My interest in cyberpunk/VR cinema was reawakened by how much I enjoyed watching The Lawnmower Man, just how nasty and wacky it was, and the artistry in the cyberspace sequences. With the sequel, Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace (1996; or as its called in the actual film, Lawnmower Man 2: Jobe’s War, always a good sign), I was under no illusion that it was good or a hidden gem. Look, they couldn’t get Brosnan back (too busy being James Bond), but they couldn’t even get Jeff Fahey back (too busy making Sketch Artist II?) – that’s another warning sign. A key scene that indicated the level that this film was on: a bunch of kids (including the only returning actor, Austin O’Brien, now a teen) living in an abandoned train carriage during Blade Runner times have jacked into cyberspace but they need cyber-cycles, and to get this, a cyber-cycle program has to be uploaded into their computer. So one of the kids in the cyberspace yells into the ether, appearing on a computer monitor left behind in the real world and asks their dog to boot up the disc. Cut to a shot of a CD-ROM tray with the program disc being pushed in by a dog’s paw. Woof. But also, hilarious. Makes you feel like you’re watching a kids show on Cheez TV. The most fascinating thing about this movie is how they’ve altered The Lawnmower Man property – a dark thriller with sex and violence that was actually a box office hit – into something for kids (maybe to avoid another lawsuit from Stephen King for using his name to advertise something that had nothing to do with his writing?). Along with Patrick Bergen’s anti-tech dreadlocks and the swashbuckling score, this has surprising Spielbergian Hook vibes as this scientist (not the same character thatBrosnan played) and these teen hackers attempt to stop lawnmower-man-simpleton-turned-genius-cyber-god Jobe (here played by Matt Frewer) from creating a super cyber-city. The true villain is character actor Kevin Conway whose corporate plan is to control everyone using Jobe’s powers to extort politicians or something, and plug everyone into this other version of the internet, which looks like a polygon stadium with the aesthetics of an Animorphs book cover. I like Frewer as a presence – this is the original Trash Can Man we’re talking about here – but it’s all a bit confusing; in some scenes, Jobe is a victim who needs to be saved, in other scenes he’s a villain who needs to be stopped. The best scene is when Job turns into a Jim Carrey character doing one-liners (“Jacking in, jacking off, what’s the difference?”). This was trashy and bad but kind of fascinating – anyway, this movie is crossed off the list and it’s back to scoping any other direct-to-video 90s trash with “cyber” or “virtual” in the title. Available to stream on Shudder.
VHS Tracking 