The Lawnmower Man

Have you ever wondered what it takes to become a god? I hear all you need is some good drugs and some crazy gaming. That's what The Lawnmower Man was pitching anyway. Starring Pierce Brosnan (James Bond, Remington Steele) and Jeff Fahey (I guess he's been in Lost?) this early 90's flick takes the concept of Virtual Reality (VR) and runs with it. Jeff plays an idiot gardener who turns genius under Brosnan's scientific nudging. The effects aren't great and neither is the mood created by the movie, but I can't help thinking it would make Kurzweil cringe a little to know that a cheesy movie from 92 almost parallels his ideas of the Singularity. The Singularity is the idea that technology will eventually start to progress so quickly that we will no longer be able to control it, and it will begin to advance independently. I've read that Kurzweil thinks we'll be melded to machines and become immortal when this happens. Ahhh... How ideas get recycled.
The Lawnmower Man will never be a popular classic but it definitely deserves a place on the shelf of sci-fi classics. It takes a simple technological idea and runs with it and holds together to the finish.

Sci-fi: 4
Pop: 2
Action: 1

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