Bob Hoskins hates Super Mario Bros. film

Hoskins as Mario Bob Hoskins sports a resume that most actors would envy. Best known, perhaps, for "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?," he also played key roles in "Brazil," "Mona Lisa" and "The Cotton Club."
He has appeared in nearly 100 films and television shows -- but there's one he'd like to erase from that list: 1993's Super Mario Bros.
The Guardian spoke with the 68-year old actor, peppering him with a series of questions about his career, politics and life moments. And he doesn't hesitate to give his feelings on the role that forced him to slap a comically large mustache on his mug and say lines like "Come and get it, lizard breath!" while maintaining a straight face.


It's hard to blame him. The film, which boasts a humiliating 13 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes, took its share of liberties with the famed game series.
Mario and Luigi are plumbers, yes, but they live in Manhattan and are chasing Princess Daisy -- not Peach -- who wears a necklace made from a meteor fragment that can free a race of reptilian, sewer-dwelling creatures. King Koopa, her kidnapper, hides her not in a castle, but rather in the garbage-infested underworld of Dinohattan.
It's even more confusing when you watch it. The film is essentially a nonstop reel of early 1990s special effects, with bits of nonsensical dialogue and Princess Daisy screaming "Luigi!!!" used as filler. 


SPOILER ALERT: In another ridiculous twist, Luigi gets the girl.
Hoskins' dislike of the notorious film runs deep. In 2007, he told Contact Music that working on the movie was a "nightmare" due in large part to the husband-and-wife directing team of Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel, "whose arrogance had been mistaken for talent." Ouch.
Hoskins likely isn't the only actor who would prefer to see the movie disappear. Others who carry the stain of this cheese-tastic masterpiece on their resume include John Leguizamo, who played Luigi, and the late Dennis Hopper, who had the unfortunate luck to accept the King Koopa role.
Time Magazine has listed the film as one of the worst video game movies of all time -- but that hasn't stopped it from attracting a cult following. Even worse, it hasn't stopped the film industry from generally following the same formula of Super Mario Bros. when it makes movies based on games: ramping up the special effects budget and hoping no one notices they had a third grader write the script between classes.

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Vietnam in live-fire drill amid South China Sea row

Vietnam is holding live-fire drills in the South China Sea amid high tensions with China over disputed waters.
A Vietnamese naval officer said the "routine" drills were being held about 40km (25 miles) off central Quang Nam province, outside the disputed area.


The second stage of the exercise will be held at night; shipping has been warned to stay clear of the area.
Chinese state media denounced the exercises as a military show of force to defy Beijing.
The drills are taking place within days of an escalation in the long-standing maritime border dispute between China and Vietnam.


The South China Sea includes important shipping routes and may contain rich oil and gas deposits.
Vietnam last month accused China of cutting the exploration cables of an oil survey ship. In a similar incident last week it said a Chinese fishing boat had "intentionally rammed" the exploration cables of another of its boats.


China said that its fishing boats were chased away by armed Vietnamese ships in the incident last Thursday.
The fishing net of one of the Chinese boats became tangled with the cables of an Vietnamese oil exploring vessel, which was operating illegally in the area, and was dragged for more than an hour before it was cut free, the Chinese foreign ministry said.


China accused Vietnam of "gravely violating" its sovereignty and warned it to stop "all invasive activities".

'Official sanction'

A Vietnamese naval officer said the "routine annual training" exercises have "nothing to do with the recent incidents involving China".


The first part of the nine-hour drill is being held around the uninhabited island of Hon Ong - well within Vietnamese territorial waters.


A second phase of live firing lasting about six hours will be staged at night, officials said.
China has not commented officially on the naval exercises, but a newspaper controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, the Global Times, said the drills were "a military show of force to defy Beijing".
Demonstrations have been held in Hanoi for the second weekend in a row, calling for China to get out of Vietnam's territorial waters.


Demonstrations are not usually tolerated in Communist Vietnam, but the authorities appear to be allowing protests related to the South China Sea dispute, our correspondent says.

China is engaged in maritime border disputes with several countries.
The Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have rival claims in the area. The US has also expressed concern about China's rising naval ambitions.

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