January 18, 2006
Lawnmower Man
Year: 1992
Directed by: Brett Leonard
Written by: Brett Leonard, Gimel Everett & Stephen King (original short story, but who filed a lawsuit to have his name disassociated from this)
Degree of Cyberpunk Visuals: High
Correlation to Cyberpunk Themes: High
Key Cast Members:
Overview: Pierce Brosnan as 007 stars in this scifi espionage flick about a guy with a lawnmower who tries to take over the world…Well, that’s not exactly it, but close 
This might be another one of those I’m out to lunch on, but I’m guessing most have seen this flick. Lawnmower Man was originally derived from a Stephen King novel (although considering that King sued to have his name removed, we might infer he wasn’t thrilled with this movie), and is about a genius government funded scientist (Brosnan) who’s doing research on increasing human intelligence through using drug-assisted virtual reality experiments. His research, originally done on chimps, was cut off when a chimp goes wild, so instead of giving up, he does the research in his basement, using the local lawnmower dullard as his test subject.
Over time, the Lawnmower guy becomes awesomely intelligent, so much so that he grows more powerful than anyone could have possibly imagined. So much so, in fact, that he becomes a potential threat to mankind!
The Bottom Line: Lawnmower man is an early entree into 3D graphics. The graphics were rather decent at the time but certainly looks dated now. It’s still a nice scifi thriller that fully qualifies as a cyberpunk movie in every way possible. I enjoy this, and generally like Brosnan movies, but maybe its just a guilty pleasure of mine. Whereas I find it watchable in a cheesy sort of way, I can certainly imagine others scoffing at some of the insane plot points (like going from a multi-million dollar a year funded defense project, to getting better results in your basement). But even if you find this one watchable, it’s a pretty clear bet that you won’t stand a chance at liking the sequel.
~See movies similar to this one~
Tags: cyberpunk movie review
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9 Comments on Lawnmower Man »
August 7, 2006
Hugo @ 8:38 am:
The film was a little strange for my taste. Actually, I thought it was terrible, and you’d be better off renting ‘Johny Mneumonic’ (which is a great, great film compared to this :D).
Stephen King has a short story called ‘The Lawnmower Man’, but it has nothing to do with VR. It’s about a upper-class man who hires someone to cut his lawn, and when he comes out he finds the boy naked and eating the grass like a goat. It’s really disturbing, and it’s suggested that ‘The Lawnmower Man’ is really a serial killer (from memory). Very, very strange…
January 9, 2007
darren seeley @ 2:57 am:
I first got “Lawnmower Man” in the extended VHS director’s cut and loved it. Later I got the DVD only to find out most of the best non CG parts of the film was “deleted scenes” on the flip side. Sheesh.
A sequel was made, with only the kid from the first film returning; Jobe was played by Max Headroom’s Matt Frewer in the sequel.
darren seeley @ 2:59 am:
oh, one other thing. Lawnmower Man was released theatrically in 1991. It should not be in 80-89 category.
January 16, 2007
SFAM @ 1:51 am:
Hi Darren, thanks for the date catch. I don’t know why I had this listed from 1987. And yeah, I know about the sequel. I be putting the review up here soon.
March 23, 2007
Billy G @ 4:02 am:
in my opinion this movie deserves 7 stars. i really enjoyed this movie, but i can see how others may have not enjoyed it as much as me. its a crazy movie. it has really cheesy cg effects, like when jobe sets the preacher on fire, but they do the movie justice. this is pierce brosnans best film!
SFAM @ 2:22 pm:
Hi Billy G. Many people like this movie a lot, so I’m not surprised you’d give it 7 stars. I find it enjoyable, but it clearly has issues. Again, the whole “I can can do better research in my basement than I can with a multi-million dollar project” thing just came off a bit to hoaky for me, as did other parts.
I do owe this movie a FAR better review than I have above though. This review was put up rather early in the site’s existence - at that point I was just trying to get enough to make CPR worthwhile viewing.
March 29, 2007
David @ 11:06 am:
I seen this movie on rental when i was 9. For a sci-fi movie, it gives you what you want, and the end is even chiling when the phones start ringing. The sequel was pretty crap though, and it wouldn’t suprise me if there was a third that’s even worse.
December 5, 2007
Virtual Obsession (Host) @ 3:18 am (Pingback)
[…] it wasn’t for the Lawnmower Man-like idea of uploading a consciousness into cyberspace, this would just be another […]
June 21, 2008
Autobot_Prime @ 4:14 am:
Since the cover you show on this article is of teh New Line Platnum series, I was wondering if you have only seen the thratrical cut? There was an extended edition released on VHS (good luck finding it now though) and Laserdisk. Basically take all the deleted scenes in the DVD release and reinstate them into the movie. It changes many of the subtle plotpoints. Including how Brosnan was able to acheve more sucess in his basement than in the lab (the psycotropic drugs he used were different). Overall it makes the movie more enjoyable to watch and I would give the extended version 7 out of 10 stars. The theatrical DVD version though, would only get 4 out of 10 from me.
On a side note. The filmmakers originally had nothing to do with Steven King or the Lawnmower Man story. Robert Shay and New Line Cinema had an option to the name Lawnmower Man and when he realised that Jobe mowed lawns, he had the scene where Jobe goes on a rampage with his lawnmower written in, as well as the talk the police chief has with Brosnan, which wsa taken from the origonal story.