Sebastian Caine, a rather eccentric and odd researcher, has been leading a group of scientists who are deeply involved in working on an invisibility serum. Though they have been able to make animals disappear, they still seem to struggle with getting them to rematerialize. After enough struggling, the collective finally manage to get Isabelle, their lab gorilla, to reappear in front of their eyes. Overwhelmed and overjoyed, they are initially ready to display the results to their military superiors, but Sebastian hides these revelations from the former, convincing them that human testing should be the next step forward. Oddly enough, the lead expert volunteers for this secret decision, and though the experiment is successful, Sebastian finds that he enjoys being hidden from the public a little too much. And when he discovers that the reversal formula doesn't seem to work on human beings, he is none too happy about it.
So, let me get this straight: the director of classic releases like Total Recall and Robocop got together with Hollywood notables such as Kevin Bacon, Elisabeth Shue, Josh Brolin, and the writer of Air Force One to make an updated version of H. G. Wells' The Invisible Man? Why yes, your ideas intrigue me, and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter. All I can ask is that you please attempt to keep your protagonist somewhat empathetic, and that you don't end up turning him into a secret agent after many years have gone by. Now that these demands have been laid forth, let us move on to the actual review.
Hollow Man was one of those random pictures released in the earliest years of my tenure in high school, where I was unknowingly seeing an emergence of old time horror flicks being loosely remade for the "Gen X" crowd. We had films such as The Faculty (a high school take on Invasion of the Body Snatchers), Gus Van Sant's shot-for-shot remake of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, and a few others than are honestly best left forgotten in the annals of history. The idea to reinterpret and reimagine a story that was over a century old, only with (then) modern technology at the disposal of the crew, seemed like a surefire winner. Unfortunately, what we ended up with just feels terribly bland: the cinematic equivalent of a great-looking birthday cake that tastes like it was purchased from a trashy Walmart rather than a legitimate bakery.
Mind you, pastry is still pastry though, so Paul Verhoeven's final Hollywood effort does still have a lot to admire about it. Save for Kim Dickens' annoying and whiney Sarah, the acting from the cast is fairly admirable. Their roles are written to be nothing more than clichés or red shirts, but given how quickly the movie dives into "killer on the loose" territory, I can't say that I was terribly surprised. If I can be allowed to paraphrase an old quote from the realm of professional wrestling, I would say "If you think that someone makes a good babyface, then you're going love finding out how great of a heel that they can be." In this day and age, I actually prefer to watch Kevin Bacon as a villain or a human being with a darker soul (it's at this moment that I just realized he shares the same first name as his character in X-Men: First Class). He usually tends to knock it out of the park and entertain the audience immensely, even if the rest of the material that he is working with is relatively weak (RIPD anyone?). Sadly, it seems as though my first request made two paragraphs above fell upon deaf ears, as Bacon's Sebastian does lose the ability to garner any sort of sympathy or consolation after he begins to get a bit "rapey" with certain individuals of the female variety. Though these actions do provide for an ironically amusing realization that what we're witnessing is the world's most obvious double entendre, it's still a bit of a shame, as I felt that it could have taken Hollow Man into the same category that made pictures like David Cronenberg's The Fly so wonderful.
What it does share with the previously mentioned picture is some top notch technical work, which comes courtesy of the usually reliable Amalgamated Dynamics, who younger fans should know from involvement in film favorites like Jumanji, Tremors, and Mortal Kombat. Considering that Hollow Man is sixteen years old at this point, the special effects still appear to look pretty gosh darn good. One standout moment comes from when Sebastian initially attempts to turn back to normal, as does another sequence where they pour a mold onto his head in order to construct a mask required for future testing and analysis. There is also excellent usage of a thermal image camera, given parts of the picture an almost Predator-like vibe. So yes, even if the plot and how it subsequently unfolds is quite basic, the movie is nice to glimpse at. But oh boy, do I wish that I could have said the same for the music. I hate to speak ill of the dead, but for as much as I love and respect Jerry Goldsmith, some of this score sounds like he's trying to channel the aforementioned Psycho, but not even being subtle about the homage. I know I know, we should interpret that as a love letter to the age of Universal Monsters, but if that's the case, then how do you defend the inescapable, early-2000s traits like an obnoxious nu-metal song playing during every segment that involves Kevin Bacon driving his car? Perhaps something so inconsequential is just me being a nitpicker, but I just rolled my eyes each time that the Footloose star begins to sing or mime the words to a track that could have come off of an Ozzfest sampler.
As a piece of horror or science fiction, Hollow Man is fairly standard and ultimately just a bit on the mediocre side of things. It has an interesting premise, but around the final act, it succumbs to the same problem that befell Danny Boyle's Sunshine by turning into a predictable slasher movie. Worse yet, if you were to judge it as a Paul Verhoeven flick, it is remarkably weak, and outside of some nice eye-pleasing impressions, nothing will stay with you after the credits. It makes for serviceable entertainment, but it doesn't surprise me that the famed Dutch filmmaker essentially disowned the product several years ago, while citing it as the first motion picture that he felt shouldn't have been made because it just didn't completely feel like a project of his (true) and that anybody could have produced and completed a release like Hollow Man (probably true). Luckily, he got out of the stressful world of big budget cinema before it completely swallowed him up, and he returned with the rather exceptional WWII-centric Black Book in 2006. If you are curious and want to judge it for yourself, Hollow Man is readily available on DVD and Blu-Ray, with some versions being packaged with the Christian Slater-led sequel that was released six years after this one.
But you know, they probably could have saved themselves a lot of time by just contacting this fella for helping to deal with antagonists like Sebastian. Plus, who wouldn't love to see a crossover involving these two?
....okay, I definitely need sleep.
Tomorrow, we turn from the world of invisibility to one where you can't miss the threat in front of your eyes, as we travel down into the sewers for a quick trip or two...
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