There are no good movies about the Internet. As soon as one is hailed as a genius work, five years down the road it looks as laughable as one of those shorts about the future from the 40s and 50s.
The Social Network. A horror movie where all the promise of an open online world is swiftly co-opted by sociopathic tech bros and hedge fund vampires and sold back to society to increasingly diminished returns and monetized outrage.
The crazy part of all of this is that Michael de Luca, who created that original Dollar Baby short film to begin with, would become an executive at New Line Cinema, the studio that released The Lawnmower Man in the mid-90s, though not before writing one of John Carpenter's greatest films, In the Mouth of Madness and uh, Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare? The mark he did leave at New Line Cinema though would be legendary for how much he elevated this once scrappy distribution company into a serious studio full of some truly consequential and defining movies of the late 90s even after Ted Turner bought out NLC and then Time Warner swallowed his empire up (and then driving De Luca out of NLC following the disastrous AOL Time Warner buyout). Though he was not without the occasional gaffes while at NLC though. (As well as some of the films he'd produce after New Line *coughTheLoveGurucough*). Also fun fact, Brett Leonard directed a few music videos too. One for Peter Gabriel that took one of his lesser attempts to recreate Sledgehammer (Kiss That Frog) into a bizarre CG pseudo-motion ride riffing on The Frog Prince, and two for Billy Idol during his ill-advised Cyberpunk phase.
Forgot to mention it contains a miniaturized version of Sling Blade within it (4 years before that movie). Also Virtuosity sounds like sci-fi reverse American Gangster (mostly by cast) meets Demolition Man/Terminator, which sounds cool.
I remember this movie having a profound effect on me when I saw it in the theater upon release back in the day. I was 18 and tripping on a couple of doses and it blew my mind. I still watch it on occasion .. dvd director's cut. Is it a B movie? Yes, ... But it's a damn good one. Nice documentary on this film. Subscribed. 👍🏻
My God, Pierce was a dish. And the sky is blue, I know, but it's worth repeating. Never seen this film. Been aware of it all my life but never got around to it. I DID see Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace because GamesMaster did a special on it. I wasn't a smart kid. Johnny Nmemonic got my favourite antiquated internet. It's a promise yet to be fulfilled.
@@inframeoutPierce Brosnan is the Irish Kurt Russell, he was incredibly handsome in the 80s (see The Long Good Friday) and he’s only improved over time.
I have a soft spot for this movie. I haven't seen it since I was about 13, although I'm now curious about director's cut... I guess there's a solid Black Mirror episode hidden somewhere behind all the clunky storytelling and dated effects... BTW Brett Leonard's filmography is all over the place and his weird horror movie about feeding fetish (Feed) is maybe bizarre enough for a full video?
This was unironically my favorite me when I was about 13. Outdated representation aside, Jeff Fahey is so good in this. His gradual transformation is nothing short of amazing, and I feel like he's never been even remotely as good in anything else he's done. I do remember renting Lawnmower Man 2 and being perplexed by the beginning, but I don't think I ever watched it all the way through...
I saw a review once by FilmBrain who covered it and it's so bad, but the funniest thing is they get a happy ending again with Jobe back to default and by the end of the credits, the music stops. Dead. They cared so little it's hilarious
Judging the VFX of this movie by modern standards is really missing the point of what they were trying to accomplish with them. I'm glad you gave that context.
You got to love it when groups use clips from movies in songs, Argyle Park used "the universe is mine find a way out or die" from the Lawnmower Man. That song will always be connected to that movie for me, when I listen to the compilation album 'Visions of the Apocalypse'
16:58 quite strange cause this is the same guy who later shot Charlie's Angels, Titanic, and Avatar 2 When I think Russell Carpenter (the DP in question) I picture all of the films he shot with great bold usage of color, even in something like The Negotiator
Totally surprised by your video as I had no idea that this was the movie title in English... The French one was "Le Cobaye" (translate to "Guinea Pig" or "Test Subject"), and I've both vivid and vague memories about seeing this in the cinema at the time, like a pixelated fever dream... Looks like it's worth a rewatch.
One of my favorite assessments of The Lawnmower Man was one of the times they talked about it on Kingcast (RIP Scott Wampler) and they had a criteria sheet of King tropes and determined it was way more of a King story than advertised despite having nothing to do with the original story. 😂 Loved this review even though I did NOT enjoy the movie when I watched it with a bunch of friends. Goofy and fun, yes, but the portrayal of neurodivergence definitely rubbed me the wrong way.
This made me seek out the Flowers for Algernon movie on Prime with Matthew Modine and....ahhhhhh.... i'll stick with this movie, warts and all. Virtuosity is amazing thou
I wish I had known about the director's cut first because this isn't a film I'm likely to revisit. It seems like there was more to this one which was diluted in the theatrical release.
@@Kenshiro3rd The world's first 3D animated TV show from Mainframe Productions called "Reboot" was made in Canada in 1994. It came out just a few years after The Lawnmower Man in 1992. Yeah, one was a horror movie and the other was a kid's cartoon, but innovation with 3D has to start somewhere. Now, every animated show is made on a Computer.
@@thisithis Oh... I was wondering if you referring to Reboot... it got pretty dark in the latter couple seasons. Though I initially thought you were saying they made an animated series of Lawnmower Man... THAT would have been a trip.
@@Kenshiro3rd Sadly no. Lawnmower Man was relegated to an unwatchable sequel. But Tales From The Crypt has an animated series. But if you want to watch Dark animated series made in the the 90s and in the US, go watch Exosquad. By the time that show ended half the main characters were dead. One Ep one main character got to see her little brother get crushed to death by a mech he was driving. Fun times.
I like it too! I also agree that it's a movie that could genuinely benefit from a remake, some more grounded complexities to the screenplay and performances...and a lot more nuance when it comes to how it portrays developmental disability
It's a slur that has been used to denigrate and attack disabled and neurodivergent folks, and I don't see how a little empathy and understanding for that is in any way bad. If that word isn't going to bother folks then that's absolutely fine, but if it is, I'd rather take a few seconds out of a 27 minute long video to give them a kind heads up.
I watched this film as part of an on-going Stephen King marathon, including direct to dvd, and basically became an apologist for all of the weaker films. I actually liked it's more "Flowers for Algernon" like story, but whatever you do, don't watch that truly horrid sequel!
Why is the r word inherently bad? Isn’t it about intent. How is just switching the pc word for it every couple of years solve the problem? Why is moron or idiot perfectly fine to say despite it having the same meaning?
People liked the word, and started using it as a demeaning word for anyone they didn't like. It becoming a bad word was mostly because of that. Also, intellectual disability at least describes the diagnose better than the so called r word.
The director's cut is NOT superior and I'd recommend anyone who has not seen this movie to stay clear of it. There's a completely stupid ape hostage situation at the start of the movie that is schlock nonsense that drags the tone down, and then a lot of the additional boring scenes that are only there for completion. Some of those scenes are nice on their own, but they don't really convey anything that the theatrical release doesn't; the film's ideas are pretty transparent without an additional 30 minutes of people discussing the themes.
Okay, so let's have a tangential conversation: this is a great example for why the phrase "guilty pleasure" exists. I hate when people do this "I don't believe in guilty pleasures" bullshit; some things aren't good but we enjoy them, and that's okay. Fast food is TERRIBLE for you, but we all (to a greater or lesser degree) enjoy it. I think it's okay to acknowledge that. It's okay to eat candy, or ice cream, or soda... it tastes good, it's very bad for you; hence, guilty pleasure. Similarly: if a movie is good, I like it. BUT if a movie isn't good but *parts of it* are good, or maybe it has ideas that are good, or - in the case of "Event Horizon", my go-to guilty pleasure movie - if there's a good movie in there somewhere but it just didn't *quite* get there, then it's okay to acknowledge liking it as a guilty pleasure. Were I to recommend Event Horizon to a friend, I'd never say "watch it, it's good", but rather I'd say something to the effect of "I really enjoy it; it's not quite a good movie but I really enjoy parts of it, it's got a good movie in there somewhere that I can kinda see, even if it doesn't quite get there." (I think we all have movies like that, that aren't quite good but for whatever reason, for you, it's "good enough", something about it just hits you right and resonates with you in a way that maybe the movie doesn't quite deserve... but it's close enough that you still enjoy it, despite it not quite being good. Like I said, for me that's Event Horizon. Most people don't feel the same way, and that's fine; we all have our specific movie, or movies, or tv shows, or books, or whatever. But I'll still push back if somebody picks something that's objectively terrible, like the prequels. Like... there are theoretically good things about it - the overall idea of telling a story about Anakin going from slave to Jedi to Sith is an idea that absolutely could've formed a great trilogy, and the casting of Ewan McGregor as Obi-wan was a great choice. But no, that's just a terrible trilogy and each movie is terrible.)
I honestly don't think that Event Horizon reaches the threshold for being a guilty pleasure. Is it a great movie? Not really. But to me, it's a good movie, period. Guilty pleasure seems very subjective, as everything else involving creative creations. :)
So, what's your favourite movie about the internet?
There are no good movies about the Internet. As soon as one is hailed as a genius work, five years down the road it looks as laughable as one of those shorts about the future from the 40s and 50s.
The Social Network. A horror movie where all the promise of an open online world is swiftly co-opted by sociopathic tech bros and hedge fund vampires and sold back to society to increasingly diminished returns and monetized outrage.
Not a movie but Serial Experiments Lain is fantastic.
@saintyoo Serial Experiments Lain is god-tier anime
Does Searching count?
Didn't expect you to make a video about this movie of all things
I think my favourite kind of films to research and write about are those that are full of potential, deeply flawed but worthy of re-appraisal
The crazy part of all of this is that Michael de Luca, who created that original Dollar Baby short film to begin with, would become an executive at New Line Cinema, the studio that released The Lawnmower Man in the mid-90s, though not before writing one of John Carpenter's greatest films, In the Mouth of Madness and uh, Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare?
The mark he did leave at New Line Cinema though would be legendary for how much he elevated this once scrappy distribution company into a serious studio full of some truly consequential and defining movies of the late 90s even after Ted Turner bought out NLC and then Time Warner swallowed his empire up (and then driving De Luca out of NLC following the disastrous AOL Time Warner buyout). Though he was not without the occasional gaffes while at NLC though. (As well as some of the films he'd produce after New Line *coughTheLoveGurucough*).
Also fun fact, Brett Leonard directed a few music videos too. One for Peter Gabriel that took one of his lesser attempts to recreate Sledgehammer (Kiss That Frog) into a bizarre CG pseudo-motion ride riffing on The Frog Prince, and two for Billy Idol during his ill-advised Cyberpunk phase.
The horror movie version of Flowers for Algernon
Absolutely
Flowers was always a horror for Me...didn't he get stupefied again?
@@Joshua_FroschauerYes, he regresses back to ignorant bliss
Forgot to mention it contains a miniaturized version of Sling Blade within it (4 years before that movie). Also Virtuosity sounds like sci-fi reverse American Gangster (mostly by cast) meets Demolition Man/Terminator, which sounds cool.
I remember this movie having a profound effect on me when I saw it in the theater upon release back in the day. I was 18 and tripping on a couple of doses and it blew my mind. I still watch it on occasion .. dvd director's cut. Is it a B movie? Yes, ... But it's a damn good one. Nice documentary on this film. Subscribed. 👍🏻
My God, Pierce was a dish. And the sky is blue, I know, but it's worth repeating. Never seen this film. Been aware of it all my life but never got around to it. I DID see Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace because GamesMaster did a special on it. I wasn't a smart kid.
Johnny Nmemonic got my favourite antiquated internet. It's a promise yet to be fulfilled.
Early 90s Brosnan is so darn dreamy
@@inframeoutPierce Brosnan is the Irish Kurt Russell, he was incredibly handsome in the 80s (see The Long Good Friday) and he’s only improved over time.
Have you been to Newark, NJ lately? Johnny Mnemonic makes it look like a paradise.
I have a soft spot for this movie. I haven't seen it since I was about 13, although I'm now curious about director's cut... I guess there's a solid Black Mirror episode hidden somewhere behind all the clunky storytelling and dated effects... BTW Brett Leonard's filmography is all over the place and his weird horror movie about feeding fetish (Feed) is maybe bizarre enough for a full video?
"Feed" is a movie I saw about ten years ago and immediately thought "Has someone done a welfare check on Brett Leonard lately?"
I actually only knew about the original stephen king short story....so this whole video was a delightful surprise
Glad to be of service ☺️
This was unironically my favorite me when I was about 13. Outdated representation aside, Jeff Fahey is so good in this. His gradual transformation is nothing short of amazing, and I feel like he's never been even remotely as good in anything else he's done.
I do remember renting Lawnmower Man 2 and being perplexed by the beginning, but I don't think I ever watched it all the way through...
I saw a review once by FilmBrain who covered it and it's so bad, but the funniest thing is they get a happy ending again with Jobe back to default and by the end of the credits, the music stops. Dead. They cared so little it's hilarious
this is a great essay, glad that I've found your channel
Thumbs up and subscribed when he used the word, “hypnogogic”
Not only is it a cool word, it's fun to say!
@@inframeout Indubitably!
Judging the VFX of this movie by modern standards is really missing the point of what they were trying to accomplish with them. I'm glad you gave that context.
You got to love it when groups use clips from movies in songs,
Argyle Park used "the universe is mine find a way out or die" from the Lawnmower Man.
That song will always be connected to that movie for me,
when I listen to the compilation album 'Visions of the Apocalypse'
Glad you brought up flowers for algernon
I'd leave a longer comment but my phone is ringing.
I wonder who it could be...
I see what you did there, and I applaud you
@@inframeout :D Thank you kindly, I/F/O!
Still the best film channel on UA-cam! Many thanks x
Bruh, not only are you an ATDI fan, you made a video about this awesome movie!!! You are the best.
Always happy to see a CCH Pounder Shield clip. Bravo
Her performance on "The Shield" is one of my favourite pieces of acting in all of television
I can’t not think of the dean in community whenever this movie is brought up 😂
This Stephen King movie is childhood memories for me. Happy to see you reviewing it
16:58 quite strange cause this is the same guy who later shot Charlie's Angels, Titanic, and Avatar 2
When I think Russell Carpenter (the DP in question) I picture all of the films he shot with great bold usage of color, even in something like The Negotiator
COBSON
Totally surprised by your video as I had no idea that this was the movie title in English...
The French one was "Le Cobaye" (translate to "Guinea Pig" or "Test Subject"), and I've both vivid and vague memories about seeing this in the cinema at the time, like a pixelated fever dream...
Looks like it's worth a rewatch.
A big problem with LM2 is the unexplained absence of Dr Angelo.
And then the sequel happened. 🤣
"The Net" is the best movie about the internet with evil John Carmack/Larry Ellison/John McAfee, so... yes.
"The Net," starring that woman from "The Bus."
"The Bus That Couldn't Slow Down...but with dial up modems"
The Net predicted e-commerce pretty well.
Pretty sure "The Net" was the first movie where I saw someone buy something online
The Net was what I thought of in response to the question in the pinned comment. That movie was cool. Also Hackers was (zero) cool.
This is the matrix before the matrix
One of my favorite assessments of The Lawnmower Man was one of the times they talked about it on Kingcast (RIP Scott Wampler) and they had a criteria sheet of King tropes and determined it was way more of a King story than advertised despite having nothing to do with the original story. 😂
Loved this review even though I did NOT enjoy the movie when I watched it with a bunch of friends. Goofy and fun, yes, but the portrayal of neurodivergence definitely rubbed me the wrong way.
The representation of developmental disability (and refusal to define, name or expand on what they're actually referring to) is extremely gross
This made me seek out the Flowers for Algernon movie on Prime with Matthew Modine and....ahhhhhh.... i'll stick with this movie, warts and all.
Virtuosity is amazing thou
Neither movie is particularly good or faithful to the novel, I'd highly recommend the audiobook (the narrator does a fantastic job)
@inframeout ya think it's time for a full on remake?
The novel is incredible.
Thankyou for being you
One of my long time favourite
How did you manage to Uplift the Lawnmower man movie. This is amazing
I wish I had known about the director's cut first because this isn't a film I'm likely to revisit. It seems like there was more to this one which was diluted in the theatrical release.
only a matter if time before they sniff out and adapt 'The Machine Stops'
2 years later we got the Reboot animated TV show.
what animated serie?
@@Kenshiro3rd The world's first 3D animated TV show from Mainframe Productions called "Reboot" was made in Canada in 1994. It came out just a few years after The Lawnmower Man in 1992. Yeah, one was a horror movie and the other was a kid's cartoon, but innovation with 3D has to start somewhere. Now, every animated show is made on a Computer.
@@thisithis Oh... I was wondering if you referring to Reboot... it got pretty dark in the latter couple seasons. Though I initially thought you were saying they made an animated series of Lawnmower Man... THAT would have been a trip.
@@Kenshiro3rd Sadly no. Lawnmower Man was relegated to an unwatchable sequel. But Tales From The Crypt has an animated series. But if you want to watch Dark animated series made in the the 90s and in the US, go watch Exosquad. By the time that show ended half the main characters were dead. One Ep one main character got to see her little brother get crushed to death by a mech he was driving. Fun times.
@@thisithis I loved and still love Tales from the Cryptkeeper. It holds up surprisingly well.
LM has good story (as was Flowers for Algernon), OK script, but the SFX were not good, even for the time.
"And Jesus wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer."
Awesome analysis.
You going to do hardware next?
Sentient war machines in dystopian l.a
Oooh bro I just watched this movie while having a Stephen King-a-thon. I have the say, I liked it 😂 and I hope they remake it
I like it too!
I also agree that it's a movie that could genuinely benefit from a remake, some more grounded complexities to the screenplay and performances...and a lot more nuance when it comes to how it portrays developmental disability
I dig the not approved king movie but also... understand nlthe non approval
Sadly the reboot that was rumoured to be happening has gone silent.
I come for the Simpsons references.
A huge motivating factor behind me making these videos is to find new ways of sliding in Simpsons references
Absolute cult classic movie IMHO
Agreed!
Man that opening disclaimer.... How soft can people get?
It's a slur that has been used to denigrate and attack disabled and neurodivergent folks, and I don't see how a little empathy and understanding for that is in any way bad.
If that word isn't going to bother folks then that's absolutely fine, but if it is, I'd rather take a few seconds out of a 27 minute long video to give them a kind heads up.
Now if you do Lawnmower Man 2....
I do at the end of the video...I am not kind 😂
I sold a film script that was terribly rewritten by Brett Leonard. One of the great disappointments of my life.
He also made the last Highlander """"""film"""""""""" that was dumped on SciFi/SyFy and that's enough shame for him.
Yup...he's absolutely in movie jail now
What’s the movie
@@brensherlock It was never made, sadly.
Any movie can be improved with the inclusion of Jeff Fahey
was this predictive programing, or did we just emulate the movie...
I watched this film as part of an on-going Stephen King marathon, including direct to dvd, and basically became an apologist for all of the weaker films. I actually liked it's more "Flowers for Algernon" like story, but whatever you do, don't watch that truly horrid sequel!
As the video will attest, I unfortunately have watched the turgid sequel multiple times
I loved the movie (Cyber Man) as a geeky 90s kid. But the sequel was terrible. Big Matt Frewer fan though.
The sequel wins The Corey Feldman Cringe Buffet Award. It is truly awesome and so bad it's great.
Not one person looked at this and said, "This is the f'ing ugli*st thing I ever saw?"
Might want to check your thumbnail. Lest it stay that way for a millennium.
Why is the r word inherently bad? Isn’t it about intent. How is just switching the pc word for it every couple of years solve the problem? Why is moron or idiot perfectly fine to say despite it having the same meaning?
Political correctness is a cancer.
People liked the word, and started using it as a demeaning word for anyone they didn't like. It becoming a bad word was mostly because of that. Also, intellectual disability at least describes the diagnose better than the so called r word.
The director's cut is NOT superior and I'd recommend anyone who has not seen this movie to stay clear of it. There's a completely stupid ape hostage situation at the start of the movie that is schlock nonsense that drags the tone down, and then a lot of the additional boring scenes that are only there for completion. Some of those scenes are nice on their own, but they don't really convey anything that the theatrical release doesn't; the film's ideas are pretty transparent without an additional 30 minutes of people discussing the themes.
Okay, so let's have a tangential conversation: this is a great example for why the phrase "guilty pleasure" exists. I hate when people do this "I don't believe in guilty pleasures" bullshit; some things aren't good but we enjoy them, and that's okay. Fast food is TERRIBLE for you, but we all (to a greater or lesser degree) enjoy it. I think it's okay to acknowledge that. It's okay to eat candy, or ice cream, or soda... it tastes good, it's very bad for you; hence, guilty pleasure.
Similarly: if a movie is good, I like it. BUT if a movie isn't good but *parts of it* are good, or maybe it has ideas that are good, or - in the case of "Event Horizon", my go-to guilty pleasure movie - if there's a good movie in there somewhere but it just didn't *quite* get there, then it's okay to acknowledge liking it as a guilty pleasure.
Were I to recommend Event Horizon to a friend, I'd never say "watch it, it's good", but rather I'd say something to the effect of "I really enjoy it; it's not quite a good movie but I really enjoy parts of it, it's got a good movie in there somewhere that I can kinda see, even if it doesn't quite get there."
(I think we all have movies like that, that aren't quite good but for whatever reason, for you, it's "good enough", something about it just hits you right and resonates with you in a way that maybe the movie doesn't quite deserve... but it's close enough that you still enjoy it, despite it not quite being good. Like I said, for me that's Event Horizon. Most people don't feel the same way, and that's fine; we all have our specific movie, or movies, or tv shows, or books, or whatever.
But I'll still push back if somebody picks something that's objectively terrible, like the prequels. Like... there are theoretically good things about it - the overall idea of telling a story about Anakin going from slave to Jedi to Sith is an idea that absolutely could've formed a great trilogy, and the casting of Ewan McGregor as Obi-wan was a great choice. But no, that's just a terrible trilogy and each movie is terrible.)
I honestly don't think that Event Horizon reaches the threshold for being a guilty pleasure. Is it a great movie? Not really. But to me, it's a good movie, period. Guilty pleasure seems very subjective, as everything else involving creative creations. :)
Let's not🤷
I love Johnny mnemonic, and the heroin addicted dolphin rules