I have a strange, abnormal love for virtual reality films from the 90’s and I just can’t get enough of them. That’s the main reason why I decided to revisit the mother of them all, the legendary, the hated, the loved, the insanely bizarre Stephen King-adaptation-ish The Lawnmower Man, starring Jeff Fahey, Pierce Brosnan and the kid from The Last Action Hero. I don’t have any memories how and and when I saw it for the first time, but I remember I really liked it. Not in some ironic way, I really found it to be a cool movie. And between us, just us - me and you the reader: I still find it pretty cool, if slightly flawed (and to be honest, but we all that: dated). But I kinda live for movies that never gets enough love and therefore it’s time for The Lawnmower Man to step out of the shadows to get the Ninja Dixon-treatment!
First of all, let’s quite Wikipedia for some facts: “The film's original script, written by director Brett Leonard and producer Gimel Everett, was titled Cyber God and had nothing to do with King's short story. New Line Cinema held the film rights to King's story, and decided to combine Cyber God with some minor elements of King's "The Lawnmower Man". The resulting film, originally titled Stephen King's The Lawnmower Man, differed so much from the source material that King sued the filmmakers to remove his name from the title.” I don’t doubt these lines of information and Cyber God is a way more awesome title for The Lawnmower Man! Have you read the original 1975 short story by King? It’s great. Short and very bizarre about a man being killed by a lawnmower, according some sources (it was a while since I read it so I had to do some research) sacrificed to the Greek god Pan.
The result is a bizarre mix of… very little… of Stephen King’s short story and the original story by Leonard and co-writer/producer Gimel Everett, but if you look beyond the vague King-connection this is a really cool flick. Jeff Fahey is mentally challenged janitor Jobe who after trying to save an experimental chimpanzee from the secret organization The Shop (without understand this of course) is befriended by scientist Lawrence (Brosnan), the man behind the fucked-up monkey. Jobe gets a chance to try out the advanced virtual reality technology in Lawrence basement and ends up smarter and smarter...and finally ends up in some kind of psychosis… and not only that, he starts to experience supernatural powers, telekinesis etc. Realizing the danger Lawrence tries to stop him, but The Shop wants Jobe for their own purposes. And then shit hits the fan.
I’m not kidding ya, I think this IS a good movie. Sure, some of the special effects feels flawed today, but it was released in 1992 dammit. That’s a long time ago. Effects on this scale was unique at the time and even if some of them really doesn’t hold together totally they’re impressive for the time, bordering to the surreal. Yeah, it’s almost a spiritual experience and I think this film alone have inspired more than a few New Age figures out there. One cool detail is the use of Kabbalistic symbols in the first sequence when Jobe is getting connected to Lawrence experimental e equipment, which even today causes paranoia for those who believe in Illuminati, NWO and so on. Fun for me, sad for them!
The thing to accept The Lawnmower Man today is to just get the effects and the ideas of the 90’s, when virtual reality was THE shit and the world would change direction completely. The world did change when Internet (and everything connected with it), but virtual reality is still the retarded cousin from the country, or the black sheep. Hopefully, with the apperance of Oculus Rift, it will get the boost it needs to be a part of our daily life. Because I love the idea of stepping into a different reality, getting away from this mess of a world for a while.
Give The Lawnmower Man a new spin, please. It’s better than you remember it to be.
"Have you read the original 1975 short story by King? It’s great. Short and very bizarre about a man being killed by a lawnmower, according some sources (it was a while since I read it so I had to do some research) sacrificed to the Greek god Pan."
Yep.
But was it Pan...?
I remember the lawnmover man turning into some strange creature, eating a rat(or some kind of mole) with his bare teeth.......
"Jeff Fahey is mentally challenged janitor Jobe"
I remember Fahey being really good here, living with this creepy priest that abuses him.
"after trying to save an experimental chimpanzee"
Oh yeah, cyborg ape!
hahahahahhahahhaha....maybe this should be used in the reboot of Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) ?
"Sure, some of the special effects feels flawed today, but it was released in 1992 dammit."
Yeah, when it came out everybody thought those CG was da bomb......today its very outdated.
"is the use of Kabbalistic symbols in the first sequence when Jobe is getting connected to Lawrence experimental e equipment, which even today causes paranoia for those who believe in Illuminati, NWO and so on."
Forgotten all about that.......cool.
"Give The Lawnmower Man a new spin, please. It’s better than you remember it to be."
Maybe I should, good review.
Posted by: Megatron | October 31, 2014 at 23:55