I don't really know why this one gets so much flak. It's pretty OK. I guess it's not very faithful to the Mario games, but how the hell are you supposed to adapt the Mario games into a movie anyway?

I saw this movie in the cinema as a kid and at the time I liked it simply cause it was Mario. It didn't really make any sense at the time and it only vaguely resembled the games I played but hey... It was Mario right? Clearly made in the time when dinosaurs were all the rage (thanks to and right on the heels of Jurrassic Park) we follow real life Mario and Luigi go down to... a weird dimension that resembles a mish-mash between cheap blade runner, 1984 and total recall. All your beloved characters like Toad and Goomba's are played by real life actors that only resemble the character in name. The mere fact Mario's and Luigi's surnames is Mario (cuz Mario Brothers yanno!?) says enough... How Nintendo every greenlighted this is byond me but there's a lot of interesting reading on how this movie came to be. It's clear the people in charge didn't know what Super Mario was at all and just read some of the footnotes to make a movie about. I'm showing this movie to my two -5 year olds who are big Mario fans and they don't get it it either but it is what it is... A Mario movie... kinda... a little... ok...

The behind the scenes tales of this movie are more interesting than the movie itself - feuding directors, actor injuries, raging Dennis Hopper - but that being said, this isn’t the trainwreck many have called it. Its a bit of a mess thanks to constant script rewrites and studio interference but there is some enjoyment to be had watching talented actors trying to make sense of it all.

I genuinely like this film. It has some cheesy moments and some of it is downright bad, but it is overall very entertaining. It is nothing like what you are expecting, but that doesn't necessarily matter. They kept things fast paced with action, music, and laughs.

I work at a plumbing company so I was actually charmed by some of the plumbing jokes and they also have the same poster in their apartment that we do at work!! Meanwhile, it's classic early 90s cheese but it's not as bad as I expected!