The '90s saw updated versions of many of the classic "Golden Age" Monsters.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula,
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein,
Wolf,
The Mummy,
The Phantom of the Opera and even Disney's
The Hunchback of Notre Dame gave new life and popularity to the reliable monsters that pretty much gave birth to modern horror, influencing today's creators to strive in making their own mark on the world of Hollywood... well, maybe not that last one. Anyway, the basics were pretty much covered. However, the Invisible Man never really received the attention and updating that the others monsters did. Sure, there was John Carpenter's
Memoirs of an Invisible Man and Full Moon's
Invisible: the Chronicles of Benjamin Knight, but they both failed. Hell, one starred Chevy Chase, so of course it was bound to suck! Anyway, with the new millenium came new hope for a new Invisible Man movie for fans to enjoy. This hope came in the form of
Hollow Man. Well, after viewing it, I'm afraid that all hope is lost kids...
Hollow Man is a creation of Paul Verhoeven, father to such movies as Fatal Attraction and Total Recall, both of which he seems to draw influence from to help make this movie. After an opening credits scene that looks like possessed alphabet soup swimming in a bowl of Crystal Pepsi, we are introduced to the center of our movie, Sebastian Caine: a smart-assed genius with a God complex, played by everyone's favorite footloose Tremors hero, Kevin Bacon. Seb(astian) and a small group of his fellow genetic researchers have been working on a government funded project to create a solution which would turn soldiers invisible, then bring them back out of it without killing them. After 11 months, the group has figured out how to make lab animals disappear, but have been unsuccesful in bringing them back into full view... until now. Seb has discovered the formula for such an act, giving himself an unneeded ego boost, which puts his inflated self esteem right up there with that of a pro-football player or Celine Dion.
Not prepared to give up the info to the government without testing the syrum on a human subject first, Seb nominates himself to play guinea pig and stand at the center of history in the making... but do I really need to see Kevin Bacon's bacon?! Put that pale ass away boy! Sheesh! So, the first part of the test is successful, Seb is phased out, becoming as transparent as the oxygen he breathes. Thankfully, this is a good thing, because it provides me with two things:
1.) I no longer have to look at Kevin Bacon for the rest of the film.
2.) Bacon goes through a LOT of pain in the process, which is fun to watch.
The problem now though, is all of Seb's lab partners are getting paranoid and afraid, not sure what a borderline psycho like Seb might do with this kind of power! Speaking of which, their fears become reality, as Sebastian's few morals begin to slither away, leaving him to grope his sleeping female co-workers and cause mischief. There's a popular belief that states "power corrupts". I find this idea to be true, but when power is given to a totally corrupted asshole like Seb, what's the point?! He was an asshole before it, and he's an asshole afterwards. Big deal! Where's the drama?! Well, the others attempt to revert Seb back to his normal mode, hoping to end these see-through shenanigans. Seb goes along with it, but the whole thing goes awry. Just when it appears that Seb will be returning, something screws up along the way, and he's now stuck being invisible once more. In an attempt to make the whining transparent jerk feel a bit more human, his face is covered with latex rubber, which is used to create a mask and gloves for him. This is where the Hollow Man title comes in, as we're able to see through the eyes of the mask all the way to the back of the mask, making him a "hollow man". That or the title comes from the fact that this story is just that: hollow, containing no real substance.
Despite his spiffy new outfit, Seb decides he's sick and tired of being kooked up in the underground laboratory for so long, so he goes out into civilization for a little while. After scaring some obnoxious kids to the point of crying and shitting themselves, Seb goes to his apartment, where his last ounce of morality gets plopped into the toilet and soundly *flush*ed. Seeing his neighbor across the street undressing herself in front of her window, Seb decides to do what any hormonally imbalanced, ego-maniacal, son of a bitch in his shoes would do: rape the chick. Though this is supposed to be a very disturbing and demeaning scene, it sux because we only see very little of the event. I may sound perverse, but hey, if you're gonna do something, go all the way! Don't tease me like some Catholic schoolgirl, Verhoeven! Afterwards, Seb grabs a few things from his apartment and heads back to his confinement at the lab. However, STILL no one can fix him up, and nobody's getting anymore comfortable with this "Invisible Sebastian" idea. So, with everything on the brink of falling apart, and fearing their lives and careers in peril, Seb's ex-girlfriend/co-worker Linda (Elisabeth Shue), along with her new boyfriend/co-worker Matt go to the head of the project to tell him everything about how they went behind the Pentagon's back to do a human test, and about the unfortunate results. Sadly for them, Seb follows them to this meeting, and then kills the head professor guy, drowning him in his backyard pool before he has the chance to inform anyone else about the whole incident. Now the rest of our cast is in for some serious shit! Hope they brought their waders...
Back at the lab, after getting all of the team together and changing the access codes to the exit elevator, Seb sets about killing off his fellow white-coaters in a transparent killing spree... FINALLY, SOME BLOOD! The first victim is strangled, the next has his head bounced off of a steel box (complete with spraying blood!), number three gets her neck broken, and our fourth victim falls to a crowbar impalement! As for Linda and Matt, well, Matt too gets gored with the crowbar, though he's just left unconscious. This means it's up to the ex-girlfriend Linda to take out her former romantic interest Sebastian. She fares well, using a homemade flamethrower to scorch him pretty good (though, since he's invisible, we're deprived from seeing the damage). Then, after soaking her light colored shirt nice and wet (as all of her shirts should be), she gets into it with him underneath the sprinkler system, ending when Seb's crowbar winds up in a circuit box. For those of you out there who skipped out on 2nd Grade science and safety class, water + metal object + stray electricity = all together now, "OUCH!". The shock also manages to bring Seb partially back into view (basically his muscles and shit, just minus his flesh), which is pointless since he's dead now... right? Well, with Sebastian "dead" all that's left now is for Linda and Matt to escape the compound before Seb's do-it-yourself high explosives go off, destroying everything! This they narrowly manage (also managing to barely escape the hungry steel of a flying elevator) in true "last minute escape" action flick style. But, then comes the predictable "serial killer's not dead yet" return of Seb (complete with his flailing and fleshless Johnson). He soon departs for good though, when Linda tricks him, dropping him down the long elevator shaft and into the inferno he created below. This leaves Matt and Linda to climb out of the shaft and into the safety of the FBI's waiting arms.
First of all, you can't talk about Hollow Man without mentioning the spectacular special FX. They were simply amazing, really coming into context when Seb or the test gorilla "phase in" or "phase out". It’s truly a huge accomplishment and something that the FX crew can be proud of. Elsewhere in the picture though, brace yourself for disappointment. The story was weak, mainly due to the lack of development with Sebastian. The ultimate goal of power is to corrupt its owner. But, like I said before, what the Hell is the point in giving that power to someone who's already corrupt, such as Sebastian?! No surprises at any point along the way, simply predictable to the end. Verhoeven tried to mix sci-fi scares with sexual thrills, and winds up botching the whole project. Acting was fine, but when you don't have a story to support it with, what's the point? Soundtrack wise, this is where the movie actually manages to hold on. Jerry Goldsmith, 9 times out of 10 will supply us with a good soundtrack that will fit nicely with the movie it's scoring. He's got talent, and he shows it here, though it's sadly underplayed, making more room instead for crappy Kevin Bacon one-liners and innuendos. I can sum up HOLLOW MAN in one sounded-witty-when-first-heard-it word: "hollow".
Well, I just got my paycheck, so after I return Hollow Man and kill the woman at the video store for recommending it to me, I think I'll pick up the Flesh For Frankenstein DVD that my unholy midget minions have been holding for me all week. Lock up when you leave.
The Moral of the Story: Whether it's invisible or not, a dick is still a dick.
DVD X-tras: Not much, to be honest. There's two commentary tracks: one featuring Verhoeven, Bacon, and Marlowe (the writer) and another featuring an isolated music score narated by Goldsmith. Also, there's a nearly entertaining "making of" featurette called "Hollow Man: Anatomy of a Thriller" and a mildly entertaining menu, but all in all, a fairly weak DVD for a fairly weak movie.
H.O.P.E.L.E.S.S. Rating: 
- The action and special effects are fine and Kevin Bacon's always an easy target for party fueled venom. Not a great flick for the solo viewer, but it's got enough potential for a party atmosphere.
Sequel: Hollow Man 2
If You Liked This Flick, Check Out: The Fly or
Re-Animator
FEEDBACK
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