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- "Hollow Man"
(Reviewed July 31, 2000)
- Two words sum up this botched, unsatisfying mess: "MISSED OPPORTUNITY." You go in expecting an actual MOVIE-scale entertainment, one in which the Invisible Man will
go
out in the world and interact with lots of people and cause mayhem or mischief among the masses in lots of interesting locations. Instead, you get a cheesy, set-bound "Alien" rip-off.
All of the budget money obviously was spent on the special effects (which are, admittedly, amazing). Ninety-five percent of the action, however, takes place in an underground lab compound,
with a
handful of dummies trying to find Kevin Bacon as he runs around causing trouble in those claustrophic confines. Why do I say these people are dummies? Because they do such stupid, cliched
horror-movie
things that they may as well be in a lame-brained parody of these kinds of films (see "Scary Movie"). "There's an invisible psycho running around? Okay, then let's make it a point NOT to stick together, or
always to wear our special glasses that let us see him. And God forbid that we should remember there is an elevator shaft escape route until the last minute!"
Also, there is a major plot mistake in
this
empty-headed exercise. Early on, we are shown Kevin Bacon entering the compound's elevator by pressing a thumb against a scanner for identification. Yet later he is able to enter and leave while
invisible...with no explanation given as to how he manages to do this WITHOUT A VISIBLE THUMB.
Elisabeth Shue's breasts are quite impressive, but she is about as believable in her
scientific-researcher role as Meg Ryan was as a surgeon ("City of Angels") or Denise Richards was as a nuclear physicist
("Tomorrow Never Dies"). She is so languid and sexy and half-stupid that she seems to have wandered in from a porno movie during a lunch break. Not that she bares any flesh, of course. This movie
boasts
three exposed breasts, but none of them happens to belong to the voluptuous Ms. Shue. Curse the luck!
Back Row Grade: C-, and I only rate it that highly because the SFX are so
good.
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