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The Lawnmower Man (1992): Almost a Cult Classic
What do you get when you mix Stephen King’s name, Pierce Brosnan before Bond, and early-90s CGI? A techno-parable that wanted to be visionary but ended up looking like a rejected Doctor Who episode. The Lawnmower Man should have been the VR movie of its era; instead, it’s remembered for a monkey in a headset, a priest with a belt, and Jeff Fahey mowing down enemies in a fog machine haze.
The story leans on stereotypes, the pacing crawls, and the CGI buries Jobe’s transformation under neon polygons. And yet, with tighter focus and scarier visuals, this relic might have been a defining sci-fi of the 90s. Instead, it’s Almost a Cult Classic: one rewrite away from legendary.
Johnny Mnemonic (1995): Almost a Cult Classic
What do you get when you mix an expensive courier with Keanu Reeves in the 90s? Ninety minutes of cyberpunk ambition slowly losing a fistfight with its own budget. Johnny Mnemonic was meant to be William Gibson’s big screen moment, but it looks more like a dress rehearsal for The Matrix where someone forgot to pay the lighting bill.
Instead of sleek noir paranoia, we get polygon VR, a cyber-preacher assassin, and a dolphin that feels more like a punchline than tragedy. It’s not a cult classic because it nailed cyberpunk; it’s Almost a Cult Classic because you can see the good movie straining to get out from under the rubble.
Moon 44 (1990): Almost a Cult Classic
Moon 44 is what happens when you blend Aliens, Top Gun, and Blade Runner in a blender, forget the lid, and call the mess "gritty sci-fi."
Outland (1981): Almost a Cult Classic
What can older stories tell us about modern storytelling?
Let’s look at the 1981 classic movie, Outland, and compare it to what it could have been.