Two out of
five stars
Mad Scientist works out how to become invisible and reeks mayhem on his co-workers. An invisible gorilla helps things a long too!.
Enjoyably trashy, violent, voyeuristic sci-fi horror flick from the director
of "Basic Instinct" and "RoboCop".
The pitch for this film must have been: ‘What if the Invisible Man was a
megalomaniacal pervert BEFORE he became invisible?’
Kevin Bacon is perfectly cast as Sebastian Caine, your archetypal Mad Scientist, who has already invented the Invisibility Serum before the movie even begins, but is having a little trouble with the re-visibility formula.
Sure enough, he tests the serum on himself, decides he actually rather LIKES being invisible and is soon running around using his new-found powers to fondle women’s breasts and kill off his co-workers (led by Elisabeth Shue and Josh Brolin).
Paul Verhoeven is known for two things: sleaze (Basic Instinct, Showgirls) and sci-fi (Total Recall, RoboCop, Starship Troopers), and here he’s found the perfect film to fuse and indulge his twin passions. Fortunately, he knows his stuff.
Hollow Man may be just a trashy big-budget Saturday night ‘B’ Movie, but it delivers the goods. Sure, the script is uneven and you
could spend hours pointing out all the plot-holes, but who cares? The
special-effects are astonishing and have to be seen to be believed,
especially in the two key transformation scenes.
It is also, thankfully, not without humour, although the violence may be too strong for some tastes. Still, it’s the only film you’ll ever see with an invisible gorilla named Isabelle. Probably!