3. Dr. Lawrence Angelo - The Lawnmower Man (1992)
Stephen King fans have often had a rough ride when it comes to
adaptations of his work . The most famous example of course would be The Shining, wherein King was so disatisfied with the changes Stanley Kubrick made that he created his own version for TV in 1997. The Lawnmower Man, however, is much more brazen in its departures from the original short story, so much so that King sued the studio to have his name removed. The Lawnmower Man stars Brosnan as Dr. Lawrence Angelo, a scientist interested in how virtual reality can potentially increase human intelligence. One summer he spots the simple-minded Jobe Smith (Jeff Fahey) mowing his lawn, and offers him the chance to play some of his 'games'. The experiment is initially a success, but soon Smith's intelligence outstrips Angelo's and he begins developing other, stranger abilities. The Lawnmower Man has something of a cult following among horror fans, and it's not hard to see why. If you can get past the sub-Tron early-1990s visuals, it does contain some interesting ideas that, in the hands of someone like Wes Craven, could have really come together. But while Fahey is convincing as the dunce who becomes a superhuman, Brosnan is completely unbelievable. Notwithstanding the Hollywood cliché of casting conspicuously glamorous people as scientists, he fails to make the techno-babble believable, and his emotional responses are flat and unengaging. And speaking of unengaging...
