The Lawnmower Man (1992)

March 21, 2023 4:58 PM

A simple lawnmower man is turned into a genius through virtual reality, with dire side-effects. Not based on a Stephen King story.
posted by RobotHero (9 comments total)

I initially read that as "dire special effects" which also works, frankly.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 5:15 PM on March 21, 2023 [8 favorites]

yeah imagine my surprise when this movie was not about a naked man crawling on all fours whilst eating the cut grass (and other things) that is left behind by his supernaturally powered self-driving lawnmower.

but now imagine my delight when it was fu*ked up in all kinds of other ways instead.
posted by some loser at 5:29 PM on March 21, 2023 [7 favorites]

This has always been a perfect old man's understanding of VR and it's potentials and risks.
posted by drewbage1847 at 7:55 PM on March 21, 2023 [4 favorites]

i love this stupid, often dull film. bonus points for the vr scenes showing up in 'beyond the minds eye'.
posted by AlbertCalavicci at 6:20 AM on March 22, 2023 [3 favorites]

From Pierce Brosnan's period of exile, after Remington Steele ended and he'd been torpedoed as Bond, and before he finally got Bond and returned to the A list. He really had his metaphorical years of wandering in the cinematic wilderness. I was a fan and so I saw a lot of those movies.

This one really kind of sucked. It wouldn't have been a great film even with better graphics, but CGI was in that "We can do this! We can really do this! ... just not very well..." phase.
posted by Naberius at 9:03 AM on March 22, 2023 [4 favorites]

i love this movie as the awful B-movie it is (and sadly the one that convinced my young self to return to computers, which turned into, with mixed feelings, a 25yr software career that is still going)
posted by kokaku at 9:56 AM on March 22, 2023 [3 favorites]

I rewatched this recently and saw the director's cut. It's worse! It adds so much unnecessary backstory and characterization. The beginning especially just draaaaags... They added in like a whole half hour of extra nonsense.
posted by mrphancy at 10:57 AM on March 22, 2023 [3 favorites]

Yes, mrphancy, I'm surprised at how often the Director's cut of a bad movie reveals that the problem really wasn't the studio meddling with his masterpiece at all. I mean sometimes it is. But sometimes cutting a lot of footage just means you have to wade through less bad movie.
posted by Naberius at 6:17 PM on March 22, 2023 [1 favorite]

Jeeesus WEPT!
posted by Omon Ra at 9:33 AM on March 24, 2023 [2 favorites]