HOLLOW MAN A film review by David N. Butterworth Copyright 2000 David N. Butterworth
*1/2 (out of ****)
What would you do if no one could see you? Well, if you're a super smart bio-molecular research scientist working for the military, you'd grope a co-worker and rough-up your neighbor from across the street.
That's right. Of all the non-criminal possibilities brought about by rendering oneself invisible, in "Hollow Man" Kevin Bacon's character opts to commit sex crimes. Er, it's Kevin Bacon who plays the super smart military bio-molecular research scientist? Something sounds horribly wrong already. But this is a Paul Verhoeven film, and the sleazepin director of such open-crotch classics as "Basic Instinct" and the infamous "Showgirls" never lets a little credibility get in the way of his voyeuristic tendencies which, when you come right down to it, is all this film is about.
"Hollow Man" features a string of hapless, C-list actors (among them Bacon, Elisabeth Shue, Josh Brolin, and Kim Dickens) in a grade-Z plot with a lot of special effects that, frankly, don't look much better than those used in the 1933 version of "The Invisible Man." Oh Bacon glistens when he gets wet all right and looks like a rather fatty side of cheap flank steak when he's attempting reentry but otherwise it's lots of "thermal" shots and inanimate objects (Elisabeth Shue included) bobbing around without any visible signs of support.
Since invisibility, once achieved, isn't much of an effect (the actors spend half their time conversing with nobody and the other half of their time talking to each other--it amounts to much of a muchness), the director elects to wardrobe all of his female protagonists in loosely-buttoned sweaters so that the minute Bacon's character gets invisible he can head straight for them. It's as if that fascinating concept--what would you do if no one could see you?--is simply a Verhoeven ploy to show some skin.
As a horror film, "Hollow Man" is unsophisticated and disturbing (in its intent, not its achievements) and not worth your time or your hard-earned dollars. It's minor Verhoeven--and even that's not saying much--and boy is it hollow.
-- David N. Butterworth dnb@dca.net
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