In the eighties the advent of the Internet and the promise of virtual reality meant that it was only going to be a matter of time before films based on this idea started to appear. On the high end of the market we got Tron, the other end of the spectrum was taken by The Lawnmower Man and its sequel. Now you can get both the film and its sequel in a two DVD set.

Dr Angelo works on using virtual reality to enhance intelligence, but is quickly becoming disenchanted working for the government. A crisis is precipitated when one of the apes he is working with escapes and is eventually gunned down. Angelo turns his back on his lab, but can’t find it in himself to do the same with his research. He persuades Jobe, a local man of limited intelligence to become his next subject, but instead of the mental colossus that Angelo hoped to create Jobe develops incredible abilities, becoming a monster which threatens both the real world and the world of virtual reality....

The Lawnmower Man (1992 - 2 hrs, 20 min, 51 sec) is a science fiction thriller, directed by Brett Leonard, who co-wrote the script with Gimel Everett. The film stared Pierce Brosnan as Angelo and Jeff Fahey as Jobe Smith. The film did run into controversy by trying to suggest that it was based on a story of the same name by Stephen King. King objected to this and rightly so, as even a cursory read of the short story reveals that the film has nothing whatsoever to do with the story. The story that it does rip off is Flowers for Algernon, a novel by Daniel Keyes, which itself has been turned into a movie.

Taken as a ‘B’ movie the film does have something to offer. Jeff Fahey, who was recently seen in the recurring role of Lost’s Frank Lapidus, approaches his admittedly silly role with conviction and plays it straight throughout, making him the most sympathetic and understandable character in the film. In this early outing for Brosnan his acting in the early part of the film is fine, but when things start to go wrong his continual angst does start to grate, but I guess that was a choice of the director.

The special effects are somewhat of a mixed bag, undoubtedly cutting edge at the time they were created, and deserving of the praise they received, some have weathered the test of time better than others, though even with that caveat they remain the highpoint of the film.

Although presented on a separate disc the set treats the sequel as an extra, presumably to mediate its overall poor quality.

When Tycoon Jonathan Walker needs to complete the work of Dr Benjamin Trace he turns to Jobe to finish work on the Chiron Chip, a device powerful enough to take control of all the computer systems in the world. Walker plans to use the device to gain himself unimaginable wealth, but Jobe has his own agenda and wants the chip to force the human race into cyberspace where he alone would be god. Only Trace has a chance at stopping this and with the aid of a group of teenagers he heads straight to Jobe for a final confrontation...

Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace (1996 - 1 hr, 29 min, 18 sec) is the sequel directed by Farhad Mann and co-written by Michael Miner.

Given the success of the first film it was only a matter of time before a new cash cow was born. Being a sequel does not have to be a death sentence, but in this case the film was little more than an excuse to show off more computer generated animation. If you thought that the script of the first film was poor, this script is lamentable.

The film stared Patrick Bergin as Trace and Matt Frewer as Jobe, whereas Bergin does try to play his absurd character with some sense of decorum, Frewer plays his character so over the top that, whilst I’m sure he had a ball making the film, his portrayal overpowers the film, unbalancing it.

The disc has no extras on it, apart for the option for English subtitles. The cropped, 1.85:1 letterbox transfer might have been okay on a VHS machine but the poor quality is thrown into even higher definition by a modern television.

Disc one does have a few, short, extras none of which are spectacular or worth watching more than once. Although this was never going to be the greatest collection, the picture and audio quality does the films little justice, so even if you were a fan of the films your likely to find yourself disappointed.

3

Charles Packer