Home :: DVD :: Horror  

Classic Horror & Monsters
Cult Classics
Frighteningly Funny
General
Series & Sequels
Slasher Flicks
Teen Terror
Television
Things That Go Bump
Hollow Man

Hollow Man

List Price: $14.95
Your Price: $13.46
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 .. 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 .. 25 >>

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Everything Possibly Good (Besides FX) Is Invisible . . .
Review: Paul Verhoeven's (Starship Troopers) new sci-fi/thriller is not near as inventive as his past works, like Basic Instinct or Total Recall, and after some impressive Visual Effects - there's nothing here. Kevin Bacon plays a scientist (pretty bad from the beginning I suppose) who experiments with invisiblilty. It works, but all the sudden he tries it on himself and promptly (very, very promptly!) goes insane, because he can't figure out to become visible again. So in his secret underground science-visility, he starts murdering his colleges one-by-one. Now, Josh Brolin and Elizebeth Shue are forced to stop the Invisible Man, but we don't give a damn whether they live or die or succeed all-together! But Bacon's no Claude Raines, and instead becomes more of a Scream villian - lots of blood, but no finesse and a motive that makes about as much sense as a screen door on a submarine! Like I said before, there are some amazing visual effects, like people and animals becoming invisible, or returning from invisibility, and a good sequence where Bacon kills a man in his pool, but in the end - "Think Your Alone? Think Again," you'll wish you were.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A for effects and thrills, B for acting, C for plot
Review: Paul Verhoeven's latest thriller, Hallow Man delivers heart-stopping action, great thrills, and terrific special effects scenes losely tied together by poor transition scenes. The movie focusses on a genius played by Kevin Bacon. It seems the government wants to create a serum that can turn people invisible. Headed by Bacon, a group of scientists, including the ever beautiful Elizabeth Shue, work in a secret government underground research facility-how many times in movies are secret government research facilities underground anyway? Uncle Sam has some pretty poor real estate brokers. Anyway, these scientists have been able to make animals invisible-a very impressive scene includes a gorrilla becoming visible litterally from the inside out. The scientists are positive that the serum is ready for humans, but Bacon does not want to just hand it over to the government just yet. The scientists use the serum on Bacon, and after yet another impressive scene, he becomes invisible. The only problem, the antidote does not seem to work on humans. Bacon remains invisible for days and his dark side emerges. It seems that hollywood must pump out an invisible man movie every now and then, if for no other reason than to brag about the latest special effects. The last invisible man movie-John Carpenter's Memoirs of an Invisible Man had stunning special effects for its day. Now its time to update the effects with the latest in digital abilities. And this movie delivers these effects brilliantly. There are a number of things that the invisible man is covered with in this movie that are pretty neat to watch. This movie also touches on something that some invisilbe man movies do not-how tempting would it be to do wrong if you were invisible? Invisibility is the perfect symbol for absolute immunity-no matter what you do, you cannot be caught. This tradition stretches back thousands of years to ancient Greece when Plato spoke of the myth of Gynges. In short, a poor shephard finds a ring inside a hollowed bronze statue of a horse. He discovers that this ring can make him invisible. To make a long story short, he turns evil and manages to-have an affair with the queen, kill the king, marry the queen and declare himself the new ruler. This movie touches on that thought. Without going into detail, let's just say that Bacon gets into some mischeif, and some all out wrongdoing, durring his days of invisibility. All in all, it seems as though this movie has everything going for it-a good cast, a great director, great special effects, and an interesting idea. The problem is that this interesting idea for a story does not mature itself into a great movie. While the characters seem both real and believable, I have trouble swallowing Bacon's decent into hell. I believe that being invisible would deffinitely have it's temptations. But Bacon goes from an arrogant, yet light-hearted genius to a full blown physco in only a few days time. Of course, this transformation is sped up by a revelation of Bacon's about Elizabeth Shue's character. I'm not going to say what but here's a hint-they used to be an item, he still wants her, but she's moved on. I'll buy that this would fuel his decent, but it still feels too rushed. Perhaps this shows a disadvantage to Bacon's invisibility-he goes through this terribile transformation of the soul, but we the audience are unable to wittness it. Once invisible, the only performance of Bacon's the audience gets is a voice and the occasional invisible effect-Bacon covered in blood, steam, water, and fire. The production team obviously spent a long time planning the invisible effects shots, they should have spent even more time planning on slowing and showing Bacon's decent and making it more blievable. Verhoeven is usually very good at showing decents into madness and the darkness of the human soul,they are always dominant issues in his movies, but his movies focus on the actors' facial reations to situations, but with Bacon being invisible, Verhoeven cannot rely on this technique. All in all this was a good movie. When all the aspects of the movie are averaged, the movie earns a repsectable B, maybe even a B+. A for effects, B for acting, C for plot, A for surprises. But, despite what hollywood might say to the contrary with big block buster special effects movies, special effects don't make a great movie, just great eye candy. A great plot, a great script, and great acting make a great movie. Godzilla, though it had great effects, sucked because the plot was weak. Independence Day rocked, not because the effects were breathtaking, but because the plot did not isult the audience's intelligence while showing off alien attack scenes. My personal favorite movie of all time, Dragonheart, had terrific effects which complemented, not overshadowed, the plot-which was an excellent plot and I highly recommend Dragonheart to all who read this. If you like thrillers, sci-fi movies, or special effects movies, this is a good one for you. It has it's moments, but many of these focus too heavily on special effects. But this movie does deliver some great thrills and surprises and is worth the $19.95 or whatever the studio decides to charge.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Oops! Verhoeven Did It Again.
Review: It's not a giggle-fest on the order of "Showgirls," but it's awfully close. In the latest down-rent effort from director Paul Verhoeven, Kevin Bacon plays a peeping-tom scientist who discovers a way to make himself invisible, which only enhances his abilities to peep at women. And more. Much more. Some may cry, "misogynist," as they watch this increasingly leering, heavy-breathing thriller, but clearly that's redundant. This an old man's idea of "sexy" and "daring," and a somewhat dopey one at that given the almost limitless possibilities a scientist might have with the gift of invisibility. Herein, the only option seems to be a high-tech panty raid.

Poor Paul Verhoeven. Once a skillful and witty director of mass-market thrillers such as "Robocop" and "Total Recall," he seems have to have lost his way since he made (or rather perpetrated) "Showgirls," or perhaps he's just becoming more Verhoeven then ever before. In addition to Bacon, who grimaces and sweats a great deal, there's also an achingly wooden Elizabeth Shue as a fellow scientist and Bacon's ex-girlfriend, along with a plethora of gore in the film's final scenes. It's a sad spectacle indeed to watch this once talented director so furiously go off course. Indeed, Verhoeven doesn't seem to have the slightest interest in his story, his actors, much less his audience. He's become Hollow Director.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Dissapear
Review: A goverment scientist discovers a formula for invisibility. After an expirement makes him slowly dissapear, he begins to go insane and soon threatens the lives of his fellow researchers.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Disappointing
Review: As a huge Kevin Bacon fan, I was eagerly anticipating this movie. I was so disappointed at the waste of such great special effects. And yes, Kevin, keep your pants on! Don't get me wrong, I like a good horror movie. But the way the invisible guy set out to rape the neighbor, without any hesitation, was pretty sickening. I don't agree with the other review that stated this movie shows what a "real" person would be doing if they found themselves invisible. "Normal" men aren't just waiting for the opportunity to get away with raping a woman.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Can someone please buy Kevin some invisible pants
Review: This was a film that i was looking forward to. The trailer made the special effects look incredible, and they were. The one thing that i had trouble believing was the actors of this film. Sure Kevin "I don't like pants" Bacon can pull of being invisible, but Elizabeth Shue being an action hero, very hard to believe. She looks like she should be in one of those tear inducing Nora Ephron movies, not having to face the invisible man. Joey Slotnick, who we all remember from the sitcom 'The Single Guy' is great in the film, as he is everywhere. But where was he in the film. He had about 7 minutes of screen time. Let him, a real actor battle invisible Kevin. A little note to Kevin Bacon: Just because you like to be naked, does not mean that everyone in this country likes you naked. Buy some invisible pants and keep them on buddy.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Disappointing Misuse Of The Subject Of Invisibility
Review: »Hollow Man« proposes an interesting subject: Invisibility. A subject which opens doors to a lot of possibilities, ethical ones, humouristic ones, etc. The makers of this film do not succeed in digging into any of those. In fact, I doubt they're even trying. Instead, they drown the subject in a film which is basicly about special effects, voyeurism, a ridiculous jealousy story, and unnecessary, unexplained evil and violence.

Furthermore, »Hollow Man« is so packed with obvious movie mistakes that you don't even have to look for them; you will be annoyed anyway.

A poor performace. What a shame, 'cause it starts out interesting... and ends up just being ridiculous and a useless waste of time.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: One of the worst films I've ever seen
Review: I have a pretty high tolerance I think for bad movies. The writing and the acting in the movie was so bad, I couldn't finish it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Not bad!
Review: Hey, it's not a bad movie! How can you dislike such a great villain! The effects don't take over the plot and the music by Jerry Goldsmith is chilling. The only thing I didn't like was the ending (spoiler warning!): I was cheering for Sebastian all the way and was hoping he'd get away with his plans. Poor bad guy, he didn't make it. :( Maybe he'll be resurrected in another experiment, though ;)))

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: SHEESH, people.
Review: I don't get why people gave this movie such a bad review. Sure the last half hour was corny, but the the beginning and middle was great. The effects are astounding, the acting was good, and it shows what would really happen if one would be invisible. I agree the effects was stronger then the story quality, but that was the intention. And Kevin Bacon made his presence known even if we couldn't see him. I think people today are getting too demanding on movies like snobby art critics are today. This Movie was a piece of Paul Verhoeven's creativity. It made good use out of an old concept that dates back to Plato. 4 stars from me. And if people wish to get a movie that has shock, kick, eye candy, some humour, and gore. Hollow Man is a must. I believe people should relax with their nit pickiness, and try not to make sense out of a movie that is not supposed to make sense, it's not real, wasn;t meant to be, that's why it's Sci-Fi. Relax, lay back, and free your mind of all common REAL life thoughts, and enjoy an action packed, visually stunning extraveganza with Hollow Man.


<< 1 .. 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 .. 25 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates