Episode 258 - Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace

[Wil Dride 121]

Edit: Never mind, they covered this.

Paul casually mentioned Two Moon Junction. Well, guess who's in Return to Two Moon Junction: None other than Matt Frewer, as well as Molly Shannon who's also in this movie. Why? Maybe because it's directed by Farhad Mann.  Wild.

[babymech 1]

I'm happy to see that they gave Stephen King a well-deserved burn for always telling the same story, based on two examples that have almost nothing to do with King's stories. The Shocker, as Paul briefly alluded to, was not just directed but written by Wes Craven; the Lawnmower Man has nothing to do with the King short story other than sharing the name - King's story is about an evil incarnation of Pan moonlighting as a lawnmower man eating both grass and people. People definitely need to give Stephen King more shit for this - all these stories he never wrote  are just way too similar.

[JimKata 62]

7 hours ago, babymech said:

I'm happy to see that they gave Stephen King a well-deserved burn for always telling the same story, based on two examples that have almost nothing to do with King's stories. The Shocker, as Paul briefly alluded to, was not just directed but written by Wes Craven; the Lawnmower Man has nothing to do with the King short story other than sharing the name - King's story is about an evil incarnation of Pan moonlighting as a lawnmower man eating both grass and people. People definitely need to give Stephen King more shit for this - all these stories he never wrote  are just way too similar.

I was kind of laughing whenever the mentioned King. Obviously, there's no connection to Shocker (a movie my parents wouldn't let me watch as a kid because it was "too scary", and boy was I disappointed when I got older and finally watched it). In the case of Lawnmower Man, they originally tried marketing it as "Stephen King's Lawnmower Man" but he sued them to make them stop.

[doxrus 54]

So much to unpack in the movie. For starters, here are some dumbass lines of dialogue:

1) When Peter first sees Dr. Trace, he says, "You're alive! I thought you were dead," obviously expecting some kind of explanation. But Trace just says, "No time for that." How long would it take him to tell Peter how he survived?

2) Walker to Senator Greenspan: "My lap is your lap, Senator."

3) When Jobe begins wreaking havoc, one news report concludes with "Few see an end to the continuing chaos." Hey, tell us about the ones who do!!

4) When his guards begin bailing on him, Walker tries to stop them, with "Stay here! You can't go anywhere!" Huh? What does that mean? Strangely, these lines are looped, by what sounds like a different actor, with an accent, no less.

5) When Jobe presents his vision of utopia, he says, "Live in Eden. Without hunger. Without famine. Without temptation." Well, I guess if there was no hunger, you'd pretty much not have a famine problem. And no temptation? Are people really yearning for that? Is that all this wondrous cyber world has to offer?

[doxrus 54]

More things I take issue with:

1) Would you trust your life in cyberspace to a dog, putting his slobber and teeth marks over a vital computer disc?

2) The filmmaker want us to believe this dystopia is filthy (for the poor, anyway), but I'm not buying it. Even the seemingly grimy street scenes look like a slightly messy theme park. The kids have very theatrically placed smudges on their cheeks, and their subway car-home looks pretty clean to me.

3) Our hosts mentioned the ripoffs of Indiana Jones, Stars Wars and other films. The street scenes are so blatantly stolen from Blade Runner.

4) During the escape from Virtual Light HQ, Trace's weak punches have no effect on a guard. Yet he somehow has the strength, with no leverage (he's being held in the air by the guard) to rip a video monitor off the wall and smash it over the guy's head.

5) One of the "camera-lasers" controlled by Jobe, cuts through a very thick table, but only puts a slice through Trace's shirt and barely scratches his arm.

6) Note that the headsets for the virtual world demo are called "Eye Phones"

7) One more line of stupid dialogue: I don't remember who said it, but when the team plans to fight back against Jobe, someone says, "We've got to make him angry enough to destroy himself." What? Why would he do that? This is your plan?

[doxrus 54]

This is the parking area of Virtual Light - the secretive, high security headquarters of a super villain bent on ruling the world. Did someone ride their bike there?

[Robert Denby 103]

For the street scenes FROM THE FUTURE! I feel like the director asked the set designer for something like “Blade Runner,” only cheaper-looking  

The end credit music sounds a lot like the “Jurassic Park” theme. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then John Williams got the shit flattered out of him. 

[Kothel 42]

Okay, i've got two quick things.

1) This is more for Lawnmower Man 1 than 2, but did everyone know that Lawnmower Man was the favorite film of cult leader David Koresh (the one from Waco)?  They mention it in that miniseries with Taylor Kitsch and Michael Shannon that was on the Paramount network. You can fact check it as well. 

2) I felt we should discuss how everyone seemed to dress like it was 1931. The kids all looked like they could be friends with Christian Bale in Newsies, and all the adult men were wearing hats. That hasn't been cool since at least 1968. This is the future. Does fashion come back every 100 years? 

[CaptainAmazing 127]

I was told that I was going to get a great mashup of the Crossfire board game commercial and Lawnmower Man.

*Stamps feet*