Hollow Man

R 5.8
2000 1 hr 52 min Action , Thriller , Science Fiction

Cocky researcher Sebastian Caine is working on a project to make living creatures invisible. Determined to achieve the ultimate breakthrough, Caine pushes his team to move to the next phase — using himself as the subject. The test is a success, but when the process can't be reversed and Caine seems doomed to future without flesh, he starts to turn increasingly dangerous.

  • Cast:
    Elisabeth Shue , Kevin Bacon , Josh Brolin , Kim Dickens , Greg Grunberg , Joey Slotnick , Mary Randle

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Reviews

Protraph
2000/08/04

Lack of good storyline.

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Mathilde the Guild
2000/08/05

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

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Hattie
2000/08/06

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

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Deanna
2000/08/07

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

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romanorum1
2000/08/08

The opening credits feature pictures of molecules and scrambled letters. This is another movie where someone tests some ridiculous experiment on himself and thing go awry. These guys never seem to understand that they will become entrapped inside their new character. To make my point, refer to the following stories: "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hide," "The Invisible Man," and "The Fly." In "Hollow Man" Kevin Bacon stars as Sebastian Caine, who is an egocentric and unethical scientist. He heads a six-unit research and development team whose purpose is to make living things invisible, and vice versa (reversion). The crew, entirely financed under the auspices of the Pentagon, includes ex-girlfriend Linda McKay (Elizabeth Shue) and her current suitor Matthew Kensington (Josh Brolin). Ignoring procedures and rules, Sebastian decides to initiate human testing – on himself. On making history he tells his staff, "You make it by seizing the moment!" So he is the first human guinea pig. He does no real good in his new situation. One of his first acts as an invisible man is to unbutton the blouse of the dozing, high strung co-worker Bianca (Kim Dickens) and squeeze a boob. Ten days into the experiment, he cannot get back to his original self and his behavior becomes depraved with violent streaks. At least a latex skin is poured over him to give him a humanoid look. He has been enamored with a well-endowed, attractive single woman (Rhona Mitra) who lives just across from him in another unit of his apartment building. Debauched, and as he cannot be seen, he decides to force his way onto her. How she inadvertently admits him in the first place is totally ridiculous: She sees no one through the door peephole and ventures outside her apartment while dank and wearing just a housecoat, and while wondering who rang the doorbell. Of course he easily sleazes in and rapes her. Sebastian's mind continues to degenerate. He becomes murderous and begins to stalk his own team after they decide to turn him over to their superiors. Now the movie morphs into a slasher flick as team members are picked off one by one in the expected order. Will the madman be stopped before they are all dead? Who cares? Special effects are the real stars here. There is a nice opening sequence with a visible rat: it slinks along to a water dish before being quickly snatched and killed by an invisible predator. Early on an invisible gorilla becomes visible after an irradiated serum injection. As the injected chemical fans out throughout the bloodstream, body parts gradually become visible, revealing layers of tissue, muscle, fat, bone, organs, and skin. But filmmakers like Paul Verhoeven must realize that great visual effects do not by themselves equate to an enjoyable motion picture experience. Thus, on the negative side the acting is so-so, and there is little, if any, chemistry between the two protagonist leads, Shue and Brolin. Worse, the characters are not especially likable. Then there is the story-line that deteriorates into absurdity.

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Leofwine_draca
2000/08/09

A 21st-century updating of THE INVISIBLE MAN with the added bonus of state-of-the-art special effects? It's a plan which sounds like it can't fail. Unfortunately for us, though, it does fail, and fans of director Paul Verhoeven are in for a big letdown. Eschewing his patented over-the-top gore, seen in the likes of ROBOCOP and STARSHIP TROOPERS, Verhoeven gives us a middling film which is only too happy to rip off most of its plot points from other, better productions.Instead of having his invisible fiend on the loose in an unsuspecting world, the scriptwriter decided to place most of the action inside an underground laboratory. Like we haven't seen that one before. This immediately loses much of the interest which could have been aroused had the plot taken a different, unconventional direction. As it is, HOLLOW MAN soon descends into typical slasher territory, with a group of people trapped in a single location and being stalked by an unstoppable killer.With a plot like this you can guess most of what will happen and very rarely does the film surprise or shock. One interesting angle of the story is to focus on the 'Peeping Tom' style voyeurism of Kevin Bacon's character, as he spies on undressing neighbours and fondles a sleeping woman while invisible. But even the horror of the climatic attack (and apparent rape) of a neighbour is ruined by some slap-dash editing which leaves the outcome to your imagination and makes you think "what?!".Elsewhere, the acting fails to impress on all accounts. Elizabeth Shue is a boring heroine with little to impress in the way of charisma or personality. Josh Brolin is instantly forgettable as yet another bespectacled scientist, while none of the other characters are ever developed beyond basics - they're just there to be killed by Bacon. Bacon himself is off screen most of the time, and to be honest his performance is pretty forgettable too. Most unforgivable though, is the total waste of William Devane in a cameo appearance.Where this film does succeed are the special effects, which are, of course, top-notch. Highlights include some startling regenerations and disappearances of a gorilla and Bacon himself, which are the finest ever put to screen and pretty disturbing (due to the fact that the subjects of the experiments are in agony while this happens). The SFX wizards also take full advantage of having the invisible man in a swimming pool, getting burnt, covered in blood etc, to show as much of him as possible, if you see what I mean. Gone are the quaint cigarettes on wires, we now have a partially invisible murderer soaked in blood and killing. Subtle it ain't.The lack of gore is another big disappoint, and there's nothing here that you won't see in a typical slasher-fest. Probably the best bit comes when a nerdy scientist is impaled (from behind) on a metal bar of some sort, but that's about it. All in all it's a hollow experience, but worth watching just to see what the (very) special effects are like.

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Predrag
2000/08/10

"Hollow Man" displays all the standard symptoms of advanced Verhoeven Syndrome: shallow plot, no character development, gratuitous violence, and a contempt for the laws of science that almost amounts to an organized campaign to subvert SF as a genre. Witness the dramatic idea (stolen directly from H.G. Wells, of course) of making animals and human beings completely invisible, without the slightest shred of scientific explanation except for some mumbo-jumbo about quantum shifts. Making organisms vanish is done by injecting them with a lurid orange liquid injected from an immense hypodermic that looks like a Fisher-Price toy (but only after it's been "irradiated"). Making the creatures visible again calls for the identical process - but this time with a bright blue liquid! (I'm not making this up, honest, although I might have got the colors transposed).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. The main problem with this film was putting all the weight on one character, Sebastian Caine (as misplayed by Kevin Bacon). When the main character is a mad scientist, who's obviously already nuts to begin with, where can you go from there? Bacon makes the transition with no perceptible difference. (Amusingly enough, Bacon was chosen over Guy Pearce and Edward Norton for this role because he has the "ability to be both charming and diabolical." Neither of which are in evidence in this movie.) As for the rest of the designer docs who make up the cast, none of them struck me as being even remotely scientific. When they finally started the invisibility process on Bacon, I found that I was never happier to see an actor disappear. Pity his character proved so resilient in the end.Overall rating: 6 out of 10.

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vincentlynch-moonoi
2000/08/11

Sometimes I like to watch a disaster movie. Instead, with "Hollow Man", I found a disaster of a movie. And I say that as a person who loves a good horror movie.The basic idea, of course, is a modernization of the old H.G. Wells story. I'm not sure I like the update. This film is about watching Kevin Bacon...I mean Kevin Bacon's character he a total jerk (I was going to use another term, but this is IMDb). The film is also about Kevin Bacon...I mean Kevin Bacon's character be a pervert. The film is about Kevin Bacon's character being a murderer. To be perfectly honest, I pretty much lost all interest in Kevin Bacon after I first saw this film in the theater.There are 2 good things about this film. The first is excellent special effects. The second is seeing Josh Brolin in a very good supporting actor role.The rest of the acting was marginal. Elisabeth Shue was rather shallow for many parts of the film, although okay later in the film when she has more of an action role. Kim Dickens was "okay". Greg Grunberg failed to impress. Joey Slotnick was fairly decent. William Davane was as good as he usually is, although his part was rather small.I know it's science fiction, but in many ways the basic science here is pretty...well...foolish.I will say the conclusion of the film is pretty decent.Overall I don't give this film a G or R rating. PU is more appropriate.

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