Hollow Man (Director’s Cut)
Columbia Pictures Hollow Man (Director’s Cut) [Blu-ray]In Paul Verhoeven’s appropriately shallow Hollow Man, KevinBacon plays a bad-boy egotistical scientist who heads up a double-secret government team experimenting with turning life-forms invisible. How do we know he’s a bad boy? Because he (a) wears a leatherovercoat, (b) compares himself to God, (c) drivesa sports car, and (d) spies on his comely next-door neighbor while eating Twinkies. Sadly, this is the most character development anyone gets in thisundernourished action/sci-fi thriller, which boasts some amazing special effects and some amazinglyridiculous plot twists. After experimenting rather ruthlessly on a menagerie of lab animals, Bacon finally cracks the code that will turn the invisible gorillas, dogs, and so on, back into their visible forms. Does it work on humans? Faster than youcan say ”six degrees,” Mr. Bacon appoints himselfhuman guinea pig, strapping down for an injectionof fluorescent-colored serum. Thanks to some phenomenal, seamless and Oscar-worthy computer effects, Bacon is indeed rendered invisible, organ by organ, vein by vein. And what’s the first thing you’ddo if you were invisible? Why, spy on your femalecoworkers in the bathroom and molest your comely next-door neighbor, of course! Soon, Bacon is thoroughly psychotic, and it’s up to Elisabeth Shue (Bacon’s coworker and ex-girlfriend) and hunky Josh Brolin (her current snuggle bunny) to defeat the invisible man, who’s picking off the science team one by one. You’d think this would be a prime opportunity for copious amounts of cheesy sex and aggressive violence–which Verhoeven served up so well and so exuberantly in Starship Troopers and Basic Instinct–but if anything, the director seems to tone down the proceedings, and really, who wants a muted Paul Verhoeven movie? Shue (who got top billing and a bad haircut to boot) and Brolin (who, yes, does take off his shirt at least once) gene
