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Sebastian Caine (Kevin Bacon) is a brilliant scientist in charge of a US Government-funded underground facility investigating into invisibility serums. They have the ability to turn animals invisible, but up until now there has been no way to reverse it. Now, Sebastian has found a reversal formula, and it works.
Sebastian, afraid his research will be stolen away from him, keeps all records of progress from the military. He is obsessed with power and he doesn't know what to do now that it's all over. ("It feels like the beginning of the end," he says.) And so without asking for permission from his funding, Sebastian becomes the first human to turn invisible to the naked eye - the only thing that can pick up his traces are heat goggles that look like something out of a science fiction movie. Oh, wait...
The serum starts to take a deadly turn, however, when Sebastian feels that everyone is out to get him. He is afraid his colleagues will turn him in, and so he traps them underground and starts to kill them off, one-by-one.
His fellow scientists include: Linda (Elisabeth Shue, who somehow gets top billing over Bacon), Matthew (Josh Brolin), Sarah (Kim Dickens), Carter (Greg Grunberg), and Kramer (William Devane). Linda was his ex-lover sometime in the past. Now she's going out with Matthew. Sebastian doesn't like this; it's part of what triggers his ferocious outbreak in the first place. In short, the guy goes crazy and there's nothing they can do about it except pray and hunt him down with their little goggles and stun guns.
Sebastian considers himself God. ("How many times have I told you you're not God? I am.") We can tell from the beginning that he has problems with control and superiority. The serum, which has some serious side effects like those you hear in fine print on commercials for medicine, only unleashes his darker side he tries to conceal.
And Verhoeven has a strong handle on the different phases of his personality change, unlike most films. Unforunately, whereas "RoboCop" and "Total Recall" seemed much more serious, "Hollow Man," like his 1997 film "Starship Troopers," feels too over-the-top and goofy for its own good. His earlier films always had a touch of that over-the-top action spectacular stuff. This one has too much.
If there were ever a movie for Paul Verhoeven, it is this. It's the tailor-made film just for him, much like "RoboCop" was. He has free roam to create an invisible man who slowly becomes hostile and hunts his victims. Think about "Total Recall"--remember how Verhoeven's imaginations were perfectly displayed on screen? How real it all was? How gripping and suspenseful?
There's something missing here. It's the perfect material for Verhoeven, and it has his distinctly hard edge, but it is dumb, and it feels more like an average slasher movie with a large budget than a smart thriller. Especially towards the end, which has its fun parts but becomes over-the-top and quite ridiculous. Of course, the bad guy always gets back up for one last scare, but (spoiler alert!) Sebastian gets up three times. And he's not even supernatural -- he's just invisible. He gets torched with a flamethrower, knocked over the head, electrocuted, and blown up his lab facility. Then he manages to climb up an elevator shaft and grab Linda one last time. HUH? And since when does electricity not spread through water? These guys are extremely advanced scientists, yet they never stop to ponder over why basic science knowledge has just been proved incorrect.
I'm being too harsh. I won't lie. The film has its moments of interest and truly amazing special effects--some of the best I've ever seen in a motion picture, in fact. If "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" was an opening for live action/animation and "Terminator 2" was the breakthrough motion picture for pure special effects, this is the next level. It starts with an intriguing premise, just as "RoboCop" and "Total Recall" did, only those two films kept elevating the action, suspense, plot, and emotional attachment, something that "Hollow Man" is lacking. Perhaps a better title would have been "Hollow Movie"?
"Hollow Man" is rated R for strong violence, language, and sexuality/nudity.
Okay, first off, the acting is really lousy. I mean, the Carrot Top movie had more accomplished actors than this disgrace. Second,the screenplay was at about the writing level of a second grader. The movie lacked all the good stuff, like character development, emotional resonance, tension, and intelligence. Instead, we were left with the standard Hollywood sex and gore, and plenty of it! This movie had more unnecessary blood and guts than all the previous Paul Verhoven movies put together. It was obscene. Speakng of which, there were like fifty scenes of the invisible man molesting his female victims. It was disgusting. And no, I don't needto see Kevin Bacon's nether regions that often, thank you very much.
Some movies are described as bloody car wrecks. "The Hollow Man" is the celluloid equivilent of the Chernobyl disaster. I mean, Paul screwed up big time with "Starship Troopers" and "Showgirls", but at least they were the fun kind of bad. This movie, however, doesn't merely stink. It shouldn't be screened near open flame. If you want more intelligent viewing, try staring at your shoe for two hours. It'll be just as entertaining.
Not great, but I enjoyed it.
