Product Description
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What would you do if you were invisible? How far would you go?
After years of experimentation, Dr. Sebastian Caine, 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 as the HOLLOW MAN. Kevin Bacon, Elisabeth Shue and
Josh Brolin star in this intense thriller filled with extreme
suspense, terrifying twists and incredible special effects.
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In Paul Verhoeven's appropriately shallow Hollow Man, Kevin
Bacon plays a bad-boy egotistical scientist who heads up a
double-secret government team experimenting with turning
life-forms invisible. How do we know he's a bad boy? Because he
(a) wears a leather overcoat, (b) compares himself to God, (c)
drives a sports car, and (d) spies on his comely next-door
neighbor while eating Twinkies. Sadly, this is the most character
development anyone gets in this undernourished action/sci-fi
thriller, which boasts some amazing special effects and some
amazingly ridiculous plot twists. After experimenting rather
ruthlessly on a menagerie of lab animals, Bacon finally cracks
the code that will turn the invisible gorillas, dogs, and so on,
back into their visible forms. Does it work on humans? Faster
than you can say "six degrees," Mr. Bacon appoints himself human
guinea pig, strapping down for an injection of
fluorescent-colored serum. Thanks to some phenomenal, seamless
and O-worthy computer effects, Bacon is indeed rendered
invisible, organ by organ, vein by vein. And what's the first
thing you'd do if you were invisible? Why, on your female
coworkers in the bathroom and molest your comely next-door
neighbor, of course! Soon, Bacon is thoroughly psychotic, and
it's up to Elisabeth Shue (Bacon's coworker and ex-girlfriend)
and hunky Josh Brolin (her current snuggle bunny) to defeat the
invisible man, who's picking off the science team one by one.
You'd think this would be a prime rtunity for copious as
of cheesy sex and aggressive violence--which Verhoeven served up
so well and so exuberantly in Starship Troopers and Basic
Instinct--but if anything, the director seems to tone down the
proceedings, and really, who wants a muted Paul Verhoeven movie?
Shue (who got top billing and a bad haircut to boot) and Brolin
(who, yes, does take off his shirt at least once) generate little
heat, and while Bacon does give an effective, primarily
voice-oriented performance, his character is so underdeveloped
that, well, you can see right through him. --Mark Englehart