Hollow Man
Hollow Movie
By Christopher Welch

: : : Our Rating : : :

I came up with a theory a while back. To be in a Paul Verhoeven film you have to be willing to do two things. Get bloody, and get naked. This theory can be evidenced in practically all his movies from Basic Instinct to Starship Troopers. Hollow Man the director's latest orgy of over the top violence and sex is no different.

One can't help but think that the studio making this film made a mistake by releasing this movie so late in the summer. This film would have been much better suited to be released sometime in the May, or June time frame, and I think that the final box office take may reflect that error. Hollow Man is the consummate summer movie. It is loaded to the teeth with spectacular special effects, lots of action, hot women, good looking men, and an easily quotable villain, unencumbered by all the emotional, and intellectual baggage of your Oscar time releases. Plain, and simple Hollow Man is a lot of fun. You can sit back in the nice cool theater, and take your mind off the troubles of the world for two hours. That's what summer movies are all about.

If you go into this film expecting a deep psychological exploration of the effects of being invisible, like in H.G. Wells' classic novel The Invisible Man, on which the film is very loosely based, you'll be disappointed. The film lacks any real emotional depth, and not a whole heck of a lot of characterization. If you expect a special effects laden joy ride, then it delivers everything you expect and nothing you don't. If you've seen even a few Paul Verhoeven films then you should expect lots, and lots of blood, and gore. Any doubt as to how timid this movie might be, is alleviated within the first minute of the film when you see a rat get eaten by an invisible gorilla. From then on we get to see a break down of ape, and human anatomy several times, and then lots, and lots of grizzly deaths towards the last part of the film.

Now if you're like me, you'll find a lot of this violence more humorous than disturbing. Practically everything in all of Verhoeven's films is so over the top, its really hard to take it seriously. Mind you this film is a bit more on the serious side than say the utterly laughable, but totally enjoyable, Starship Troopers, but there are enough overly done moments to help you to realize that its all in the name of good, not so clean fun.

As far as the performances go Kevin Bacon makes for a pretty fun, but not all that complex villain. Elizabeth Shue is a little better than normal, and pulls an okay Sigourney Weaver in Aliens like turn in the last act of the film. Josh Brolin does a good job of sitting around, looking macho, and the rest of the cast is basically just corpses waiting to happen. Is Hollow Man a film that will be remembered years down the line? Probably not. In fact the most attention this film may get is come Oscar time, because I could very easily see it being nominated for best special effects. Other than that its just a whole lot of eye candy, but good eye candy at that. Mind you come late November when you've seen every sappy, tear fest Hollywood has to throw at you, you could be begging for some mindless entertainment like this, so enjoy it while it lasts.