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"Horrible
'Man'"
by Scott Mantz
"Hollow Man"
Kevin Bacon, Elisabeth Shue
Directed by Paul Verhoven
If there's anything
that can be said about director Paul Verhoven, it's that he loves
the sight of blood. His past few movies, especially "Starship Troopers,"
"Robocop," and "Total Recall," were just as notable for their gruesome
depiction of violence as they were for their groundbreaking special
effects (heck, even "Showgirls" was bloody--as in bloody awful).
With the visually impressive "Hollow Man," Verhoven sticks with
the genre that he knows best, but for a movie with so much blood,
it sure doesn't have any guts.
Sebastian Caine
(Kevin Bacon) and his team of government funded scientists have
just completed the next step in their experiments on invisibility,
but they need a human test subject to try it out. Sebastian volunteers,
but once he becomes invisible, he can't reverse the process. After
a few days of dead-end experiments, he starts to take advantage
of his newfound situation (e specially when it comes to spying on
his sexy neighbor). When Sebastian's emotional stability starts
to deteriorate, the scientists, including ex-girlfriend Linda Foster
(Elisabeth Shue), threaten to pull the plug on the whole project.
Sebastian will do anything--even kill--to keep that from happening.
What separates
Paul Verhoven from his peers is his dark and ironic approach towards
mankind's sadistic treatment of themselves and other species. He
may have hit you over the head with it in "Starship Troopers," but
he still displayed man's inability to realize that the so-called
enemy was just like them. In "Robocop," the desire to control violence
in the city was such a major issue that it didn't matter how many
people were killed in the process. How's that for irony?
That sort of
biting sarcasm is evident in at least the first half of "Hollow
Man." Once again, man's inappreciation for other species is demonstrated
by the lack of compassion the scientists have for the lab animals.
Even when one of the animal-loving scientist (played by Kim Dickens)
shows concern for the most recent test subject, she is chastised
for caring more about the subjects than the science. Maybe this
is another example of Verhoven's way of disturbing the audience
into thinking more about its own nature, but once the story begins
to take shape (or lack thereof) that inflection is rejected in favor
of bad storytelling. There's no doubt that the special effects are
awe-inspiring, but with today's movie magic, it's too easy to overlook
that in favor of a good story, which is where the movie becomes,
well, hollow.
For at least
a little while, "Hollow Man" bears a striking resemblance to the
1986 version of "The Fly." Both main characters are borderline mad
scientists who are so wrapped up in their work that they don't know
the first thing about maintaining a personal relationship. When
the main experiments transform our heroes into the monsters that
they become, they embrace the rush with a sort of egomaniacal God
complex that makes them unreasonable even in the eyes of their supporters.
But where "The Fly" took a closer look at the transformation of
the human condition, "Hollow Man" reveals a character who's motive
and sympathy are as invisible as his appearance. What little depth
that is provided in the beginning is erroneously set aside in favor
of ineffective suspense, trivial dialogue, and a lame slasher-pic
type of ending.
That's too bad,
because beyond the impressive (and anatomically detailed) visual
effects, the best thing about the film is the stellar performance
from Kevin Bacon. By now, Bacon has appeared in so many movies that
the "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" game has just gotten a little easier,
but just as he did in last year's underrated "Stir of Echoes," Bacon
gives a top-notch performance that doesn't take itself too seriously.
In fact, it's only when he becomes invisible that the power of his
vocal inflection is convincingly delivered.
As for the rest
of the cast, none of them are given enough depth to make you care
about what happens to them. Elisabeth Shue ventures into Sigourney
Weaver-like territory as the damsel in distress who rises to the
occasion to save the day. The bravura she put into 1996's "Leaving
Las Vegas" is lacking here, but that's clearly not what the movie
is going for. Josh Brolin (a virtual lookalike for "Darma and Greg's"
Thomas Gibson) plays by the numbers as Shue's supportive boyfriend,
while Greg Grunberg, Mary Jo Randle, Steve Altes, and Kim Dickens
round out the team of one-dimensional scientists that start dropping
off like flies.
After an intense,
disturbing, and thought-provoking buildup, "Hollow Man" falls apart,
thanks to overused clichÈs, poor structure, and a rushed climax
that feels like the filmmakers dug themselves into a hole. It's
almost as if "Hollow Man" is two films at once--a morality play
on humanity, followed by an unintentionally funny slasher pic. For
a film that's about an invisible man, it's too bad that the filmmakers
saw right through the flaws in the script. How ironic is that?
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