tdrish There's only one word that keeps coming to mind when I think of The Lawnmower Man....creative! Very creative, imaginative movie. And Jeff Faheys performance as Jobe, holy hotcakes, he knocked it out of the park! So what are the downfalls of The Lawnmower Man, I mean, certainly, there has to be some reason why this film is ranking at such a low level. Can you overlook the cheesy CGI? Can you overlook some of the choppy sequences? And can you please overlook that this was a short story by Stephen King. ( Stephen King, uh, you should have been thanking them, instead of suing them, I mean, this movie was not that bad. They even made a reference to Firestarter for you, you know, the whole Shop thing, oh, your a hard man to please, aren't you, King?) For myself, I thought the movie was not bad at all. You'll need some patience, that's about it. The good stuff doesn't happen until about the last 45 minutes, but that's okay, because the film does a decent job of telling a smooth, compelling tell up until then. The last 45 minutes, it's as if the dam breaks loose, and suddenly everything is coming apart at the seams, everything happening so fast. This is what I mean by choppy, it was once a solid, smooth tale, and now its rushing a few things here and there. Can I forgive? Sure! This was made all the way back in 1992, we arguably still made good movies then, so given its time period, I think this stood out very well. ( And it really did. If you look, this movie did not bomb, despite the bad reviews. It got its money back. It was successful. Nobody wants to talk about that.) When we finally get to the, uh, scenes where Jobe gets his revenge, two of them left me with the "what the puck" moment. The lawnmower scene makes up for the two of those scenes put together! Forgiven. So the verdict is in: Great story, powerhouse performance from Jeff, imaginative, inventive stuff going on here, bizarre, weird film, we will call it unique here, keep my attention even past the two hour mark, and a goosebump, hair raising, chilling ending to it all. I give it 7 out of 10. Did, uh, the rest of you boneheads who rate this watch the same movie, or what?

Beat Priest Basically, think Flowers for Algernon crossed with TRON and a latter act taking cues from Elfen Lied, and you're somewhere on the right track. The CGI, while quite impressive at the time the film was made, hasn't really aged well. Especially Jobe's Digital Avatar, which sometimes enters the Uncanny Valley.

trashgang I remember seeing this flick around 1994 and I found it a rather good flick with all the virtual reality action going on. What supposed to be a good B-flick became a cult flick due the effects and the story. And all the fighting going on between Stephen King and the producers did add another issue towards the fame of it. Normally it was supposed to be a flick based on a short story by King but it transformed into another story so sued by King they had to remove his name from the opening credits.Almost 25 years later I came across this flick again. Of course back then the effects and computer animation was top notch but technology went on and on and if you look to it nowadays it is completely outdated on that part. But it's still watchable, be advised, it is a slow mover and it takes a while before Jobe (Fahey) turns from a retarded lawnmower into a super genius men with special abilities so he becomes rather dangerous. It's up to Dr. Lawrence (Brosnan) to destroy the virtual reality and Jobe. Not one of the best flicks about technology but the superb Fahey makes it worth watching and if you're in a sentimental nostalgia tour do pick it up, back to the time before game consoles....Gore 0/5 Nudity 0,5/5 Effects 4/5 Story 2,5/5 Comedy

view_and_review The Shop is at it again. Who is The Shop? The same clandestine government organization that was responsible for the Firestarter. Their goal is the same though the technology is slightly different: create a weapon from a human subject.The Lawnmower Man was Flowers for Algernon mixed with Tron. Dr. Angelo (Pierce Brosnan) developed a drug and virtual reality technique to increase intelligence. After his experiments failed with a chimp he decided to tweak things a bit and try again on Jobe (Jeff Fahey), a mentally challenged lawnmower man. The experiments worked to increase Jobe's intelligence but it also awakened another side of him as well.Initially I was attributing this movie to Stephen King, but after reading more on this site I found that Stephen King sued because this movie had almost nothing to do with his self-same titled short. I watched this initially in the early 90's and wasn't impressed. In the attempts to be futuristic Lawnmower Man came off as cheesy. In their attempts to apply virtual reality technology and effects on screen it made for terrible graphics. I know that virtual reality was all the buzz in the early 90's as we were rapidly progressing in the computer field as a people, but the graphics and special effects were still a ways off. What were supposed to be riveting, scary or jaw dropping scenes-were no more than cartoonish. I'm not saying this because CGI today is so breathtakingly real, I mean even in 1992 this movie never moved the needle on the scales. Consider that in 1991 we had T2 which was revolutionary as far as on screen effects, and in '93 (a year after Lawnmower Man) we were treated to Jurassic Park, another titan in the CGI department.The movie ended with an opening for a part 2 (which was done though I never saw it) but why? It would seem that a remake would make this movie so much better but the concept of virtual reality yet again wouldn't go over well. That drum has been beat too many times I'm afraid it's lost its effect.