THE LAWNMOWER MAN
A film review by Ken Johnson
Copyright 1992 Ken Johnson
144 min., R, Science Fiction/Horror, 1992 Director: Brett Leonard Cast: Jeff Fahey, Pierce Bronsnan, Jenny Wright, Geoffrey Lewis
Pierce Bronsnan is a scientist who is working on Virtual Reality, which is a simulator that opens you up to a computerized dimension. He has been using monkeys for these experiments, but now he wants to use a human to see what the effect would be. Mentally retarded Jeff Fahey is Bronsnan's lawnmower man. Fahey loves to play with Bronsnan's computer simulators. Bronsnan starts using Fahey for his experiments, without telling him what he is doing, and with disastrous results.
THE LAWNMOWER MAN is a combination of science fiction and horror, mostly the science fiction though. It uses the new technology of Virtual Reality, which I don't know too much about. It has some wonderful computer animation (I'll get back to this later), good special effects, and a good plot. On a scale of zero to five, I give THE LAWNMOWER MAN a four. THE LAWNMOWER MAN is rated R for explicit language, violence, adult situations, and brief female nudity.
THE LAWNMOWER MAN is one of two Stephen King films coming to the theaters in the next few months. The other film of his is called SLEEPWALKERS (Columbia Pictures) and is scheduled to be released on April 10. THE LAWNMOWER MAN has been released by New Line Cinema and is "based" on a short story by Stephen King. A small hint of Stephen King's short story shows up towards the end of the film, but other than that, THE LAWNMOWER MAN has nothing to do with Stephen King's short story. In fact, Stephen King's short story has nothing to do with Virtual Reality at all.
The Virtual Reality segments are done with computer graphics and are very well done. The way that the colors and the shapes all blend together makes THE LAWNMOWER MAN seem different than most other horror movies. The Virtual Reality segments make the film almost an art film, for the Virtual Reality takes up most of the film. If all that you are interested in is the Virtual Reality segments, it might make it more worth your money to go see a matinee. This film definitely won't hold up very well on video.
The one thing that really upsets me about THE LAWNMOWER MAN is that both the advertisements for the film, and the film itself, state right on the title "Stephen King's The Lawnmower Man." Yet barely any of the film is actually "Stephen King's The Lawnmower Man"; most of it is just "The Lawnmower Man." I get upset when a film states that it is taken from a certain person's work and isn't, like "Edgar Allan Poe's THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM." Some Stephen King films have been direct translations of the novel, like IT and CARRIE. Others like THE LAWNMOWER MAN and THE RUNNING MAN have very little to do with the novel. I feel such movies should say "Inspired by the Stephen King short story THE LAWNMOWER MAN" or something like that.
Ken J. blj@mithrandir.cs.unh.edu
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