“THE LAWNMOWER MAN” (1992) | Film Review

Reference to Jackie Chan: none available

“Falling, floating, flying. What’s next, fucking?”

In a few cases, film adaptations of Stephen King’s novels have been good and have become classics in pop culture. Most of his brilliant stories in film and television, however, are to be found in a trashy corner, which makes it difficult to distinguish between story and realisation and thus a fair assessment. Let’s try anyway.

“THE LAWNMOWER MAN” (1992) tells the story of cyber-scientist ANGELO, who is working on a new technology for artificial intelligence and is about to end his career due to a failed animal experiment. If it weren’t for the mentally retarded JOBE, an honest skin who lives in a shed on the church grounds and earns some extra money by mowing the lawn.

When you consider that the original story was penned by Stephen King in 1975, his genius becomes clear. Even before the commercial computer age, King recognised the power behind bits and bytes and how man would rise to become the creator of an artificial intelligence, only to be threatened by it.

I imagine myself reading the paper or grabbing a book on a Sunday afternoon in 1975 and devouring this short story over a cup of coffee in the rain. I think the coffee would remain untouched because I would be so captivated by this futuristic sci-fi horror. Putting this genius into moving pictures is usually an endeavour that is doomed to failure; only a few book adaptations are really good and work as a film.

However, I personally find the title of the story, whether short story or film, neither good nor appropriate. Not good because it doesn’t grab me, it doesn’t scare me, on the contrary, I would rather make fun of it. “Oooh, the lawnmower man is coming”. It also doesn’t fit because Jobe doesn’t even mow the lawn. He mulches. “The mulcher” sounds more mysterious, doesn’t it? But what fool am I to criticise the great King?

The film starts well, but quickly drifts into what I would compare to typical 90s softcore TV porn. Scene follows scene and this permanent lift music has neither highs nor lows and doesn’t even underline the drama of the acting, which is at least well realised by Pierce Brosnan. It strums inappropriately all the time during exciting scenes, a few funny scenes and even dialogues, which is extremely distracting and robs the story of its tension.

In 1992, computer effects were still in their infancy. A year later, this was to change forever with “JURASSIC PARK”. But in “THE LAWNMOWER MAN” we are witness to the best 3D screensaver designs the world has ever had the pleasure of enjoying in feature-length film. I’m almost certain that even back then the effects came across as a bit confused and over-the-top. Nowadays, it’s an absolute horror to watch these scenes. This point has aged badly. But that’s the way it is with technology.

An unintentionally funny element was integrated with the character Jobe himself, because he just looks like Chucky and Jeff Daniels in “DUMB AND DUMBER” – or does Jeff Daniels in the film look more like Chucky and Jobe? In any case, this character has degenerated into a caricature, which is only surpassed by the cliché of the horny widow next door for whom he mows the lawn. Fortunately, no crude bush jokes are made.

Scientist Angelo recognises in Jobe the chance to save his project and makes him a diabolical offer: “I can make you smarter, but only if you want me to.” The devil has many faces and, thanks to the beating Pedo priest (Pedo? Yes, take a closer look at the last scene and his statement), the reader/viewer is led to believe that the priest, as a symbol of the oh-so-hypocritical church, embodies evil after all. The argument is reinforced by the fact that the main character Brosnan is portrayed as a beau who only wants the best for poor Jobe.

But his own wife is already fed up with the wannabe Bill Gates and just says “Do what you want with your future, Larry, but please do it without me”. That’s right, dear transhumanists, your crazy plans have nothing to do with the reality of most people, so why don’t you live them out without us? I mention Bill Gates for a reason and I could add to the list. But let’s not give the devil of the narrative too much leeway, because in my opinion it’s Angelo and his AI technology that’s causing destruction. That’s exactly what it comes down to in the film and Angelo has to acknowledge his mistake and save little Peter just before the end.

The whole thing is not without a sideways glance at God. The digital Jobe, plagued by the last remnants of compassion, frees little Peter from a chamber and Angelo says “Thank God”. The transformation from creature to creator is thus complete and King shows his true self once again. Satanic conversion simply means “gaslighting”, imputing your own faults, weaknesses, reactions etc. to your opponent. Too much of a good thing? Dozens of Saturnian symbols can be seen throughout the film, as in almost every King adaptation. And hello, the leitmotif itself is the prime example.

From the middle onwards, the film unfortunately becomes lazy, because of course the military complex is behind it with a black project. Where else would the money for such a crazy endeavour come from? And before Jobe uploads himself into the cloud, he stands around like Michael Myers in a Tron suit and an expression like Anakin Skywalker on the verge of defecting to the dark side. By the way, the chimpanzee’s name is Rosco 1138 and is almost certainly a reference to George Lucas’ film “THX 1138” (1971), which probably inspired Stephen King to write this story.

You still can’t get over my point about Satanic conversion? Angelo says it towards the end with the words “The earliest sign of psychosis is a Christ complex”. Blasphemy! But I get it, first the transhumanist invents a godless technology, only to be surprised and call it godless. Et voilà, satanic conversion.

But the ending is all the stronger for it.

Contemporary 5 out of 10 stars

Original trailer | “THE LAWNMOWER MAN” (1992)

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