The Lawnmower Man Collection
Directed by Brett Leonard/Farhad Mann.
Starring Jeff Fahey, Pierce Brosnan, Jenny Wright, Geoffrey Lewis, Dean Norris, Patrick Bergin, Camille Cooper, and Matt Frewer.
SYNOPSIS:
Box set containing the groundbreaking The Lawnmower Man and its lesser-seen sequel.
The problem with basing a movie around a new technology is that you can guarantee it will be out of date pretty much as soon as it is released. What is worse is when said movie based around technology is something of a Frankenstein when it comes to being pieced together, as 1992s The Lawnmower Man was sold not only on its use of virtual reality – a technology then in its infancy – but also that it was based on a short story by Stephen King, which is stretching it. Yes, the title was King’s, and he did write a short story about a man who mows lawns for a living, but there the similarities end as somebody merged King’s idea with a sci-fi script, and the movie was born (or coded, if you like).
The titular lawnmower man is Jobe (Jeff Fahey), the neighbourhood handyman who mows lawns and does odd jobs for the community whilst living under the shelter of the local parish priest, who delights in punishing the simple-minded innocent for basically enjoying himself by whipping him with a belt. All this changes, though, when brilliant scientist Lawrence Angelo (Pierce Brosnan) recruits Jobe to use in his experiments with virtual reality, creating an online world where Jobe can absorb knowledge and information, ultimately becoming a god in that realm. As Jobe becomes more powerful, he begins to develop powers of telekinesis, but his physical body cannot take all the strain, forcing him completely online as Dr. Angelo tries to abort the experiment.
Chuck in a government conspiracy, underlying themes about religion and the obvious warnings about one person having too much power and you have yourself a movie, but The Lawnmower Man has the extra ingredient of its spectacular special effects, introducing the general public of 1992 to the unlimited possibilities of virtual reality. Of course, it all looks a bit silly now – to be honest, it did then too – but the movie did predict a few things that have come to pass, namely how we all live our lives online and that everything can change with the push of a button from an egotistical sociopath, and in 2024 the online world that Jobe inhabits is obviously a basic one of swirling colours, vector graphics and recreating an actor’s face with limited digital clarity; commonplace now but back then – wow!
But a movie based around technology and/or groundbreaking effects still requires a solid script, a plot and a sense of cohesion to make it work, and after three decades The Lawnmower Man still doesn’t really work as a full-length movie. Pierce Brosnan and Jeff Fahey do what they can with the material, and come out of it with their dignity intact, but there is too much going on with the sub-plots, too much time building up the characters – basically the first half of the movie is people upsetting Jobe so he can have his revenge in the second – and the virtual reality feels like an afterthought shoved in because they had to.
There are some iconic shots – like the virtual reality sex scene between Jobe and his love interest Marnie (Jenny Wright) – that still look decent now they have been cleaned up, and the movie does have the nostalgia factor if you saw it back in 1992, but chances are you watched it then because it was sold to you on the special effects, and in 2024 that is not really a selling point.
What is a selling point to collectors, however, is that 101 Films have put together a bumper package for this Blu-ray release, for not only do you get the original theatrical version of the movie but also the Director’s Cut, which comes in with an extra 39 minutes of material that, in all honesty, isn’t really needed and you can see why it was cut for cinemas as it makes an already bloated movie even more pedestrian, but for fans it is a neat bonus to have everything.
Not only are there two cuts of the movie but you also get the DTV sequel Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace (a.k.a. Lawnmower Man 2: Jobe’s War), and if you thought the original had dated badly then you really need to watch this 1995 effort that sees Jobe (now played by Matt Frewer) return to the online realm to merge the real and the virtual so he can become a god again.
Needless to say, it is all very goofy, especially as the two leads that grounded (to a point) the first movie are not to be seen. On paper, Matt Frewer was a good choice as he had previously played CG TV host Max Headroom, but he plays Jobe without the innocence or vulnerability that Jeff Fahey did and, for some reason, seems to be impersonating Jim Carrey. Austin O’Brien returns from the first movie as Jobe’s friend Peter, but this movie is set way into a cyberpunk future and Peter has only aged about five years, which feels very odd. Other than that, you get Patrick Begin enjoying himself as the creator of virtual reality who has gone to live a quiet life in the desert after he realised that his creation spawned this franchise, and more special effects that are somehow both better and worse than those in the first movie, but if you pay attention to the futuristic techno-babble said in the movie there is evidence that this movie predicted/inspired one of the 21st century’s most popular gadgets (unlikely, but the words are there in the script).
Boxed up in a rigid slipcase with alternate artworks, a collector’s booklet featuring insightful essays by Rich Johnson and Andy Marshall-Roberts, The Lawnmower Man Collection is another superbly put-together package from 101 Films, but a package where the supplementary material probably holds more value than the movies themselves. Nostalgia for the first movie aside, neither film in this collection really holds up to modern standards – if they ever held up at all – and chances are you won’t be double-billing them, but for a collector’s edition to put on that ever-expanding shelf this is as complete a set of how we saw the future in the early 1990s as you could possibly wish to own.
Flickering Myth Rating – The Lawnmower Man – Film: ★ ★/ Movie: ★ ★
Flickering Myth Rating – Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace – Film: ★ / Movie: ★
Chris Ward
