The Lawnmower Man

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The Lawnmower Man

R

Released Mar 6, 1992

1h 48m

Sci-Fi

Horror

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Popcornmeter

36%

Tomatometer

42 Reviews

31%

Popcornmeter

25,000+ Ratings

The eccentric Dr. Lawrence Angelo puts mentally disabled landscaper Jobe Smith on a regimen of experimental pills and computer-simulated training sequences in hopes of augmenting the man's intelligence. In time, Jobe becomes noticeably brighter and also begins to fare much better with the opposite sex. As he develops psychic powers, he realizes that those around him have taken advantage of his simplicity his whole life, and he plots a bloody revenge.

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Critics Consensus

The Lawnmower Man suffers from a predictable, melodramatic script, and its once-groundbreaking visual effects look dated today.

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Anton Bitel

Little White Lies

While ultimately the villain, Jobe is also a victim, and his retreat into the virtual world is entirely understandable.

Jun 20, 2024

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Steven Rea

Philadelphia Inquirer

The Lawnmower Man echoes Frankenstein and a zillion other noble-scientist-whose-experiment-goes-awry movies.

Rated: 2/4

Apr 1, 2014

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Jay Boyar

Orlando Sentinel

The Lawnmower Man has it all -- melodramatic plot, bad acting, special effects that will undoubtedly seem cheesy in about five minutes and even a concluding sequence in which the usual lofty moral is voiced.

Rated: 2/5

Apr 1, 2014

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Kevin Carr

Fat Guys at the Movies

It’s cheesy and dripping in 90s silliness, but this VR thriller offers an unnerving – if not absurd – cyberthriller.

Rated: 3/4

Jan 27, 2024

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Eddie Harrison

film-authority.com

…even if the story is rote, this wacky directors cut is probably the best way to appreciate the skewed, past-tense vision of our future that we get a glimpse of here…

Rated: 3/5

Jul 19, 2022

Full Review

Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

It's harder than ever to take Jeff Fahey's performance seriously since it's as broad as Ben Stiller's Tugg Speedman character playing Simple Jack in Tropic Thunder.

Rated: 2/4

Nov 8, 2021

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James B

Although it's nothing like it's original source material I actually quite enjoyed the lawnmower man and it's bizarre effects.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

01/17/25

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Cees T

Padded out King's flimsy short story with a script known as Cybergod. Not quite RoboCop or ReBoot, but fun and interesting. 8/10 - Great.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/01/25

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helder f

The notion that one can transform a person’s brain into a super machine is an interesting premise for a movie. And the scenes are well produced in so many ways. For example, all the high tech doesn’t seem terribly outdated. The direction or the acting if you will is just too campy. Its best accomplishment is to show that Pierce Brosnan is a rather superior actor than the rest of the cast. The character of the Jobe is idiotic… and so is everything that happens to him.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

10/25/24

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Alec B

The ubiquity of the Director's Cut is good because you can see what they were going for and judge the complete movie on its own merits. There are definitely some interesting ideas here that have aged well (especially how the digital world cuts people off from reality) but the narrative is still frustrating as it resorts to cliches and short cuts.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

10/24/24

Full Review

Twiggy H

Quite a goofy film, and quite distasteful. Laughable mostly - may have been filmed in the early 90's but very rudimentary graphics. I find it ridiculous the notion of taking a seemingly dumb lad to make him clever - but that film has awful film writing because it takes a sad man (the Angelo character) who was dislikable throughout the film, but then had the nerve to 'try' and make out he was some sort of hero at the end - he was never a 'hero', just a terrible person who messed with a decent lad.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

09/24/24

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Travis A

I have seen a lot of movies, and a lot of bad ones. This was by far the worst. Killed off the best part in the first 20 mins. Do not watch!

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

09/18/24

Full Review

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Brett Leonard

Director

Jeff Fahey

Jobe Smith

Pierce Brosnan

Dr. Lawrence Angelo

Jenny Wright

Marnie Burke

Mark Bringelson

Sebastian Timms

Geoffrey Lewis

Terry McKeen

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Synopsis

The eccentric Dr. Lawrence Angelo puts mentally disabled landscaper Jobe Smith on a regimen of experimental pills and computer-simulated training sequences in hopes of augmenting the man's intelligence. In time, Jobe becomes noticeably brighter and also begins to fare much better with the opposite sex. As he develops psychic powers, he realizes that those around him have taken advantage of his simplicity his whole life, and he plots a bloody revenge.

Director: Brett Leonard
Producer: Gimel Everett
Screenwriter: Brett Leonard, Gimel Everett
Production Co: Allied Vision
Rating: R (Sensuality|Language|Violence)
Genre: Sci-Fi, Horror
Original Language: British English
Release Date (Theaters): Mar 6, 1992, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Jun 20, 2017
Runtime: 1h 48m
Sound Mix: Surround, Stereo

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