Review of The Lawnmower Man (1992) by Nathan F — 27 May 2010

Just when you thought all your landscapers do is trim hedges, water flowers, and cut the grass a movie comes along that blows your mind, and makes you rethink who you hire to tend to your lawn. The Lawnmower Man coming to you straight out of the glorious 90s. Do you ever wonder what happens when creativity in filmmaking goes very, very wrong? Then go no further than this forgotten sci-fi horror flick.

Angelo (Pierce Brosnan) is a scientist that is testing the new technology of virtual reality, and whether or not it can increase the intelligence of living organisms that it is tested on. His first try is on chimps, but of course this goes wrong when his little hairy test subject breaks out of his cage in a fit of rage and rampages through the lab. Now that his first has failed, Angelo takes a different approach. He decides to test on the retarded lawnmower man, who has been taken advantage of by the locals, but unforeseen problems occur during the testing. Has Jobe, the lawnmower man, become too smart?

But if first you don't succeed try, try again, on a human? Sure, why not? Angelo sees no problem with joining in on fun of mistreating the village idiot by making Jobe test subject number two. His brain isn't much more developed than the chimp's was, right? Poor, little Jobe. Well, no one is going to say that much longer...

If you haven't already guessed it, Jobe turns into an all powerful, more intelligent than his creator, god that begins to terrorize the neighborhood. You better hope to be on Jobe's good side, because he can get into your head. Literally, he has become that smart. Jobe attacks all the people that have made his list over the years having fire from heaven and killer lawnmowers all at his disposal. Damn it! Angelo you have created a monster that's going to take over the world! Now, only you can save us!

And he does... What else do you expect? Angelo with his sexy British accent and his I wish I was a Backstreet Boy earring saves the day. I don't think Pierce Brosnan, when looking back on his career, is going to think very fondly of his performance here. It kind of just seems like a really lame audition for his future role as James Bond, but based off of this display of "acting" he shouldn't have gotten the part.

The fact that The Lawnmower Man actually takes itself seriously is a joke in and of itself. Because sadly enough, this film isn't trying to be funny at all. It becomes quite an intriguing film when you begin to watch to see how far it can fall into absurdity. The film has inspired me to make a new list: Movies So Horrible You Have to See.