Hollow Man

Review

Hollow Man poster

Haven't We Seen This Before?

[Introduction] Columbia Tri-Star's August release "Hollow Man" might well be the only horror film inspired by H.G. Wells, David Cronenberg, Ridley Scott, and of course, Plato (if you believe the director, and why the hell not?). But for all of its digital wizardry and a gleefully gory climax, "Hollow Man" left this viewer wondering: if it's a movie about invisibility, then how come so much of it LOOKS familiar?

Let's face it, no one expects a yarn about turning transparent to be "Magnolia", just a good scary time at the movies. But it's the 21st century, already--in many ways we're LIVING science fiction, every day. So why can't most filmmakers get past this tiresome "trapped in a lab" schtick that's been around since Bela Lugosi conceived of "The Devil Bat"? Countless genre films have relied on this tried-n-true scenario to generate unnerving suspense: witness the claustrophobic chills of John Carpenter's "The Thing", James Cameron's visionary "The Abyss", and even Renny Harlin's fun "Deep Blue Sea" from last summer. But unlike those films, which respectively offered nihilistic wintry paranoia, some truly moving character drama, and knowing wit alongside requisite spectacular FX, "Hollow Man" plays more like a Roger Corman programmer. And I'm talking the Roger Corman of "Carnosaur 2" infamy, here, and not the mogul behind exploitation jewels like "Piranha" and "Humanoids From The Deep". The Syd Field-patented script by hack-du-jour Andrew Marlowe ("Airforce One", "End Of Days") is merely serviceable to its intriguing premise, and more the stuff of a late night Sci Fi Channel filler starring Andrew Stevens and Joan Severance. The only time I empathized with Kevin Bacon's arrogant Sebastian Cain was when he complained to his ex-girlfriend/lab partner Elisabeth Shue that he was going out of his mind being cooped up in the lab. Now, my eyelids might not be transparent, but after an hour-plus of watching people walk up and down corridors, I was right there with him!

Fortunately, Cain does escape from the below-Washington maze long enough to shed his creepy latex faux-skin and terrorize a neighboring Maxim girl (sporting the finest visible acting talents modern medical science can provide--above ground), before moving on to his hard-boiled boss, played by William Devane (sporting a flat-top worthy of Mickey Spillane, this one God-given). You've seen the payoffs of these two sequences in the trailer. Regrettably, like so many other films this year, you've more or less seen the entire film in the trailer!

At times, one senses that Marlowe and Verhoeven were taking cues from 1986 remake of "The Fly" by placing a romantic triangle at the forefront of a potentially schlocky premise. But where Jeff Goldblum crafted a sympathetic character struggling to maintain his humanity in Cronenberg's classic, Bacon's mad scientist is simply a jerk who becomes even MORE of a jerk once transformed. Perhaps if Cain had been a nerd, or a misunderstood genius, we would've reveled in his revenge scheme ala "Carrie", instead of regarding him as little more than a translucent, crowbar wielding bogeyman.

Verhoeven has been quoting liberally from "The Republic" in many of his promotional interviews and I suppose one can see his Inner Academic's attraction to the material (Bacon's formula, like the invisibility ring, brings out its user's most primal, antisocial instincts). But whatever subtext the film could've had is completely diluted by marble-mouthed pseudo-scientific gibberish, interchangeable supporting (read: dead meat) characters, credibility-straining "McGyver"isms, and another zombified performance by Elisabeth Shue, who somehow convinced someone to cast her as a "brilliant" scientist in a major motion picture for the SECOND time (I cannot help but laugh every time I recall her explanation of Cold Fusion in the remake of "The Saint"). Is it me, or has Shue stopped blinking entirely since she was Oscar-nominated for "Leaving Las Vegas"?

Too bad, because with his sophomore American film "Robocop" in 1987, Verhoeven managed to produce an original high-concept action flick that transcended its hokey title and perfectly melded then-state-of-the-art FX with the go-for-broke sensibility of his previous Dutch productions. Ditto 1990's "Total Recall", in which he delivered the body slams and bad puns Schwarzenegger fans had come to expect (demand?), while maintaining the integrity and cerebral twists of the Philip K. Dick short story on which it was based. With 1997's "Starship Troopers", Verhoeven created his most ambitious and subversive epic yet--an unlikely (though successful) combination of spaceships-n'-rayguns space opera and pitch-black antiwar satire. At the time of its release, I described the film to skeptics as "Battlestar Galactica meets Dr. Strangelove" (I'll stick to it and hope that time redeems my reputation <g>). It was my hope that "Hollow Man" would prove to be that film's smaller scale, character-based equal, but Verhoeven's ambitions weren't quite so high this time. He's admitted that sci-fi filmmaking is wearying, and he told American Cinematographer magazine that he took this particular project expecting it to be "easy" ("I thought that all I had to do was shoot my plates... and give the footage to the digital people...").

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Lazy attitude aside, Verhoeven's undeniable talent for staging action and shocks is still in welcome evidence. Bacon's nimble invisible man is as unstoppable as Jason--and about as believable--but the CGI tricks are so clever that you anxiously await his "appearance", usually thanks to smoke, steam, water, blood (we should be relieved that Verhoeven didn't produce this one in the Netherlands, or who knows what else Cain would've been covered in!). The invisibility/transformation scenes are revolutionary barf bag visions, with thrashing, decomposing skin, veins, organs, and bones lovingly, gruesomely rendered in such painful, explicit detail that you can practically sense sick-puppy Verhoeven dancing up and down giddily on the spot demanding "more". Unfortunately, like 'em or not, such moments are few and far between as characters bicker and argue and walk down the same old dark, dank hallways they know they shouldn't (especially since all of Cain's coworkers thought he was insane BEFORE he turned himself invisible!).

Not that Verhoeven pulls EVERY punch, mind you: many filmgoers will undoubtedly be upset by an implied sexual assault, but that's kiddie fare when you see what Cain does to a yappy lab dog... yes, I admit I share the director's admitted fondness for on-screen, over-the-top violence and wish the film were "sicker".

If you leave "Hollow Man" disappointed and are left with a hankering for a state-of-the-art invisibility thriller that delivers, maybe you should check out (or reconsider) John Carpenter's "Memoirs Of An Invisible Man", starring Chevy Chase, Daryl Hannah, and Sam Neill. Far from another "Vacation" sequel, "Memoirs" is a smart, exciting, visually dazzling mixture of slapstick and action that does its source novel (by H.F. Saint--read it) proud, despite what you might have heard. On the other hand, avoid "The Man Who Wasn't There" at all costs: the triple-whammy Steve Guttenberg, invisibility, and 3D is more terrifying than anything even Paul Verhoeven could conceive...

- RobertL

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