Reviews (160)

Very weird but has its moments
Very odd but often entertaining comedy that features humorous performances from its stars, Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt. A disappointing factor for those hoping to watch these two lovelies together is the fact that they hardly share any screen time together. After a very shaky start of watching this odd couple fight over a trip to Las Vegas (which are terribly acted, revealing either too little rehearsing or actors not actually performing scenes on the set together), the film gets going when Pitt is forced by a group of gangsters to whom he owes a favour to retrieve a supposedly cursed handcrafted gun from Mexico. While he is gone Roberts is kidnapped by a hitman (James Gandolfini) who is possibly one of her boyfriend's enemies. Most of the film is funny, but some twists and turns will feel so odd as to not actually be quirky but actually be very uncomfortable. Considering the mean tone the film has, it seems like a real let-down when the ending turns out to be much sappier then expected, and director Gore Verbinski can't seem to decide if he wants to actually make a grungy movie or show his actors up as gorgeous icons. A worthwhile, if halfhearted, effort.

The Mexican a very flawed film with Pitt and Roberts
Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts star in this dark comedy/low budget action movie. ''The Mexican'' is about a guy named Jerry (Pitt) who works for a crime boss. One day the crime boss, asks Jerry for one last ''job'' before Jerry decides to quit working for him and pay of his debts. The ''job'' though isn't as easy as Jerry thinks it is. He is asked to find a rare gun that is worth alot of money in Mexico.

Jerry's girlfriend , a nieve and spoiled brat named Samantha (Roberts fits the role perfectly ) reacts to Jerry last job like a bat out of hell. She immediately tells Jerry that if he goes to this job that she will never take him back, and to not both coming to her. The character of Samantha is as shallow and mean as a woman can get, I almost get shivers down my spine when I think that women like Samantha exist, because they aren't worth fighting for.

What Samantha doesn't realize is that Jerry is doing this job for her out of love. Jerry wants to pay his debts , and to pay of this debts requires doing this job in Mexico.
Pitt while not being the charasmatic actor, does at least add some depth and character to Jerry.

Anyhow once Jerry arrives in Mexico (a pretty dangerous place in some areas, but enjoyable in others) meets his contact who is going to give the rare gun to him.

However, things go horribly wrong when the contact Jerry is with literally dies
in front of him during a midnight celebration in Mexico. Jerry at first does not know the guy is dead, until he notices the bloody headshot on the car seat where he places the body in!!! Uggh.

This is only the start of a bad situation for Jerry. Once Jerry's crime boss finds out that he has fowled things up (although it's not his fault this guy is dead) sends in a psychopath killer named Leroy (James Gandolfini ) to hold his girlfriend Sam as hostage, while Jerry tries to come back to his boss with the antique gun.

One of the big problems the Mexican is the load of unlikeable characters in the
film. Brad Pitt's character of Jerry is probably the only somewhat likeable character in the film. Julia Roberts (again in her usual uncharasmatic self) as Sam, doesn't really
show any love or compassion only up to the point where she herself becomes involved in Jerry's situation. She only really cares about herself.

Then there's Gandolifini's character who can be best characterized as self hypocriting homosexual, hitman. which in fact he is if you watch the whole film. Gandolfini is best known for playing the paranoid , lovable, and evil Tony Soprano in the Sopranos but his role in that overrated, and his role in this film is forgettable.

The Mexican is not a total waste of a film, although much of it is.

I loved the twists in the film that the Mexican's in the film, from the villages to the cops were smarter than the dumb gringo (Jerry) who comes to look for the ancient gun for his boss. In fact, the Mexican's gave me such a good laugh, that I thought they were probably the best actors in the film. Every stereotype that Jerry and his white crime buddies put on them is eventually thrown back in their face with big laughs.

That's all I can say, I won't spoil it though by going into the exact dialogue. The film also has a couple of good twists in the middle, and near the end. However, the Mexican though has so many problems with it, that keep it from leaving a lasting impression and making it a likeable film that I can't recommend buying.

Renting it though is a different matter, you'll probably get some good laughs from it like I did, but that's it.

As Roger Ebert would say ''Two Thumbs Down'' but give it a viewing however don't expect to be blown away by this low budget film because you wont.

Good, Convuluted Story
I liked it. Lot's of people didn't, but for a Brad Pitt movie with my least favorite actress Julia Roberts, I found it highly entertaining. Some violence, some edge of the seat moments and some dark humor. Quite a tale.

Once Upon a Time in Mexico
This movie got some attention since it has two big Hollywood stars in it, Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts. However, it`s not too enticing or convincing, just a merely entertaining mix with bits of romantic comedy, thriller, road movie, action and an offbeat feel that tries to reach cult status. It`s a decent effort, but the characters aren`t very intriguing (Pitt plays a dumb pretty boy, Roberts is in another bland role and only James Gandolfini, the best element here, truly convinces as an interesting gay hitman), the plot is full of ups and downs and it runs for way too long. At parts it even comes close to Tarantino/ Robert Rodriguez territory, yet as a whole it`s too muddled and uneven to suceed. Director Gore Verbinski offers a couple of nice shots of Mexico with good atmosphere and an appropriatte soundtrack, making for a mildly enjoyable cinematic experience. Still, this is just fast-food cinema overall. Not memmorable, but worth watching once.
A decent rental.

Can't believe what everyone tells you
I heard from so many people that this movie was horrible. Well I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. I really liked the flashbacks to the legend of the gun and it was just a very fun movie to watch. I highly recommend it! ... Read more

Reviews (31)

Movie is great... but leaving out the deleted scenes hurt it
I must admit that I was rather let down with this DVD, not due to the movie itself, but what they did with it. The first time I saw this movie was the VHS extended version. I would give this movie itself 5 stars, but the DVD significantly less. And this is due to the fact that all the deleted scenes that were incorporated into the original extended VHS release were removed and only viewable seperate from the movie.

The things that give this movie an authentic and intriging story were elements only shown in the deleted scenes. First, the long scene at the opening of the movie of a dimwitted Jobe befriending an escaped lab monkey gives much more explenation of his experiments later (as well as offering originality). Other important scenes removed leave the story dry and unexplained. One scene I found particularily effective in showing Jobe's metamorphis from a slow, butt-of-all-jokes moron to a super-genius crazed from knowledge was one where we see him totally absorbed in computers. He than demonstrates that he has gained enough knowledge to have the ability to cause blisters on his hands.

With the extended version, you see a truly uncomfartable change in Jobe throughout the movie which shows much more motivation and explanation to his later acts - greatly endorsing the saying that ignorance is bliss, rather than a poorly developed plot of the DVD version which comes across as mearly another guy-gone-crazy-and-starts-killing-people movie depending on special effects for an audience.

If you haven't scene this movie yet, rent the VHS extended version rather then the DVD, as it shows the real, good movie. Even though the DVD has the deleted scenes available, not being able to incorporate them to the actual film takes away from it greatly and leaves the movie drab and unspecial.

My only hope is that they will eventually release a Special Edition DVD and restore the director's cut version, restoring all it's glory and ridding of the sh_tty snap case.

Mindless Entertainment
Certainly not Pierce Brosnan's best work. If you need some background while you do something else, it's okay. Don't be upset that I don't own this SciFi movie. I saw it when it was originally released at the theater. At that time I thought the graphics were great, but it just didn't grab my attention and hold it. I didn't mind going to the lobby for a soda, popcorn, hot dog, nachos, restroom, check out movie posters, make a phone call,... The problem is the story got to wrapped up in the lawnmower mans psyche. That would be okay if it was thought provoking, but it is mostly graphical halucinations and sexual innuendo. Not that illuminating into the characters motivations. One thing stands out in this movie. Some great early CGI. If you feel the need to see one of them catch this one, the second is much worse.

The question of Man , freedom and God as a cybergame ...
Even if the 12 scenes cannot be played as an extended version there's food for Your brains , hearts and gender here !

This movie does have vague resemblances to Scott's - BladeRunner , but only philosophically .
And the attempts to compare this film with Nelson's - Charly(1968) or Whale's - Frankenstein(1931) is ridiculously superficial , like comparing Coppola's - Godfather(1972) to Polonsky's - Force of Evil(1948) or Lang's - You only live once(1937) !

It is however understandable why critics and audiences in 1992 were repelled by the burning of a priest (!) and fascinated by sex/violence in the cyberspace ... they reacted blindly : "This is a satanic movie !"
An indication of this , is that Stephen Kings wished/had his credit removed by a following lawsuit ...

I recommend everyone to see it (again) for now 12 years later this brilliant movie still shines as an epic drama of man , freedom and God .
Just remember BladeRunner , which 22 Years ago also grew discarded , cult-reserved and now is number 10 in IMDb Votes Charts Top 50 Sci-Fi movies and number 89 in Top 250 movies !

In the beginning The Lawnmower Man has a parallel to Charly (Daniel Keyes great Novel : Flowers for Algernon) , but mainly Jobe EVOLVES due to a growing thirst for knowledge and possibilities - while Charly IMPROVES himself to be more accepted and feeling equal to others .

While Charly ends tragically sweet , the Lawnmower Man explores in a completely different direction . What about Frankenstein ? No , it does not go in this direction either or end like this other great story ; Brett Leonard dares to push his vision much higher :

Jobe sees the totality of the world like God , but has become sad in soul through the interference of the government , religion & society and strikes back to change everything through the available electronic international net ...
That alone should be an eyeopener in these days of spam and morality !

Though the script has really very little to do with King's character nor his shortstory in the shortstory-collection Nightshift , one can hardly blame Leonard without remembering how another instructor expanded and explored Arthur Clarkes shortstory (called "The sentinel" on even fewer pages than TLM) and making the amazing movie 2001: A Space Odyssey .
At that time it was criticised as being too long , etc. !

I agree that there are typical movie-clones of Frankenstein and Charly , one is even with Robert DeNiro and Robin Williams called "Awakenings"(1990) and though I love the two guys this is a 90% Charly-story ! But , then again , nobody dared saying so to Penny Marshall after making "Big" cowritten by Spielbergs sister - personally I think Daniel Keyes still could make a lawsuit !

And no critics would minimize Charlie Chaplins Dictator for being a cute rewriting of Duck Soup from the geniuses of the Marx Brothers !

I think this movie deserves respect and You will all find that the reason why You were amazed at the once incredible special effects , were because they fitted so well to the story and characters - a secret that merely few instructors like Spielberg and Hitchcock master .

Therefore judge this movie by the many-layered story of existence .

I must say thanks to Brett Leonard & Gimel Everett
for making this neo-myth out of a Stephen King-title

A fabulously under-rated movie
As a cognitive scientist from Yale, I can say with certainty that the ideas expressed in this film are very real, and very ahead of their time. The virtual reality visuals in this movie are timeless. The acting is good, the sets are impressive, and the ideas are priceless. Enjoy the film, but don't dare watch its sequel (it is awful).

Virtual Mess
THE LAWNMOWER MAN is an example of a movie that thinks it's better than it actually is. Dr. Lawrence Angelo (Pierce Brosnan), is working on a revolutionary type of virtual reality software, that he thinks will better mankind. After he fails to find success, working with animals, he finds his first human test subject. Jobe Smith (Jeff Fahey), a mentally disabled groundskeeper, who sees the tests as a game. However, the good doctor has enemies, who wish to use the technology and Jobe, to create an indestructable war machine. The film starts off with a pretty good premise, but after awhile, it seems as though the F/X are their to make us forget the plot. The director tries to make the film seem on the cutting edge, or visionary sci-fi, in doing so Brett Leonard fails to make things interesting. Brosnan seems like he is cursing his agent the whole for getting him this gig. Fahey seems to act in much the same fashion.

The commentary track has Leonard and co-producer and fellow screenwriter Gimel Everett, talk endlessly about how lucky they were to make this film (I'll say). The deleted scenes offer a better sense of the story. Too bad they were not incorporated into the movie. It might have made a difference. The storyboards, and other making of stuff don't seem like fun, if the movie isn't any good...Buyer Beware ... Read more

Amazon.com

Coasting on the successes of Gods and Monsters and George of the Jungle, Brendan Fraser turns in yet another winning performance in this fish-out-of-water comedy in which Pleasantville meets modern-day Los Angeles, with predictably funny results. Fraser stars as Adam, who was born in the bomb shelter of his paranoid inventor dad (a less-manic-than-usual Christopher Walken), who spirited his pregnant wife (Sissy Spacek, in fine comic form) underground when he thought the Communists dropped the bomb (actually, it was a plane crash). Armed with enough supplies to last 35 years, the parents bring up Adam in Leave It to Beaver style with nary any exposure to the outside world. When the supplies run out, and dad suffers a heart attack, Fraser goes up to modern-day L.A. for some shopping and long-awaited culture shock. More of a cute premise with lots of clever ideas attached than a fully fleshed out story, Blast from the Past is also supposed to be part romantic comedy, as the hunky Adam hooks up with his jaded Eve (Alicia Silverstone) and tries to convince her to marry him and go underground. The sparks don't fly, though, because Silverstone is saddled with the triple whammy of being miscast, playing an underwritten character, and suffering a very bad hairdo. Fraser, however, carries the film lightly and easily on his broad, goofy shoulders, mixing Adam's gee-whiz innocence with genuine emotion and curiosity; only Fraser could pull off Adam's first glimpse of a sunrise or the ocean with both humor and pathos. Also winning is Dave Foley as Silverstone's gay best friend, who manages to make the most innocuous statements sound like comic gems. --Mark Englehart ... Read more

Reviews (130)

Light, smart comedy
Brendan Fraser seems to specialize in `fish-out-of-water' characters, and he plays it to the hilt in this smart comedy. Fraser plays Adam Webber, the son of a Cold-War-obsessed scientist (Christopher Walken) and his wife (Sissy Spacek) who hunker down in a fallout shelter for 35 years, when they believe the big one has destroyed the earth.

In truth, a plane fell on their house, and their now-grown son only wishes to go and see the world. Their neighborhood has changed a lot, from quiet suburbia to punk clubs and adult bookstores, but Adam, who only wishes to meet a nice girl, manages to meet his match in the appropriately named Eve, nicely played by Alicia Silverstone with the right mix of incredulousness and sweetness. Dave Foley (The Kids in the Hall, NewsRadio) as Eve's gay roommate and Joey Slotnick as a stoned club owner who becomes a cult leader (you'll have to see why) are also very funny.

Director/writer Hugh Wilson has created a sweet, satirical film that features romance with light, satirical humor. It also has terrific sets (especially the Webbers' shelter) and a terrific dance scene. Blast from the Past is a light comedy that is well worth watching.

Adam & Eve in Modern Day
I've seen this film a lot of times, more than I'd care to admit to, and I never tire of it. The first five minutes are pretty dull, so I tend to skip past them, as it really starts when the plane crashes into the house.

Christopher Walken & Sissy Spacek are the perfect people to play Brendan Fraser's parents, both as quirky as each other. Sissy plays the perfect wife, drinking to escape her husband and life below ground. Christopher is perfect as the Dad, teaching his son everything he knows.

Alicia Silverstone is kooky, "psychic", and is a perfect match for Adam's character, and of course she has to be called Eve. How original.

Troy's character is brilliant, playing the stereotypical gay guy, which Adam thinks means "happy". Troy and Eve live together, and have a very similar relationship to Will & Grace in the TV show. The girl who has a gay guy for a roommate - tell me, how many times has that been done?

The first fifteen minutes go quickly through the first 35 years of Adam's (Brendan Fraser) uneventful life, cutting back and forth between what's going on above the family.

I couldn't imagine anyone else in the part of innocent Adam, apart from Brendan. He comes out with the funniest expressions! He is brought up to be the perfect gentleman - opening doors for women, calling them ma'am, doing all those things, the guy who every girl would like but then quickly get fed up of!

Some parts of the film aren't explained, leaving you wondering how they had enough supplies to last 35 years, how none of them got seriously ill, until the dad does twenty minutes in, forcing Adam to go up into the big bad world, and how the money hasn't changed in 35 years!

The funniest bits of the film are when Adam talks to complete strangers, in his off-hand way. The best sequence in the whole film is The Mask-reminiscent dance scene, when Adam goes to a club and dances with the two women. It's very similar to when Jim Carrey & Cameron Diaz dance together in The Mask; both are great & memorable. And like any dance scenes in films (Grease, The Mask, Saturday Night Fever) the crowd instantly makes a circle around the main people dancing and watches them. This wouldn't happen in real life, so why do they keep repeating this in films?

The storyline is pretty predictable: boy meets girl, boy loses girl, and boy gets girl back.

There aren't many extras on the DVD. There are trailers; cast & crew biographies; deleted scenes and a B-roll. They're your basic extras - not worth watching more than once, if you can last through them. According to the back of my DVD, there's a "Love Meter" but I can't find it amongst the extras so god knows where it is.

This is definitely for sentimental fools, like me, who love a good romance, and think Brendan Fraser is so cute - just not when he sings!

BEAVER REDUX
Brendan Fraser is remarkably good in this good-natured comedy about a young man born and raised in a fallout shelter. Fraser manages to parlay his rugged good looks and youthful exuberance into an intensely likeable hero named Adam. Once released into the modern world, Adam is gleefully joyful to watch. Alicia Silverstone is fine as his "Eve" who is both enamored and repelled by Fraser's childishly kind behavior. Dave Foley as her gay friend is marvelous as well. I also liked Joey Skolnik as the bartender who metamorphoses from a happy teenager to the self-proclaimed monk of a new religion. Kudos also to Nathan Killion (Firefly series) as Alicia's macho boyfriend who gets put in his place by Fraser. Also to the delightful dance scene where Fraser and two girls jitterbug to high heaven. But one cannot overlook the truly marvelous performances from Sissy Spacek and Christopher Walken as Fraser's paranoid parents. They are both brilliant, and one can see how these two won Oscars for previous performances. Director Hugh Wilson keeps it all together and I found myself smiling and chuckling all the way through. A delightful find!

Very funny commentary about how nice people used to be
This is a nice, funny movie, which along the way makes an interesting point. The plot is pretty straitforward, but this is a comedy not a drama, and it is plenty good enough to get us from joke to joke.

Films lately seem to be saying that really nice guys come from some other decade, or even century (Kate & Leopold). This might say more about the audience (do we more readily accept niceness if it is ancient?) than the writers, but it is something the film makes you think about, when you're done laughing.

Entertaining, Witty and Extremely Likeable Comic Fantasy
Calvin Webber (Christopher Walken) is a slightly mad genius living in Los Angeles at the height of the Cold War. Paranoid about the communist threat, he has made a vast and elaborate nuclear bunker under his house. And, at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, he takes the precaution of going into it with his pregnant wife Helen (Sissy Spacek). By bizarre coincidence, just as they get down underground, a military aircraft crashes on their house. Convinced this is the dreaded nuke, he locks in and they prepare to stay there for 35 years until the radiation reaches safe levels. Finally come the 1990s and son Adam (Brendan Fraser) is sent out to reconnoitre and get look for fresh supplies in what they are convinced is a nightmarish and disintegrated post-apocalyptic world. (The neighbour has gone badly downhill in a way that makes this a more than understandable mistake.) Out he goes armed only with an indefatigable innocence and decency, an unshakable conviction that Perry Como is at the cutting edge of popular music and what he does not yet realize is a huge fortune in vintage baseball cards. After a few hours he is seriously at sea and hopelessly lost. Then he meets Alicia Silverstone's wordly and cynical Eve...

The central conceit of this film is the clash of what is basically a 1950s sensibility with the harsh and cynical realities of 1990s America. That way it strongly recalls 'Pleasantville', made a year earlier. But this is a much better film. While 'Pleasantville' rather condescended to the past, with its knowing modern kids teaching stuffy old 50s types how to be cool and have sex, this film is much more intelligently ambivalent about the blessings of modernity and has a very nice satirical edge. Not to mention much funnier. It is Eve who learns from Adam far more than the reverse. It's essentially an unusual romantic comedy with a bizarre fantasy premise. But it's an unusually sharp, witty and unintelligent romcom. A certain mismatch between British and American senses of humour may partly explain why I seldom laugh out loud at American movies. Several lines in this were notable exceptions. Its best moments recall, as very very few contemporary films manage to recall, the sharply observed intelligence of the great Hollywood romantic comedies of the 30s and 40s. Fresh, entertaining and extremely well-acted, it's well worth a look. ... Read more