Hollow Man

STAR RATING

INFO

Year: 2000
Running Lenght: 1:45
Rated: R (for violence, gore, nudity, sex and profanity - all the good stuff :)
Genre: sci-fi / thriller

Cast: Elisabeth Shue, Kevin Bacon, Josh Brolin, Kim Dickens
Director: Paul "the man" Verhoeven
Screenplay: Andrew W. Marlowe

PLOT

When Sebastian Kane (Bacon) discovers the formula for becoming invisible, he decides to test it on himself. When he finds out there is no way he can come back to being visible, he goes insane (with delightfull consequences).

REVIEW

If I had a penny for every great idea that Hollywood turns into a giant crapfest of a movie, I'd be stinking rich!

Indeed, "Hollow Man" could have been a great movie, if director Paul Verhoeven (Total Recall, Basic Instinct, Starship Troopers) hadn't been reading the book "How to make a cliched, generic and predictable action flick" while he was making it.

I didn't hate "Hollow Man", in fact I enjoyed it for the most parts, but there's not one ounce of suspense in it. Sure, the visual effects we're impressive and definitely Oscar-worthy, but that's a very small consolation for the lack of excitement in the story.

There's so much more that could have been done with the "invisible man" premise. If handled properly, "Hollow Man" could have been an smart, interesting film which explores one person's madness while still being an immensely entertaining action/thriller with lots of eye-candy.

While the fun in "Hollow Man" doesn't come from the script, Verhoeven uses other sources to entertain us: nudity, violence and gore. Now, I have nothing against those things, I love to see them in movies, but here, they are used as an excuse for the poor scirpt. It's like they were thinking "OK, the script sucks, so we'll have to use a lot of nudity, violence, that kind of stuff. People will dig it, cause they're stupid!"

Well, I guess they were wrong since there were moments in Hollow Man in which I barely stood awake.

The characters are another thing I didn't like. They are all typical - we have the mad scientist (Bacon), the ambitious scientist (Shue), the well-mannered hero (Brolin) and the animal lover and protector (Dickens).

Other than the lame script, "Hollow Man" is a decent movie. Kevin Bacon (who I usually hate) was pretty good, Elisabeth Shue was great, though I was very dissapointed we didn't get to see her tits... damn! The rest of the cast does a fairly good job.

I'll admit I had some fun while watching Hollow Man. The effects we're spectacular, the movie had quite a few thrills, and the premise, no matter how poorly executed was interesting. But this is not a good movie, the only people who will dig it are die-hard sci-fi fans.

written by Dani Koev

THE GOOD STUFF

"Damn it! I forgot the BBQ sauce!"

"That's what happens when you let a 300-pound lard ass lay in your bed!"

"Can I have my head back please?"

"I can't help but think Kevin accepted this part just so he can impress me with his masculinity. Well it isn't working! Now where's my vibrator?"

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