At a top secret military lab, a group of brilliant young scientists have just unlocked the secret of invisibility. Think you're alone? Think again.
In Hollow man, the provocative new suspense thriller from the mind of controversial director Paul Verhoeven, the team's arrogant leader, Sebastian Caine (Kevin Bacon), ignores the risks and decides to test the dangerous procedure on himself - only to discover his fellow scientists (Elisabeth Shue as Linda Foster and Josh Brolin as Matt Kensington) are unable to reverse the effect.
Working around the clock, Caine's colleagues struggle to devise an antidote. But Sebastian's intoxication with his new-found power is growing, and he's come to believe his colleagues may be a threat to his very existence.
Special Agent Matti
I saw Bacon bits.
From the moment Kevin drops his robe to the floor (great bum shot, by the way) to the final conflagrationary scene everyone in the audience at the preview I attended was checking out his pork sword (pun intended). It's not that it's particularly special - Jeff Stryker can heave a sigh of relief - it's just that Hollywood is terribly afraid of dangly bits. While Kevin's danglies have visible skin they are kept hidden away from view by blatantly obvious blocks to the line of sight. Once his skin becomes invisible, however, the CGI programmers were allowed to keep it on-screen. Be it outlined by water, glowing in false colour infra-red or partially exposed by transparent skin (*Shudders*): it's there.
You can see a man's throat ripped out but you can't see his penis. What a strange world we live in.
Some other things happen in the film, too. Ummm... a group of thirty-something scientists invent something which goes awry and kills them all while they're trapped in a place with lots of corridors and high-tech equipment and can't call for help. The hero is a sexy thirty-something chick with brains and guts while her love interest is a sexy thirty-something bloke with brains and guts. She once had a relationship with the lead scientist of the group who still wants her back. Anything else? Let's see: violence, blood and gore, explosions, killing, fire sprinklers... and non-sexy but brainy comic relief thirty-something people for cannon fodder. And some groovy, full-on special effects.
Hollow man is fun, exciting, thrilling, gory and full of action (there's also a great superhero joke: an oldie but a goodie). For mindless thrills and spills you can't pay better money than this.
MA 15+ (Medium level violence, medium level coarse language, supernatural theme)
108 minutes(1:48 hours)
DVD rental: 7 March 2001
