|
 Director
: Paul Verhoeven
Starring
: Kevin Bacon, Elisabeth Shue, Josh Brolin, Kim Dickens,
Greg Grunberg, Mary Randle.
Picture
1.85:1 Anamorphic, DD 5.1, Single Side Dual-Layer, Keep
Case
Running
Time : 111 mins
The
story:
Think
you're alone? Think again!
After
years of experimentation, Dr. Sebastian Caine (Kevin Bacon),
a brilliant but arrogant and egotistical scientist working
for the Defense Department, has successfully transformed
mammals to an invisible state and brought them back to their
original physical form. Determined to achieve the ultimate
breakthrough, Caine instructs his team to move on to Phase
III: human experimentation. Using himself as the first subject,
the invisible Caine finds himself free to do the unthinkable.
But Caine's experiment takes an unexpected turn when his
team can't bring him back. As the days pass, he grows more
and more out of control, doomed to a future without flesh
as the Hollow Man..
The
summary:
Paul
Verhoeven has a reputation for bringing us good-looking
films and always makes good use of the latest special-effect
techniques available at the time. Robocop was amazing in
it's day and Starship Troopers remains one of the top sellers
even today. You'll be pleased to hear that Hollow Man doesn't
pull any punches - visually at least. Pushing the SFX to
the limit, particularly the scene in which the gorilla gradually
becomes invisible is nothing short of stunning. The level
of detail used in the effects is amazing and a tribute to
the special effects team. Sadly the same cannot be said
of the story. Given the basic premise of an invisible man,
the options open to the storywriters are almost endless.
What would YOU do if you were invisible? The mind boggles,
yet the invisible Dr Sebastian Caine can think of nothing
better to do than visit his neighbour and then obediently
return back to base.
The
action is set almost entirely within the confines of the
laboratory which seems a shame to restrict the story in
this way. In truth Hollow Man turns out to be a rather dull
affair that relies almost entirely upon the merits of the
special effects. The acting is quite unbelievable at times,
yet this has more to do with the script than the actors.
Things don't improve by the time the film reaches it's disappointing
conclusion. Why must baddies always become "superhuman"
before they expire? We'll never know.
Despite
it's shortcomings, Hollow Man is perfectly suited to DVD.
Not that we want the DVD market to become flooded with shoddy
titles, but Hollow Man is visually stunning and looks almost
immaculate when viewed on DVD. It's another excellent Columbia
transfer and boasts a fair number of extras on the disc,
but we're still unconvinced that you'd want to watch this
more than once or twice.
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