During the height of Nintendo dominance back in the 1990s, the company believed it could do anything. Cereal, bed sheets, crime fighting (weekends only) — all were not ruled out as possible money makers.
So it seemed only natural that the wild success of The Wizard be followed up by a Mario Bros. movie starring Bob Hoskins, John Leguizamo and Dennis Hopper as a humanoid Bowser. Trouble was, the Virtual Boy was more fun.
Hoskins let the poor movie have it one more time recently, and pulled no punches about the husband and wife team that directed it.
Bon Hoskins blames his 1993 flop SUPER MARIO BROS. on the “arrogance” of husband-and-wife directing team Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel. The British actor, 64, played Mario in the film adaptation of the Nintendo video game, which was directed by married couple Morton and Jankel. He says, “(It was) the worst thing I ever did. Super Mario Brothers. It was a nightmare. It had a husband-and-wife directing, whose arrogance had been mistaken for talent. “After so many weeks their own agent told them to get off the set. F**king nightmare. F**king idiots. “That’s the nature of the game, the whole experience was a nightmare.”
I think he may have been kidding. Mario Bros. the movie rocked! And by rocked I mean it was about as fun as having a cat attack your business while you go to the bathroom.