Super Mario Bros. (Film) - A Major Bob-omb

Nintendo is perhaps one of the biggest names in the video game industry, alongside Sony, Microsoft, and others of their ilk. And when you think of Nintendo, chances are the first thing you think of is Mario (or Zelda). The plumber was first introduced in the early 80's, his popularity turning his franchise into the unstoppable gaming juggernaut it is today, each game having various degrees of success. The one game that is probably in the library of most NES owners, however, is Super Mario Bros., released in 1985. The game has remained a popular favorite to this day, and in 1993, a movie adaptation was released by Hollywood Pictures. Like another movie, however, this is one that I have heard bad things about to where I felt like I had to see it for myself, except this time I went in with some knowledge of and experience with the game on which it is based.

Mario Brothers Plumbing is a small business in New York, run by Italian-Americans Mario Mario (Bob Hoskins) and Luigi Mario (John Leguizamo), often competing with the much larger Scapelli Construction Company. After another failed attempt to beat Scapelli to a job, the Mario brothers' van breaks down. As Mario tries to fix it, Luigi meets a university student named Daisy (Samantha Mathis), who has been trying to excavate dinosaur fossils. At the same time, two idiots named Iggy (Fisher Stevens) and Spike (Richard Edson) have been tailing Daisy in an attempt to kidnap her. After a date with Daisy, Luigi is knocked out along with his brother Mario as they try to fix a major flooding problem, during which Daisy is taken by the aforementioned idiots. After recovering, the Mario brothers follow close behind and end up at a strange rock formation within a large pipe, which seems to act as a portal to another world. The brothers soon find themselves in a strange city covered in fungus run by Bowser King Koopa (Dennis Hopper) as they continue their quest to rescue Daisy.

Of course, the plot of this movie deviates from that of the game, which is to be expected, but at times it feels more like a completely different movie with Mario super-glued onto it. The concept of multiple dimensions is fine, as it gives the plot an excuse to shove in Mario references, but eventually it gets a little weird. You see, Koopa's plan is to kidnap Daisy in order to obtain a special rock around her neck that's actually the final piece of a meteor that made his dimension what it is which, when completed, will merge his dimension with ours so that he can become the ruler of both worlds, and Daisy is somehow the only one that can survive contact with the finished meteor along with anyone else she happens to be touching.

Since I bring up Mario references, this is something I need to expand upon. At many points throughout the movie, it feels like it's trying a little too hard to shove in things from the game, as if to try to remind you that that is what you are watching. For instance, Goombas and Yoshi make appearances, though the former does not resemble its game counterpart in any way and the latter only vaguely resembles his. To add to this King Koopa, like his Goomba minions, doesn't look like his namesake from the game (that is until very briefly at the final confrontation) and we never see the Mario brothers wearing anything like their iconic gear until about an hour into the movie. To give it credit though, some of the nods to the game are actually pretty clever. At one point we see the Banzai Bill enemy as an object used on special boots, as well as signs within the Koopa-run city for Thwomp and Hammer Brothers; you can also briefly see an electronic equivalent of the "?" box on a screen. Another clever one is Bob-omb, who is actually a plot point and appears as a small wind-up toy that explodes (and, alongside the Banzai Bill, it's the only thing that looks exactly like the game character).

As for the rest of the feature, I personally thought the acting was just okay. Throughout the story, the actors seem like they're at least trying to make something out of their parts, but nothing really stood out to me. On the same level, the music was also okay. Despite there being some big names attached to the soundtrack like Joe Satriani, Queen, and Megadeth, it's more likely that you will remember that Super Mario Bros. theme at the very beginning than anything else, if only because the movie itself is rather dull. On the other hand, the sets were actually pretty good and the special effects used were pretty decent for a movie from 1993. The visuals that were used make the setting somewhat believable, so I would give the film more technical credit than the acting.

My biggest complaint though has to go to the overall length and pacing of the product. Things often seem like they take forever to resolve and there seems to be a lot of padding. A case of this is an attempt at setting up a joke regarding King Koopa ordering a pizza, which goes absolutely nowhere. Scenes like this only serve to drag out the movie longer than necessary and made me more and more disinterested as it went on.

Overall, Super Mario Bros., like most video game movies out there, is not all that great to say the least, despite what the packaging may tell you. While the effects are good and some of the video game nods can be clever, the length and pacing of the movie makes for a rather boring experience. However, if you are looking for a bad movie that you can easily make fun of, give this movie a try. Otherwise, for hardcore Mario fans, a better experience is in another castle.

[OLD] Transformers: Dark of the Moon (Film)

This film has been re-reviewed. Read it here: https://trophyunlocked.blogspot.com/2020/06/second-look-transformers-dark-of-moon_25.html

Two years ago in 2009, the second live-action Transformers movie, Revenge of the Fallen, was released to understandably negative reception. With a third movie, Dark of the Moon, announced for 2011, also directed by Michael Bay, I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. As the release date got closer and I learned more about it, I began thinking more and more that it would at least be better than Revenge of the Fallen. Having actually seen the movie, I found it vastly exceeded my expectations.

The movie begins with an altered history of the historic 1969 Apollo 11 Moon landing, being that America launched the shuttle there in order to investigate the landing of an alien spacecraft, known as the Ark. In the present, the Autobots have begun working independently with the military in order to protect humans. In Chernobyl, a Cybertronian fuel cell is discovered that brings forth the Decepticon Shockwave (Frank Welker), the discovery itself greatly upsetting Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen). Optimus later makes a mission to the Ark, discovering and retrieving the body of his mentor, Sentinel Prime (Leonard Nimoy), along with five pillars needed to create a Spacebridge. At the same time, Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) is searching for a job three months after graduating from college while living with his new girlfriend, Carly Spencer (Rosie-Huntington Whiteley). Soon after he lands a job, he once again becomes a part of an oncoming Autobot/Decepticon war when the Decepticon Laserbeak (Keith Szarabajka) attempts to murder him. With the Decepticons planning a grand-scale takeover of Earth and the Autobots outnumbered, they are the only ones who can stop Megatron's scheme and save mankind.

Compared to the last movie, the plot of Dark of the Moon was much easier to follow. It was amazingly straight-forward and the actors helped to carry it fantastically. There are some references to the over-arching continuity, so it's advised to see the other two films first to help the story (that includes sitting through the last one). However, I did notice a small error: In the Revenge of the Fallen film, Jetfire (Mark Ryan) briefly refers to his teleportation ability as a sort of Spacebridge, but here it's said that it requires pillars to create it and Sentinel Prime to activate it. How big an error this is depends on your perspective, but I find it best to just think of Jetfire as merely having teleportation and not using a Spacebridge, since this wasn't brought up in either the book or comic adaptations of the second movie.

To call the effects of this movie "stunning" is an understatement. Because of the sheer number of mechanical beings on-screen at once and the amount of detail put into each and every one of them, it's a wonder that Industrial Light and Magic was able to do that much work before the movie's intended release. It's still amazing to see tiny parts of some of the robots move around while in robot mode and how spot-on the coordination is between them and the human characters. The action is further aided by the use of more dynamic shots, which really give the feeling of just how massive the Transformers can get.
Dark of the Moon is also available in 3D, which actually works as opposed to other movies such as Thor. The way the 3D is handled really gives you a sense of depth and it brings you a little closer to the intense action taking place. The action is still amazing no matter how you see it, but you will not be disappointed if you choose to see it this way.

The final battle in the third act takes up a good chunk of the movie, but it somehow didn't feel like it was taking forever like with the second installment. There were plenty of breaks in the action to focus on the human characters and their involvement, and some genuinely funny moments help to prevent it from becoming too serious. All this makes for a very energetic and sometimes emotional climax that will not soon be forgotten.

Even with what this movie brings to the table, there are a few things that stand out a little. For starters, while the altered historical footage at the beginning is done rather cleverly, it can get a little uncanny at times with how they use President John F. Kennedy. There also isn't a real explanation as to how a fuel cell from the Ark ended up in Chernobyl, since Russia hasn't actually ever set foot on the moon, let alone retrieved anything. Lastly, there's the switch from Mikaela Banes (Megan Fox) to Carly Spencer for Sam's love interest. It isn't exactly explained very well, rather mentioned off-hand as Mikaela dumping Sam and him meeting Carly at the White House. This could've been explained a little better, as what's given barely works.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon brings back everything that made the first movie awesome, in fact delivering more action than either of the previous two. I would definitely recommend this movie to Transformers fans who enjoy the live-action series, especially those looking for something to wash down Revenge of the Fallen. But again, I would advise non-Transformers fans to watch the first two movies beforehand due to references in continuity.