© William Ahearn 2006

This flick was originally titled “Stephen King’s The Lawnmower Man” until King sued the producers up, down, left and right. This film is not the short story by King with the same title (that I haven’t read) but still makes the claim. The film itself doesn’t have a screen credit for King, but the version I have, the “unrated director’s cut,” still asserts that it’s “based on a story by Stephen King” right on the box.

If it’s based on anything it’s based on the 1968 film “Charly” that was based on Daniel Keyes’ short story “Flowers for Algernon.” Pretty much stealing from Peter to piss off Paul but that’s showbiz.

The gist is that if you take a mentally challenged individual and give him drugs and virtual reality learning he’ll develop super intelligence. Then he’ll go crazy, dress like someone auditioning for “Midnight Cowboy,” start banging the local slut and develop delusions of grandeur. And kill everyone who was mean to him when he was retarded.

And, of course, he’ll want to live among equals so the natural response is to inject himself – or at least his smarty-pants essence – into a supercomputer. At least “Free Jack” never took itself this seriously.

The graphics are pure “Tron” and “Hackers.” This film builds on the fear of intelligence and technology and doesn’t do a very credible job of either.

If this is the meat of your movie nights, there's two sequels to feast on.