The Lawnmower Man

The movies of yesterday get quite a beating by the moviegoers of today.

"Cheesy" is the word used most often, for movies like MANNEQUIN or WEIRD SCIENCE, that have silly or unbelievable plots surrounded by fun and humor. Movies like WARGAMES and TRON get bashed, because of their dated looks and technology-related plots that are clearly not possible today, only because the technology of today renders them ridiculous.

ROLLERBALL also suffers this fate, ironically, because its supposed to be a brutal future-sport based on Roller Derby, which by now has all but disappeared from the sporting world.

Taking all of this into account, I still love THE LAWNMOWER MAN. Jeff Fahey plays Job, a slow, mentally and physically abused man who is laughed at and mocked by his entire community, save Jeffrey Lewis playing Terry, his partner and friend throughout the film.

Pierce Brosnan plays the scientist Lawrence Angelo, a man who is obsessed with exploring the higher dimensions of the functioning brain by using chimpanzees as guinea pigs. All is going very well for him, until "the Shop" (admittedly a bad pun on Stephen King's work, most notably FIRESTARTER) demands that his research be used to modify the chimps into killing machines. When one of his chimps suddenly escapes, and cannot tell reality from the simulated virtual reality he was being trained in, all hell breaks loose.

As a result, the project is halted, and the doctor is out. Way out. He sinks into depression, questioning his life and his purpose. He decides one day, when he sees Job come to mow his lawn, a potential new guinea pig for his experiments.

Looking back at this picture, I can see that the doctor's intentions went way beyond his actions. He used Job as an experiment, and the experiment went awry. Mix in the fact that the Shop interferes, much in the same way that it did for the mass-murdering chimp, and even more hell breaks loose than before.

Now, is there a level of "cheesy", here? Absolutely. Some of the moments in the film where Job is having side-effects of his treatments come across as overdone, and the fears of the effects of Virtual Reality of yesterday are nothing but jokes today, because the tech still isn't really going anywhere. The ideas are strong, without the tech to back it up.

But you could make similar arguments about TRON. You could probably make similar arguments about ANY sci-fi pictures that came out before the nineties. Hell, you could probably make similar arguments about any sci-fi picture at all, once you debunk the science behind it.

What we've forgotten is how to have FUN at movies. The reason why silly movies like this one were so good is because we DIDN'T know how the world worked. We DIDN'T care about the tech behind it, because we knew it was FICTION. There are too many movies coming out today that are based on reality. Too much of what we see on the screen, both big and little, are rooted in the grim, grisly world of today.

If you want to enjoy this movie, like I still do, sit back, put your feet up, and pretend that what you see before you is actually possible. Let the actors do their jobs (which they did very well) and enjoy the ride. Enjoy the score, the theme, the plot, and even the silly CGI that doesn't hold up to today's standards, but looked pretty good for the crazy movie they were making back in the day. Stop taking everything so seriously.

Because I think THAT is the reason why "Hollywood can't come up with anything original anymore". Original, back in the day, was synonymous with "silly" and "chancy".

You wouldn't want any of that today, would you?

I got 'The Lawnmower Man' as part of one of those 'Buy a pizza and get a free movie' deals, and I put off watching it. And put it off more. And more, until finally I had nothing else to do, so I popped it in the VCR and sat back. Two and half hours later (It was the director's cut- don't see the normal version as it is not nearly as good) it instantly became one of my favorite movies, so I rewound it and watched it again.

To date I have seen it four of five times, as it has problems, it's not very fast paced, but is terribly engaging and Fahey is superb in the lead. The writing isn't great, but is passable, and the computer effects, though far from the center of the story, are excellent.

If you haven't seen it yet, or have only seen the normal version, it is well worth the rental, or even purchase.

I went to see this movie in the theater when it was released. At the time the graphics were not dated in any way shape or form. Where is VR today? I recently bought the DVD and after watching it and remembering that it was an eight (8) year old movie, I still enjoyed it. I have seen a few VR games in arcades and to be honest the graphics today aren't much better than they were in this movie. I have seen a lot of comments about the effects being dated and I think that should be common sense when watching an older movie. When I watch Tron I don't think that the graphics are dated, I just remember that the movie was made in 1982 and effects and computer animation weren't the same back then as they are today. Most older movies have that look when compared to today's special effects. I always take that into account when watching older movies. I enjoyed Lawnmower Man then, now and I will the next time I watch it. I will keep it in my DVD collection.

Stories about a simple person getting turned into something more seem pretty common in movies, but none are like "The Lawnmower Man". Portraying scientist Pierce Brosnan turning retarded Jeff Fahey into a super-genius (with unintended consequences), this is one movie destined to blow your mind. The visual effects were beyond impressive even for 1992, but they never dominate the movie. We might say that the movie deals with the dangers of people relying too much on technology, and also the dangers of militarism, but even aside from that, this is a movie worth seeing. Check it out.

Oh, and I think that we can all agree that the sequel needs to be avoided at all costs.

The first half of this science fiction horror tale (based on a short story from Stephen King's Night Shift Collection) is thought provoking and gripping, but the latter half decides to dive deep into an eccentric and confusing mix of special effects and pseudo-scientific mayhem. Dr. Angelo (Pierce Brosnan) is a brilliant but obsessed computer science specialist that is engaged in secret government experiments to create super-intelligent soldiers out of chimpanzees by using virtual reality simulations to stimulate the brain. When the experiment goes haywire, and a rogue chimp gets away, Angelo believes his destiny is to better mankind by using a human subject for his projects for the purpose of curing brain diseases and not warfare. His subject is Jobe, (played perfectly by Jeff Fahey) the half-wit lawnmower man that lives in the shed of a church next door. As Dr. Angelo's experiments progress, Jobe becomes an intelligent super-human genius whose powers eventually spiral out of control.

This film is triumphant on many various levels. Films dealing with a gradual transformation/disintegration of a central character are very intriguing to watch, and this is very much "Cronenbergian" in its portrayal of Jobe and how he develops into a telekinetic mad genius from a complete idiot and ultimately becomes a tragically vengeful and emotionless entity. The themes dealing with the unlocking of the human primordial intellect and controlling its power by impatient force and not wisdom work wonderfully. The performances are superb as well as the animation sequences, and director Brett Leonard (Virtuosity) is good at integrating them into a live action film. There are many sinister government character types that add suspense to the plot, and Jenny Wright is great as the sexy seductress neighbor who has her way with Jobe. The only time this fails is when Jobe gets revenge on the government goons and the characters that antagonized him by merging his powers with the world of virtual reality resulting in some far out murder sequences that just don't seem to make any sense. Jobe eventually infuses himself with the computer mainframe, and the climax becomes a bit too bizarre, even for sci-fi computer geek fans. Nonetheless, this is a well-made, above-average assault on the senses. If you can find the VHS unrated director's cut, it is much better than the DVD release which is cut by almost twenty minutes, losing most of its character development and style. This is highly recommended for fans of mind-bending sci-fi/horror.