Quartile rating: 5/10 · 1 rating
Mario and Luigi, plumbers from Brooklyn, find themselves in an alternate universe where evolved dinosaurs live in hi-tech squalor. They're the only hope to save our universe from invasion by the dino dictator, Koopa.
Super Mario Bros. (1993) is a fascinatingly bizarre artifact — its dystopian, fungus-covered, parallel-dimension take on a cheerful Nintendo franchise is unlike anything before or since, earning genuine Novelty points for sheer audacity of vision. The production design is memorably grimy and weird, giving the cinematography a distinctive look that stands out. However, the plot is a mess of half-baked ideas that never cohere into a satisfying story, and the acting ranges from bewildered (Hoskins, Leguizamo) to cartoonishly over-the-top (Hopper). The ending feels abrupt and unsatisfying, setting up a sequel that never came, leaving the film feeling incomplete.