again, I got bored and shut it off.

Keep in mind that now that you have kids, your tolerance level for shitty children's movies is probably stronger than ours.

I remember looking forward to this as a little kid. What crushed it for me wasn't the bad reviews--I didn't even know about movie reviews at the time unless you count what my dad would mutter under his breath as we left the theater from another shitty children's movie my sister and I dragged him to. Jurassic Park came along. I didn't even know Super Mario Brothers came out at the same time, probably because once I became aware of Jurassic Park, no other movie mattered.
 
Bowielee

Bowielee

He was the only enjoyable part of Spawn. For his best performance, see Too Wong Fu Thanks for Everything: Julie Newmar.
 
Frank

Frank

The sets of the movie look like someone salvaged a dump site that they buried Blade Runner's sets in and didn't bother to hose them off first.
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

I'm with you, Shawnacy. It's a guilty pleasure for me, too. It's by no means a great or even good movie, but it's certainly one of the better video game movie adaptations out there. That's not really saying much since 90% of them are crap, but I still like it.
 
filmfanatic

filmfanatic

Honestly, I'm in the group that enjoys the Super Mario Bros. movie. Is it a godawful representation of Super Mario Bros.? Oh hell, yes. As it's known, imagining it is not related to the game franchise at all? It's alright. Not great, but enjoyable at least.

Now, a video game movie that is definitely enjoyable? Street Fighter (the one with Jean Claude Van Damme). That at least has some stuff that feels like the game. Besides, it is so much better than the awful piece of trash that Legend of Chun-Li film. That one was so bad, it was the first film to ever make me angry.
 
Frank

Frank

I like to pretend Street Fighter (JCVD version) is a GI Joe movie....because it's basically a GI Joe movie.

It also has wonderfully hammy Raul Julia being completely awesome.
 
filmfanatic

filmfanatic

Cheesy1 said:
It's just sad that the movie was so bad it killed him. :(
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Ready for a sad bit of trivia?

Knowing that he was dying of cancer, Raul Julia let his grandchildren go through scripts sent to him to pick out his next project. They chose Street Fighter. That gloriously hammy performance was for them.
 
Cheesy1

Cheesy1

filmfanatic said:
Ready for a sad bit of trivia?

Knowing that he was dying of cancer, Raul Julia let his grandchildren go through scripts sent to him to pick out his next project. They chose Street Fighter. That gloriously hammy performance was for them.
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I did not know that. I has sad now. :(
 
Bowielee

Bowielee

ThatNickGuy said:
I'm with you, Shawnacy. It's a guilty pleasure for me, too. It's by no means a great or even good movie, but it's certainly one of the better video game movie adaptations out there. That's not really saying much since 90% of them are crap, but I still like it.
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One of the better ones? Really? Off the top of my head, here are movies that are ten times better, both as films and adaptations.

Tomb Raider
Mortal Kombat
Resident Evil
Max Payne
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
Silent Hill
Hitman

Hell, I'd even put other complete stinkers above it such as DOA, Wing Commander, and Doom. While being bad movies they were at least somewhat competent in the actual craft of film making.

Guilty pleasure, sure, everyone loves one or two movies that are terrible, but to say it's one of the better video game adaptations is delusional.
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

Most of those, I'll grant you, Bowie, are certainly better than Super Mario Bros. But DOA, Wing Commander, Max Payne, and Doom? No. No. Just no.

I will also say that, aside from maybe Silent Hill, I'd still enjoy watching Super Mario Bros over all of those. Also, keep in mind that you listed 10 movies there and I'd still put Mario Bros above many of them. So it's still in the Top 10 in terms of video game movies to me.
 
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