Hollow Man Movie
Storyline
TAGLINES
Think You're Alone? Think Again.
There's more to fear than you can see
You trust your eyes. You rely on your senses. You think you're alone. Think again.
Open your eyes
Think Invisible, Be Invisible
What would you do if you knew you couldn't be seen?
If you can't see him, if you can't find him, you can't stop him.
Elisabeth Shue is Linda Foster, a scientist who is working on a serum to make people invisible. When another scientist tries the serum and becomes invisible his colleagues figure another way to bring him back to the normal world.
| Kevin Bacon | Sebastian Caine |
| Elisabeth Shue | Linda McKay |
| Joey Slotnick | Frank Chase |
| William Devane | Dr. Howard Kramer |
| Josh Brolin | Matthew Kensington |
| Greg Grunberg | Carter Abbey |
| Mary Randle | Janice Walton |
| Kim Dickens | Sarah Kennedy |
| Rhona Mitra | Sebastian's Neighbor |
| Pablo Espinosa | Ed, Warehouse Guard |
| Margot Rose | Mrs. Martha Kramer |
| Jimmie F. Skaggs | Wino |
| Jeffrey Scaperrotta | Boy in Car |
| Sarah Bowles | Girl in Car |
| Kelli Scott | Mom |
| Paul Verhoeven |
5.30 out of 10 (23465 votes)
Visitor Reviews
SPOILERS
posted on 24 Aug 2009Going into this movie you know that this is movie has six lab technicians in a sealed lab with an invisible maniac. So right away you're guessing who will live and who will die. The survivors end up being exactly who you'd expect them to be, so no points for plot twists there.And if you're not sure if this is a B-movie or a movie that just happens to take place in a lab with an engaging story, William Devane plays a part: instant B-movie status.The movie is promising in the beginning. At the lab we are introduced to the invisible gorilla who is becoming increasingly violent. Oooh, foreboding. The best scene in the whole movie is when the lab team makes the gorilla visible again. Great special effects. Same thing when they make Bacon invisible.There are a couple of bare breasts, a really lame dirty joke and enough out of place swearing to give this movie an R-rating that it really didn't need.For a thriller there weren't really any surprises, except when Shue makes like MacGyver in the freezer, which is more of a 'Whaaaa?' OK, there is one surprise. That's when Caine (Bacon) comes back one last time in the elevator shaft. It was a surprise but only because you're yelling at TV, 'Noooo! You're dead already! End the movie!' Speaking of yelling at the TV,that's all I did for the last 25 minutes or so. 'Put on your f#@%ing goggles!' Instead of putting their infrared goggles on so that they can see him, they try every other trick in the book (fire extinguishers, sprinkler systems...).The story really lost it at the end. But the special effects were good; that's the only reason I give it a 2/10.
Good Start, Terrible Ending- SPOILER
posted on 22 Aug 2009Holly Man is actually a very good movie. The story doesn't make much sense because it starts to fall apart after about an hour into the movie, but it still keeps you on the edge of your seat. **SPOILER ALERT** The movie was well directed, until the ending. Making Kevin Bacon die was just not the right thing to do, it proved that their chemical products failed. In my opinion, Bacon (who plays Caine) should have come back to being visible at the end of the movie.The ending seems as if the director was either not allowed to make the movie go over a certain time so the finishing had to be very poor, or that there may be a sequel to it.As everyone who's seen it knows that when Bacon died, he was invisible as he fell into the fire. Maybe he could resist that heat?Well anyhow, I would rate this movie 8/10. It has great special effects, a much better story than The Matrix, and it is worth watching in the theaters. Don't wait for this to come out on video, you won't get the same feeling as you would in a cinema, and that, I can guarantee!
in a nutshell, SUCK, SUCK, SUCK
posted on 06 Aug 2009The only thing hollow about this movie was the plot, and my wallet after shelling out $9 to see it. What a waste of Kevin Bacon's talent to put him in such a poorly written, suspenseless movie. After being pumped up over previous weeks by watching real blockbusters like The Perfect Storm and X-men, I was thinking that there couldn't be a bad movie made this summer. WRONG. To those who haven't seen it yet, watch the commercials on TV on during movie trailers. It's the only action in the whole flick.
Mr. Bacon needs a new agent... *NOTHING BUT SPOILERS HERE*
posted on 29 Jul 2009Writing about bad movies usually threatens to become just a list, but filmmakers should provide an intelligent story along with creative special effects. Since Verhoeven breaks his side of the bargain, I feel blameless in forging ahead; why should I take more time with insightful, intelligent writing here than the screenwriters did?? The only way this movie could have been worse is it had starred Robin Williams and Ashley Judd.Questions:1. If the hollow man needed sunglasses to see properly, why didn't they just turn on every light? Wouldn't they have at least a small advantage?2. One scene Bacon had heated up the corridor to make the air temperature the same as his body so that the infrared goggles became useless. So of course the characters tossed them aside. Didn't it occur to any of them that the goggles might have been useful in other rooms with normal air temperature? And splitting up to search the premises while being stalked by a psycho? What, was there a sale at the Movie Cliche Store?3. Why did this movie have to dissolve into a Jason flick with a science bent? With all the millions available to the filmmakers, couldn't they be just a little more creative?4. If you were invisible, what would you do? Go on a rampage or screw with passersby on the street? I'd go see every movie and show in town, maybe go to a porno theatre, drive my nemeses crazy and then set off fire alarms and generally wreak gleeful havoc all over...5. What happened to the neighbor that Bacon attacked? And wouldn't the boss's drowning have raised any suspicion? 6. Maybe I missed it, but what exactly was the purpose of these experiments?7. Why did they have to kill off the two coolest supporting characters first? The black woman and the larger white guy were knocked off before the obnoxious vet chick, who was by far the worst actress in a mainstream science/action flick since Saphron Burrows in Deep Blue Sea.8. Why did all the murders have to be so gruesome and morally bankrupt, and shouldn't these bloody deaths have at least some emotional impact on the others? I've grown awfully weary of gratuitous bloodshed without purpose or consequence. They're your colleagues, and all you can do is look momentarily startled and move on? And what about all those caged animals that died fiery deaths in that explosion that the movie apparently forgot about? Awful.9. With a female as the film's lead character, shouldn't the producers have hired a director that sees woman as complex creatures instead of one that's a nasty misogynist (hence all the unnecessary boob shots here)? How about Kathryn Bigalow? Hell, Michael friggin' Bay would have been a better choice...10. It's been said before, but: Can Hollywood PLEASE find someone other than James Cameron who can combine stunning computer effects and a script with a brain and a soul????????Enough. Is this just another example of Hollywood's constant condescension towards the moviegoing public? Or is this what Americans really want from movies? Could be; Hollow Man made more than twice as much at the box office than Almost Famous and Requiem For a Dream combined. Shame on you, America!
Don't we all want films that raise our spirits? That provoke some kind of emotional response? Pile Hollow Man on top of the Special Effects Action Hit Garbage Pit with Armageddon, Godzilla, Charlie's Angels, The Perfect Storm, Species, Dante's Peak, and all the others I'm thankfully forgetting. Good night.Good special effects, though.2/10
Not a bad monster movie
posted on 27 Jul 2009A throw back to the 50's monster movies, Hollow man is not as bad as a lot of IMDB readers would have you believe. First of all the special effects are very good. Second, his brief encounters when he is on the outside were not only entertaining, but I would have liked to have seen more. What would any of you have done in his position? Third, the deflection of his mental state of mind that turns him into a monster is shown to be a combination of being locked up like a lab rat and the process of being Phase shifted for so long. All in all this is not one of the best Sci-fi move of all time but it was a lot better then most summer films.
Waste of great effects, and Adam Rifkin should sue!!!
posted on 23 Jul 2009The invisibility effects get a 9. Even when they fall down a little, they're still impressive.The rest of the movie gets a 3... the characters are all pretty well cliche (although I did like the vet character). Kevin Bacon plays a BAD GUY - the sort who doesn't need any motivation to go crazy. The movie makes some attempt to imply that invisibility affects the brain and makes creatures aggressive, but Bacon's character doesn't do anything while invisible that he wouldn't have done while visible, if he could get away with it. They just don't do very much in this movie. All the action could have taken place in an hour-long TV episode, and that's what it feels like. The action is confined to few locations without having any atmosphere (as compared to Alien, which was similarly confined but that added to the tension).Most importantly, this movie cannot be seen except in the context of Adam Rifkin's (as Rif Coogan) "Invisible Maniac". If you haven't seen it, look it up now! It is also about a scientist who goes crazy after injecting an invisibility serum, and in fact the opening voyeuristic shots of Hollow Man are very similar to the opening of Invisible Maniac. Rifkin's movie is a T&A comedy, but it's much more enjoyable than Hollow Man.
Hollow Man: **1/2
posted on 21 Jul 2009I really don't know what to say about this movie. I liked it, but I didn't, do you know what I mean? It starts out really well, but then just turns into your everyday slasher movie. The beginning scenes are great. They involve an invisible gorilla, Kevin Bacon turning invisible, and so on. The scenes where they show the person/gorilla become invisible are special effects at their best and the effects hold up until the grisly ending.The plot: Sebastian Caine (Bacon) has created a formula to make things invisible, he tests it out on a gorilla, a dog, and a chimp. Then he decides to do it to himself, with the help of Linda McKay (Elisabeth Shue) and Matthew Kensington (Josh Brolin). At first, the movie is "cool," but then it drifts away from that state. He goes crazy because something goes wrong and he starts to kill people, in hideous, gory ways (it is kinda fun to see who gets picked off next, though). The end is thrilling, but there's an absence of goodness between the beginning and the end. It's starts out good, but the quality of the movie dies down. Then at the end, it gets rather good again and you're disappointed to see the credits role up.
An old dog learns an SPFX new trick.
posted on 19 Jul 2009"Man turns Invisible. Man revels in it for a while. Man goes nuts." That's the story that HG Wells started, and has been carried through cinematic history to Verhoven's HOLLOW MAN. There are a couple glaring errors in the otherwise gorgeous and disturbingly real special effects. But other than that, the story is the same old thing with a year 2000 twist. There's only so much of this story that should ever come as a surprise to the viewer. The rest is just the Invisible Man genre/cliche.Elizabeth Shue is taking advantage of the fact that she's getting too old for the cutie-girl roles, and playing scientists now. She just needs to pick slightly more plausible movies in which to play a scientist. In this, she seems little more than a comely toy for Caine's uninhibited tendencies once he becomes invisible. SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT! .....Four important things that would've kept the people in HOLLOW MAN alive: 1) Tranquilize the gorilla BEFORE you make it invisible. 2) When you know well in advance that the invisibility serum causes erratic and aggressive behaviour, you put a transmitter or tracking device on your volunteer that he can't take off!
3) Don't answer the door wearing only your bathrobe if you can't see who rang the bell.
4) Do not turn your back on the invisible guy just because there's a camera on him! But to their credit, the scientists did have the presence of mind to start with fire extinguishers and sprinklers to give them a slightly more even chance against Sebastian Caine once he turns the whole thing into a game of cat and mouse.Best line: "It's amazing what you can do when you don't have to look at yourself in the mirror anymore."Funniest moment: Two children spot Caine in his car wearing his latex mask. Caine takes off his shades and opens his mouth, revealing nothing but the back of the mask through the holes to the children.Four stupid things in two hours isn't a bad average. The goofs in the SPFX were forgiveable in that the movie's rating was only PG-13. Bacon's performance was solid and believable. Shue needs to work on hers a bit.Oh, and the "enhanced strength and resilience" other reviewers here have complained about? That's not a flub. The insane or people on hard drugs [such as PCP] have exhibited berserker strength and resistance to injuries that would capacitate an ordinary person. The climax was a bit "suspend your disbelief," but isn't that true of all science-fiction?Six out of ten. Good enough for DVD on a dull afternoon.
Special effects with a laughable plot
posted on 29 Jun 2009The effects are extraordinary; the plot is dull. My son & I found ourselves laughing out loud at the "suspense" at the end: it was so predictable. In fact, all i could think of by the ending of the movie was the horror-film jokes. Tip: if you hit the bad guy in the head and he falls down, just walk away; he's probably dead and you probably won't regret it... until the next scene.Should you go? Only if you think Kevin Bacon is great.
Gee Whiz This Sucked..!
posted on 09 Jun 2009A am not a fan of Kevin Bacon, and after seeing this, have no feelings towards Elisabeth Shue, they both do poorly in this film, but it doesnt only evolve around them, the writing in this film was hideous, and they took advantage of what seemed to be a good idea, and turned Hollow Man into one Hollow film.The plot is basically about a bunch of scientists that can make animals invisible, but the creator (Bacon) wants to test the product on himself, and after this the film drops down quicker than a rollercoaster, Bacon turns into an invisible pervert, groping breasts, raping women, lifting skirts and turning into a psycho, its all so dumb!Elisabeth Shue to me, is now a bad actresses and grabs any script thats thrown at her, im dissapointed with that, and the movies ending, brace yourself.....Pull your hair out.....Smash the TV, do whatever you want...Because i know it would get an angry response. DO NOT WATCH HOLLOW MAN! This movie sucked the big one!ACTING: Awful, by all the cast, no exceptions....I was especially dissapointed with Shue, as i didnt expect any better from Bacon, very bad acting indeed.ACTORS: Not good, Kevin Bacon i simply have no faze with him or his career, Shue i did like..But not after this, and a few other people you may recognize, i guess they all deserved each other for this film.SCRIPT: Extremelly lame, they turned a good idea, into a perverted one...Im a male, and even seeing all that rape and groping made me feel all weird, cause it seemed wrong..The screenwriters must have been drunk or felt frisky!CINEMA: Good, the special effects were nice and there was some good camera-work in the film, but this was the only high point of this lame excuse of a movie.THRILLS: Low.....it was all pretty predictable, and the film was even boring at times, and during the "Thrilling" moments, expect nothing, maybe a small jump, but that jump is from the angry adrenalin in your body! Plain boring.MUSIC: Fair at most, there wasnt much music used in the film, and the music wasnt composed too well wither, they didnt seem to put them in the right moments, making the film more sluggish.OVERALL: If your'e a Kevin Bacon/ Elisabeth Shue fan, you might watch this, but you will HATE this! Its such a perverted dirty sily little film, jam packed with bad acting and a lame bottomed script...Avoid this like a speeding train!1/2 (half a star out of 5)
Hi, kids! Today's word is "insipid"
posted on 05 Jun 2009We just got back from seeing this movie, and our reaction, in a word, is "Wow." The special effects are very impressive (the scene of a fully mature gorilla appearing cell by cell and corpuscle by corpuscle certainly raised my eyebrows), and the action sequences kept the story going, but unfortunately, there wasn't much of a story to maintain. This took science fiction into the realm of movie magic, with so many liberties taken with natural laws they are too numerous to list completely, but here are a few choice samples: (spoiler warning!!)-- Not much detail on how they make him invisible (some mention of unstable DNA sequences and "quantum shifting," concepts from two completely unrelated fields -- is there something biological which makes him invisible, or is it optical physics? Who knows?-- Why use an animal twice your size for a serum which could affect the mental stability of the subject? Instead of a gorilla, another simian such as a rhesus monkey would do.-- If you're standing in a puddle of water and the guy next to you shoves a crowbar into an electrical distribution panel and electrocutes himself, shouldn't you dance the light fantastic right along with him?-- The laboratory explodes with an enormous fireball, yet (of course) our hero and heroine don't get singed, the fire doesn't produce any smoke inside the elevator shaft they're trapped inside until they stumble out into the light of day probably half an hour later, it doesn't even touch the invisible man (who apparently is fireproof, too), tosses an elevator car casually up at them, to come to rest (conveniently enough) inches above them, and the pressure wave from the explosion doesn't even pop their ears.-- Oh, yeah, and how about that explosion? The nitroglycerine Caine cooked up was in a centrifuge with a timer on it... okay, I'll push the "I believe" button on that one, but in all the labs I've worked in, centrifuges are powered by AC... so even though the control console was wrecked, what stopped them from UNPLUGGING IT??Aside from the fact that I've always had a hard time envisioning Elizabeth Shue as a scientist (her role as a particle physicist in "The Saint" was bad enough), this is just a glossy summer blockbuster heavy on budget and light on substance, where dedicated, workaholic eggheads still seem to squeeze enough time in their busy schedules to work out regularly, get a tan, and ensure their hair is perfectly coifed. In addition, the screenwriter neatly sidesteps all the ethical issues and moral dilemmas that could and should have interrupted the story long enough to give everyone pause and make them reconsider their actions. Add to that a certain breast fixation, and you've got all the makings of a movie that appeals to the twelve year olds in the audience, but to anyone with half a brain and more than an eighth grade education, this will be a waste of time and money. The Sci-Fi Channel's Invisible Man series is better done with probably half the budget. Kevin Bacon and Elizabeth Shue do what they can to keep the audience interested, but even they can't save this ship. Bottom line: wait till it comes out on video... and let someone else pay for it.
Pretty much as good as Kevin Bacon can get
posted on 05 Jun 2009A nice story line, brilliant special effects, exciting unkillable-bad-guy fights, and trademark Verhoeven style. What more could you ask for?Well, let's start at the obvious. Although the actors do very well, I'm not certain that we've been given the best possible human props for this special effects masterpiece. Compare with Total Recall - the previous reigning special effects action spectacular - and you'll see what I mean. Schwarzenegger, Stone, Ironside... it's a formidable crew. Kevin Bacon does his best, and he does it well. He's quite believable as a corrupted genius, and of course he's invisible for a good portion of the film. Perhaps the problem is his invisibility.The main character in this film is clearly the villain. It doesn't happen too often, and people complain that they want a film from the evil perspective. Well, here it is. Unfortunately the story is biased against Bacon's character, and we don't barrack strongly for him at any stage throughout the film. His invisible antics are interesting (or exciting depending on your tastes) but we are always wary of his actions rather than enjoying his destructive attitude.Nevertheless, both the actors and the story take a backseat to the special effects. Some of the computer work done in this film has not been bettered as I write, three years later - it is that good. Impressive considering some other hype films (think Star Wars) fail to surpass the realism of the invisible Bacon character at times.Worth seeing for the special effects. The 'what would you do?' element may appeal to some, and the typical sci-fi storyline of being trapped and picked off one by one is reliable as always.8/10 and a big smile.
Better than I expected
posted on 01 Jun 2009I was afraid the makers of this movie would take the old "invisible man" formula, known since H. G. Wells, and turn it into a boring show of special effects with no script. They didn't! In fact, they managed to make a good, tense thriller (although soooo many goofs were made in it... :), perfect to end the summer with. And - maybe that's the most important thing about the movie - Kevin Bacon once again makes a, excuse the pun, very good bad guy. Two invisible thumbs up! :)
Benign updating of an old saw
posted on 01 Jun 2009I kind of like the small but periodically revived 'invisible man' genre,and I thought this was a decent, modestly imaginative updating ofthe basic schtick, albeit without much of the reflection of someearlier versions. Ignore the implausibility of a top governmentresearch project run by six attractive 20-30 somethings, OK? It willonly make your head hurt.The twists this version bring out of the old saw are that KevinBacon's character, Sebastien, acts a little more overtly on theimplicit possibilities of walking around naked and invisible. Sincehis friends and colleagues who turn into his nemeses are anex-girlfriend and her secret lover, there's a lot of possibility impliedin the initial set-up. The action-finale leaves a bit to be desired,and I suspect the filmmakers decided they couldn't quite take thelogical step of going completely over the top in the direction ofsexual predation (although there's one kind of extraneous, andtherefore somewhat offensive, victimization of a female characterwho is utterly uninvolved with the plot).The film would've been a lot better had they decided to go the'American Werewolf in London' route and add in a lot ofgenre-twiddling comedy to go with the usual horror and actionelements. The special effects are pretty cool sometimes, particularly thesolution to the age-old question about invisible movies about whythe invisible man always just disappears (he doesn't, annd that'swhere the cool effects come in.)I can only give it a mild recommendation if you like movies in thegenre, need a mild brain candy escape, or want to see KevinBacon's package in false color visualization.
Best Special FX EVER!!
posted on 01 Jun 2009This movie should have been the easiest pick for the Academy Award of Best Special Effects by far. No movie has ever achieved greater special effects in this movie, for example: 1.) When they make the gorilla visible again/Sebastian invisible 2.) Making the blood appear on him as it is thrown by the vet 3.) When Matt sprays the fire extinguisher on Sebastian which makes him visible 4.) AND THE GREATEST ACHEIVEMNT BY THIS MOVIE- When Sebastian goes to the commitee member's house, fights with him in the pool and then kills him, the way they made him appear in the pool was incredible!! Paul Verhoeven I admit has made some extremely provocative films in the past that went unoticed and unappreciated but this should not be included in that group. I know all of you might remind about the Matrix, however, that is VISUAL effects which is a totally different thing. Even so, the Matrix still didn't have better effects than Hollow Man anyway.
It's Verhoeven. That's all you need to know.
posted on 30 May 2009I enjoyed Totall Recall, Starship Troopers and of course the classic Robocop. I really did. But this one...Hollow Man could have been waaaay better. All the 'usual' clichés are here: The corny one-liners, the use of medical terms because they sound professional, the computer screens with impossible depictions of 'security programs' (one scene had me laughing out loud, just remember the words 'stable' and 'unstable', then you should know what I'm referring to). All this I was willing to accept had the story or characters been any good. But they aren't, they're just a substandard rehash of other, better movies. No attempt is made to let us care about the people that, in the latter part of the movie, are dropping like flies(deaths that can be seen coming miles ahead), they're just 'innocent scientists' and Sebastian Caine, the one who becomes invisible, is the bad guy.But that's still not the biggest problem...the biggest problem lies in the fact that this movie thinks it's being serious. Verhoeven's other sci-fi works certainly didn't!! Hollow Man tries to be somewhat true, serious entertainment, but all the clichés only make it look like a really bad film, which, in the end, it is.This movie has a lot of special effects. That's of course the reason why anyone would see it in the first place. The scenes with the gorilla and Caine reappearing and disappearing are the best, without a doubt. One small thing: While watching the video I noticed a bit of unfilled greenscreen at the bottom, during the scene where the gorilla is brought back. It's only proof of how fast this movie was supposed to be made, and that it was made only to cash in some quick bucks at the box office.In the end, crap. Try not to waste money on it unless you have to.
Makes "Showgirls" look like "Goodfellas"
posted on 26 May 2009Note: This review contains minor spoilers, though there isn't much to spoil and you'll be doing yourself a huge favor if you read the review instead of seeing the movie.I don't think I've ever rushed this fast to give something a bad review in the IMDB.I keep trying to go back to what I could have been thinking when I selected this at the rental store. I heard a lot of bad things about it, enough to keep me from seeing it in the theater. Maybe what stuck in my mind were a few people saying it had one or two really good FX scenes, and also Kevin Bacon's diary of the filming, which made it sound so grueling and unpleasant that I felt some pity for him and thought I should give it a chance. Big mistake. Big, BIG mistake.Most of the other reviews say it all...but I need to write down how bad this movie is and hopefully purge it from my system. You know, I don't ask for the impossible when I sit down to watch a movie. All I really want from a movie, at minimum, is to be entertained or to escape for 90 minutes or so. The movie started out OK but after the gorilla scene, and the two other invisible transformation scenes, it really went downhill. And got worse.Oh yeah, in case you haven't seen the trailer, or read a review, the plot is: a group of scientists is working on an invisibility formula, for the government. The leader of the project is smart, but an arrogant jerk. He meddles with mother nature (another no-no in a scary movie) and deliberately deceives people who trust him (again, another mistake) so the formula can be tested on him as the first human. You'll never guess what happens then: things go horribly wrong! People turn to murder! Disaster strikes! You waste 2 hours of your time and a rental fee because you should have just watched the trailer, which gave the whole plot away anyway!I had low expectations for this movie-all I wanted was for something to surprise me, or there to be a special effect or shock that made me watch the scene/moment again a couple times. Or at least want to. For instance, "Deep Blue Sea" was stupid and mainly lame, but at least had that one big surprise (you know the one I mean-I won't give it away like someone did to me before I saw it). Nope.I didn't find any of the characters likeable. Sorry, but I don't have too much respect for any character in a horror/thriller movie that does any of the following: 1. walks backward when they know they are in danger 2. turns their back on someone dangerous that they've conked/injured and strolls away without checking to see if they've really been incapacitated 3. immediately separates when they first realize they are in an isolated area being stalked by someone or 4. says something to the effect of "well, I'm glad *that's* over" when things obviously aren't-and if you've seen even one other scary movie, everyone knows this is always a precursor to the villain/monster immediately swooping down on them again or lunging into frame. This movie has ALL of the above-which I could overlook if the movie was at least slightly entertaining (Bruce Campbell in any of the Evil Dead movies usually does all of the above, but makes it fun to watch, to name just one example).Also-and I see by the other reviews that I'm not alone here- I get really insulted when, especially on top of all the other crap, a villain conveniently becomes indestructible in the last half hour or so with no explanation. About every possible debilitating injury happens to him and it doesn't seem to slow him down. All that was missing was him being shot and the bullets bouncing off him.I expected there to be one interesting or memorable concept, especially since (I thought at the time) the movie had such meticulous attention to detail and seemed to take a very high-tech, scientific approach to the story. The trailers and background info on the making of this film, plus how long it took in post-production, gave me that impression. The reviews gave it more credit than it had. I was at first slightly interested in the fact that an invisible character couldn't close their eyes, because they had transparent eyelids. I never thought of that! Hmmm, maybe they came up with some other cool twists. That's about as interesting as it gets, and the only new idea they came up with. (then, that got shot all to hell, because about 1 minute later it occurred to me that the person could wear a sleep mask, or go in a completely blacked-out room). A person graphically stripped of all their layers, reminding you (if you're old enough) of the 'visible man' kit you had as a kid? Been done before (though not as well technically as in this movie). A gorilla doing the same thing? OK, that hasn't been done before, at least not that I know of, but that's maybe 30 seconds that are slightly interesting. Let's face it, you thinking "hey, good CGI" occasionally is not enough to build a good movie on- in fact, it's pretty sad.I would run out of room if I went into even half of the continuity errors. Just look at the goofs page-I think I've seen one other movie in the IMDB that had a goofs page that long. Now, I'm the type of person who people have to point out continuity errors to before I notice them. Here I noticed ones I didn't even LOOK for. What happened? Did they run out of time? Money? The studio rushed them? What's really depressing is someone probably noticed, but they either were too lacy to care or figured the audience would be so impressed with the CGI that their IQs would drop about 50 points and they'd miss it. Not to beat a dead horse, but if the movie had a character that was interesting, or if any scenes surprised me, or entertained me, I could overlook it being stupid and built around some 'ground-breaking' CGI. Yes, I know what a 'popcorn movie/turn off your brain movie' is, where you just sit back and enjoy the mindless ride. Starship Troopers, Total Recall, Scary Movie- *those* are popcorn movies. It's also not a camp/so bad it's good type movie. Showgirls, Mommy Dearest, Glen or Glenda- those are ones you can sit and make fun of with your friends. No, instead The Hollow Man is just a waste of everyone's time and money, and that's putting it in way more polite terms than I want to.I would only recommend this if you are a CGI/FX junkie,if you thought "Armageddon" and "Patch Adams" were deep, insightful masterpieces and and you didn't understand why everyone said anything bad about them, or if you really have the hots for Kevin Bacon (though skip the 'becoming invisible' scene, among others, if you don't want to get completely turned off). Interesting premise that goes absolutely nowhere. You have been warned!!
good special effects but nothing else
posted on 26 May 2009this had great special effects but nothing else i hated this flick it totally wastes Kevin bacon and the plot is horrid and has an inane ending anyway i am not going to waste my time any more on this flick*1/2 out of 5 for the special effects otherwise this would get a BOMB
this is worth the ticket
posted on 24 May 2009When i first saw the trailer of this movie i stayed very exited,it was going to be one of the best movie ever i tought,well i was wrong,i was expecting an horror movie and i found an sci-fi one,the story wasnt so original because the invisible man has been used many times in movies,even tough this movie is like 7out of 10 and is worththe ticket and its also the best invisible man film i ever saw,and its also the one who has the best sound,best special effects(the best since matrix)and the best invisible man,kevin bacon,the only thing that let me a little bit nervous was elizabeth shue that looks like a frightened bunny,but she had her good moments,even tough she wasnt in the best one, the pool scene where sebastian murders his boss.Anyway the movie is great i had a great time watching it,verhoeven was also great as always,and i think everybody should check it out.Me? i already bought the dvd.
hollow acting
posted on 26 Aug 20092 minutes into the movie and I was laughing at how wooden the acting was. Then....it got worse. I was looking forward to this movie...it had been well-hyped, and I like Kevin Bacon and Elisabeth Shue, but the trailer is certainly better than the feature. I never believed that these people were scientists - they were too damned stupid. But I did learn a few things:1) Turning people invisible is easy (quote from the movie).2) When you're invisible, and you could do so many things in such a state, all you'll really want to do is touch boobs.3) Related to #2, it seems that when you're invisible, the women that you're molesting can't really feel it, as they do not wake up during your fondling fest.4) Becoming invisible not only imparts super-human strength to you, but you can also survive having your head bashed in, being burned to a crisp, being electrocuted, etc. Think of the fun!5) Our insides actually look computer-rendered, like part of a Playstation game.6) I will never again pay to see a Paul Verhoeven movie. No way.Why did I rate this movie a 2, even though it is in my top 3 for worst movies ever? Rhona Mitra. Holy cow, she's hot.