'50s Star Dennis Hopper Once Revealed Which Of His Movies His Kids Didn't Like

Dennis Hopper appeared in some truly iconic and widely-acclaimed films over the course of his lengthy career in Hollywood. The beloved actor got his start alongside the legendary enigma that was James Dean in the 1950s, truly rose to prominence in the late '60s thanks to "Easy Rider" (which also marked Hopper's feature directorial debut), and kept things rolling into the '70s with "Apocalypse Now," the '80s with "Blue Velvet," and the '90s with "Speed." As fantastic as all of those films are, no one has a perfect batting average. In fact, it was also during the 1990s that Hopper starred in one movie, in particular, that was so bad not even his own son could muster up a kind word to say about it. 

1993 saw the release of "Super Mario Bros.," a live-action adaptation of the super popular Nintendo video game of the same name. The film featured Hopper as the villainous King Koopa (aka Bowser), arch-nemesis of protagonists Mario Mario and Luigi Mario (yes, those are their full names), played by Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo, respectively. During a 2008 appearance on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," Hopper immediately named "Super Mario Bros." when asked about the movies he wasn't especially proud of.

"My six-year-old son at the time [...] He said, 'Dad, I think you're probably a pretty good actor, but why did you play that terrible guy King Koopa in 'Super Mario Bros.?'" Hopper recalled. "And I said, 'Well, Henry, I did that so you could have shoes.' And he said, 'Dad, I don't need shoes that badly.'" Of all the bad reviews the movie got upon its release, that one may just be the most scathing.

Henry Hopper was hardly an outlier when it came to his negative feelings about the 1993 "Super Mario Bros." movie. Often cited as one of the worst movies ever made, it holds a ghastly 27% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing — which is actually a lot higher than it used to be. Archives show that around the time of Dennis Hopper's "Late Night" interview, it was sitting at 6%. To make matters worse, the film fell considerably short of breaking even at the box office during its original theatrical run. The whole thing was such a disaster that it scared Nintendo off licensing its characters to movie studios for close to 30 years.

The live-action "Pokémon Detective Pikachu" came out in 2019. However, while Pokémon is technically a Nintendo property, the company does not unilaterally control the '90s-defining pop-culture franchise, with its licensing deals instead being handled by The Pokémon Company (of which Nintendo owns only 33%). Nintendo itself didn't make its return to the big screen proper until 2023, with the release of the animated film "The Super Mario Bros. Movie," which saw Jack Black carry on Hopper's legacy as the voice of Bowser. 

A sequel, "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie," followed in 2026, with a live-action film based on "The Legend of Zelda" slated for release in 2027. Like their live-action 1993 predecessor, the modern animated "Mario" movies have struggled to impress critics. Unlike that movie, however, they certainly haven't had any trouble making money, with each grossing over $1 billion globally. With that in mind, we're going to go out on a limb and assume that Jack Black's sons have been getting some nice shoes.