When it comes to movie adaptations straying from the source material no author has suffered more than Stephen King – even Kubrick’s amazing adaptation of The Shining earned the ire of the author – but in the annals of adaptations none are as far off the mark as the 1992 adaptation “The Lawnmower Man” which took the title from King’s short story and absolutely nothing else.
I’m not being hyperbolic when I say there is absolutely nothing in this movie that pertains to Stephen King’s short story – well, other than they both contain a lawnmower – as the people at New Line Cinema had optioned a script called “Cyber God” and simply placed King’s title on the production to cash in on the fame of that author’s name provides. Needless to say, Stephen King was a little pissed, so he sued the studio to have his name and title removed from the film and promotion, which they refused to do, and this resulted in the courts ordering them to pay the author a $2.5 million dollar settlement.
“I will settle for redrum!”
But what is this movie about? Just how different is it from King’s short story? The short story dealt with a man who unknowling hires a lawn maintenance man who works for the ancient god Pan, while the plot of the film revolves around Dr. Lawrence Angelo (Pierce Brosnan), a scientist experimenting with virtual reality and intelligence enhancement. Yeah, not what you’d call all that similar in the premise department. The conflict of the film stems from the fact that Angelo is working for a shady government agency known as The Shop, who wants his experiments focused on military applications – training a chimpanzee to be a killing machine – and when his best test subject is shot dead after escaping the facility, he decides to try to go off on his own as he believes “Virtually reality holds the key to human advancement.” Logically, this means he should jump right into human testing – because the ape thing went so well – so he hires a mentally challenged gardener named Jobe Smith (Jeff Fahey) as a test subject for his experiments, hoping to increase Jobe’s cognitive abilities using a combination of drugs and virtual reality simulations.
“How do you feel about trying a little mad science?”
As anyone who has read or seen the many adaptations of Frankenstein or Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde things will not go as planned. As the experiment progresses, Jobe begins to display extraordinary cognitive abilities, surpassing even Dr. Angelo’s expectations. However, the experiment takes a dark turn as Jobe’s newfound intelligence and powers begin to spiral out of control, leading to unforeseen consequences. Not only is Jobe’s intelligence enhanced, but he also develops psychokinesis and telepathy and becomes increasingly unstable. Even worse is that he starts using these new abilities to seek revenge on those who have wronged him in the past. Then we have The Director (Dean Norris) of The Shop sending goons to capture both the good doctor and Jobe, which results in a lot of dead or digitized goons. It’s at this point that Dr. Angelo realizes the danger of what he has unleashed and tries to stop Jobe, but he finds himself powerless against Jobe’s growing psychic abilities. As Jobe’s powers continue to spiral out of control, he becomes a threat to the entire world.
He’s also a very sexy threat to the world.
If that is the plot of the movie what is King’s short story about? In the story, a man named Harold Parkette hires a mowing service called “Pastoral Greenery” and the man who arrives is a hairy pot-bellied individual who strips naked and eats the newly cut grass like a goat while controlling his lawnmower with mystical powers. Turns out this man works for the pagan god Pan, who grants substantial benefits to his followers if customers are sacrificed, which leads to Harold being chased through his living room and “mowed down” by the motorized menace. Yeah, I can’t say there are a lot of similarities between the short story and the plot of this movie because even though we do get an asshole being chased through his living room by a lawnmower there are certainly no pagan inferences to be found.
He looks more like a Power Rangers cosplayer than a worshipper of Pan.
Stray Observations:
• The screenplay tosses in the government agency known as “The Shop” which appeared in separate works of King’s, such as Firestarter (1980) and The Tommyknockers (1987).
• It’s too bad that Jeff Fahey never met Tropic Thunder’s Kirk Lazarus as he could have used the advice offered in that film “Man, everyone knows you never go full retard.”
•
Geoffrey Lewis plays a groundskeeper in this movie and he also played a
groundskeeper in Tobe Hooper’s adaptation of Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot (1979).
•
Dr. Angelo is supposed to be an altruistic scientist who wants to help
humanity but he witnesses his neighbour physically abusing both his wife
and son, on multiple occasions, yet never reports him to the
authorities.
• At one point, Dr. Angelo places bombs rigged with
timers and he tries to prevent Jobe from reading his mind and learning
about them, this is either an homage or a lift from the classic Village of the Damned.
•
Jobe’s customized lawnmower has a dual exhaust pipe that is aimed up at
the user’s face, which would pump enough quantities of toxic carbon
monoxide to give you a headache within minutes and poison you after
prolonged use.
Luckily, telekinesis solves that problem.
Director Brett Leonard’s The Lawnmower Man is a prime example of a film that tries to dazzle audiences with its flashy special effects but ultimately leaves them with a hollow and unsatisfying experience. This is a misguided attempt at blending science fiction and horror that falls flat on almost every level, resulting in a film that is both laughably absurd and painfully dull. But the film’s greatest sin, however, lies in its egregious misuse of CGI and virtual reality technology. While it may have been groundbreaking for its time, the computer-generated effects in this outing will look hopelessly outdated and laughably amateurish to modern viewers – not that they looked all that great at the time either – and the so-called “virtual reality” sequences are particularly cringe-worthy, resembling something out of a low-budget ’90s video game rather than a cutting-edge cinematic experience.
If this is virtual reality sex I want no part of it.
Even if one were to look past its complete departure from Stephen King’s story and take it as a “CyberGod” story the film’s portrayal of virtual reality and its effects on the human mind is often exaggerated and a little silly at times, relying on outdated and unrealistic depictions of technology. While this may have been forgivable given the limitations of CGI at the time, it detracts from the film’s credibility and undermines its attempts at social commentary. The script regurgitates tired clichés and half-baked pseudo-intellectual babble and when Dr. Angelo rants at Jobe “This technology was meant to expand human communication, but you’re not even human anymore! What you’ve become terrifies me. You’re a freak!” they are laughably shallow and derivative.
“Kneel before CyberChrist!”
The performances in this outing are equally uninspired, with actors sleepwalking through their roles as if they can’t wait for the whole ordeal to be over. Jeff Fahey’s portrayal of the titular lawnmower man is particularly cringe-worthy, with his over-the-top mannerisms and wooden delivery robbing the character of any shred of credibility or humanity. The villains have fewer dimensions than what you’d find in an average Scooby-Doo cartoon and all the supporting characters wander in and out of the movie as if they were looking for the script or their agent’s phone number. When the final act kicks into gear, and Jobe attempts to infect the world wide web, you’ll be wishing you’d installed some Norton Anti-Virus or at least taken some anti-nausea medication.
We were actually supposed to take this seriously?
In conclusion, The Lawnmower Man remains an “interesting” entry in the history of CGI and virtual reality cinema, and while by today’s standards make it’s quite primitive it gets points for trying. However, the film’s flawed narrative execution and underdeveloped characters prevent it from achieving true greatness, not to mention the blatant abandonment of the source material. While it may hold nostalgic value for some viewers, it ultimately fails to live up to its ambitious premise and falls short of being a truly memorable or impactful film. Instead of wasting your time with this film I suggest you check out the short story “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes or its film adaptation Charly, which deals with similar subject matters but in more thoughtful and intelligent manner.
