The Lawnmower Man takes what could have been an interesting premise about virtual reality and turns it into a hulking, clunking movie better suited for the Syfy channel than for cinemas. If it were made today, I have little doubt that it would have been a Syfy channel original movie starring Bruce Campbell. Instead, we get a movie with Pierce Brosnan. At least Bruce Campbell would have been funnier.

The movie stars Jeff Fahey as a mentally handicapped lawnmower man who is made the subject of human testing designed to further test virtual reality and, in the process, make him smarter. This is instigated by a scientist played by Brosnan. This was clearly the role that the producers of the James Bond films watched and then said to themselves “that’s our 007,” for who better to play the debonair super agent than a grizzled, boozy scientist with marriage woes, an earring, and a mullet. Goldeneye indeed! The rest of the movie is essentially a sci-fi remake of Flowers for Algernon, except in this rendition, the lead character takes names and kicks butt as he grows in intelligence.

All in all, it’s not the worst movie I’ve ever seen, but it doesn’t resemble a great viewing experience either. The special effects look like they were done by the director’s acid-tripping brother-in-law, some of the virtual reality sex scenes are enough to put off even the most perverted, and the world really doesn’t need to see James Bond nailed to the cross, which actually happens in this movie. Stephen King, whose story of the same name was the very loose inspiration for the movie, sued to have his name removed from the film. If the man who made Creepshow doesn’t want anything to do with your movie, isn’t that saying something?



About the author: James Mowery is a computer geek that writes about technology and related topics. To read more blog posts by him, go to led tv.



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Labels: film, guest movie review, Jeff Fahey, Pierce Brosnan, Stephen King