How did I miss this little gem? For years this film was just a trailer to me, one of the ones at the beginning of your VHS. I got a vague gist of the plot, noted the actor, film and year it came out (which is what my brain likes to remember), but never actually got round to watching it. I don’t think I ever saw it randomly in the TV guide or at Christmas either, so if a film dropped off the radar it was gone and your chance was missed.

So, when my husband mentioned The Lawnmower Man (1992) the other day during a conversation we were having about virtual reality, I thought why not. In this current age of access to any film at any time through various mediums, I found it on one of my subscriptions and finally got to watch it.

It’s not fancy, or over scripted and lays the premise out well in the early part of them film. Now and again, I actually forgot I was watching a movie from the 90’s, to me it has held up well. The graphics were really cool and reminiscent of Tron (quite refreshing after the amount of CGI I have been subjected to in films recently where possibly only 20% of the film is real), and I liked where the story went and it was at a good pace – it does go a bit crazy and out there towards the end which was hilarious and I could tell which bits they ‘borrowed’ from Stephen King’s short story of the same title. Also there was something about the main characters early persona that seemed very similar to a certain Simple Jack in Tropic Thunder – definitely something there, although Fahey didn’t quite go ‘full retard’ like Ben Stiller did for that role. Also it was interesting to see a projection (however fictional) of something that is now becoming mainstream and is marked as the future. Virtual reality is the next big money maker apparently and after films like this and Ready Player One, it does make me question further whether our sometimes fragile minds will be able to take it…

I thoroughly enjoyed this film, might not be the greatest, but very watchable to me.