The latest stab at turning the much-loved 8-bit game into a movie franchise ain't worth two bits
Making a much-hyped arrival thirty years after the flop live action original, this second attempt at turning one of the world's most successful arcade games into a big screen franchise is a migraine of a movie.
A dayglo sugar rush that will leave the most rabid gamer bewildered, Super Mario Bros. The Movie gives the 8-bit hit the poppy computer animation treatment but it ain’t worth two bits.
Watch our interview with Anya Taylor-Joy
Charlie Day and Chris Pratt play the titular moustachioed plumbing brothers who are facing bankruptcy until one fine Brooklyn day, while working in what must be New York’s cleanest sewers, they are flushed away into the magical world of Mushroom Kingdom.
Here, in short order, Luigi is kidnapped by megalomaniac turtle Bowser (Jack Black) and the hapless Mario must team up with the kick-ass Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy), and Donkey Kong (Seth Rogen) to save Shroom land.
The two-dimensional story strangely decides not to make any in-jokes and the movie spends too much time time flailing about until the next action set-piece arrives.
Watch our interview with Charlie Day and Chris Pratt
Good value is to be had with the always game Jack Black as Bowser as he bangs out mock rock opera paeans to Princess Peach and a star is truly born in a Luma, who spouts fatalistic aphorisms in a little girl voice about the pointlessness of existence. You’ll know how she feels watching this.
Alan Corr @CorrAlan2
