Review: The Super Mario Bros. Movie

Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day) are two Brooklyn plumbers who are sucked through a pipe beneath the city and sent off to different kingdoms. Luigi lands in the dark land and comes face to face with Bowser. (Jack Black) Meanwhile Mario lands in the much friendlier Mushroom Kingdom where he teams up with Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) to stop Bowser from destroying everything.

I've never been a huge gamer with the exception of Mario. Those were my games. My husband loves them, my son now loves them too, so we were obviously going to see this no matter what. While it might not stray much from the source material, we had a ton of fun watching it.

Honestly, I was not expecting anything particularly well written or different from what you'd get in a normal Mario setting. I'm not sure there's much you can do with this property. It stays firmly in its box and that's fine. It works. There's plenty of things for fans to recognize (though not enough King Boo, come on) The score sampling some of the best video game tunes was one of my favorite things. I can't wait to listen to it.

For me, the biggest hurdle is half of the voice actors chosen. And it's not all on Crisp Rat. Charlie Day, Fred Armisen, and Seth Rogan are equally miscast. I feel bad saying that about Rogan, who I genuinely like, but I didn't love him as Donkey Kong. It felt too much like the joke is "It's the Seth Rogan laugh!" at points. 

On the other side of this, Jack Black is fucking awesome as Bowser. He was by far my favorite character. Especially his scenes when he's playing piano and singing about his love for Peach. That was hysterical. Anya Taylor-Joy and Keegan Michael Key are great choices for Peach and Toad as well. Khary Payton has a small role as the Penguin King and I wish we heard more of him. He's an awesome voice actor.

If you love Mario, this will be a fun way to spend some time. Don't expect anything too deep, but do expect to enjoy yourself.

Grade: B