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Hollow Man

Hollow Man

List Price: $14.95
Your Price: $13.46
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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: If only the movie itself was invisible
Review: This movie not only had an invisible man, but it also had some invisible plot connections. I'll just use the end of the movie as an example. Okay, so somehow hot scientist chick(Elisabeth Shue), is hot enough so that her hotness can counteract -40 degree temperatures. In these conditions she manages to create an electromagnet to escape her certain doom. Somehow in these ridiculously cold environment she is able to open the door with her electromagnet. So following that issue flesh wound scientist man(Josh Brolin) is able to recover from being stabbed with an oversized crow bar and frozen for five minutes to eventually whack the invisible Kevin Bacon with the very same crowbar. Then Kevin Bacon turns into skeletal muscle man after another attack with the infamous crowbar is thwarted.

After this hot scientist chick and flesh wound scientist man run to the elevator shaft in an attempt to escape their inevitable fate in the exploding lab. As they climb to the top, somehow the flying elevator of doom manages to zoom past them, propelled by the explosion in the laboratory below. Then as the elevator falls victim to that pesky force of gravity, it somehow stops just above their heads. Shortly after this skeletal muscle Bacon has not only managed to survive an attack with the infamous crowbar, the giant lab explosion, and the flying elevator of doom, but in doing so has managed to climb undetected onto the back of hot scientist chick, who seduces him with a last kiss before she sends him plummeting down the elevator shaft into the exploding lab. Then as she falls into the arms of flesh wound scientist man, he exclaims, "Oh my god!" To which she replies, "Not anymore." Based on the whole premise that Kevin Bacon is God. Which might offer some sort of explanation of that six degree thing, but really offers no explanation of this ridiculous movie.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: An entertaining FX thrill ride
Review: "Hollow Man," directed by Paul Verhoeven, is a sci-fi thriller that takes on a classic theme: invisibility. Although this topic has been portrayed in numerous movies, TV programs, and comic books, "Hollow Man" distinguishes itself with a combination of cutting edge special effects and menacing thrills. Kevin Bacon plays the film's main character, Dr. Sebastian Caine--whose name struck me as a subtle biblical reference to the "mark of Cain" (Genesis 4:15)

The effects are truly the star of the film, and the filmmakers exploit the invisibility motif in many memorable scenes. Sequences such as a hunt for an invisible escaped gorilla are shot with flair. Good production values add to the film's visual appeal: every would-be "mad scientist" would drool over the high-tech laboratory created for Dr. Caine. But be forewarned: the film's gory violence may not be suitable for all viewers.

The only real flaw of the film lies in the characterizations. Bacon's Dr. Caine is an unlikeable, arrogant creep who shows his disregard for both human and animal life from his first scenes. The film's one almost sympathetic character, a soft-hearted veterinarian, is whiny and annoying. As a result, I found myself not caring much for any of these characters. But this criticism aside, "Hollow Man" is an entertaining and visually stunning thrill ride.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Sometimes Solid
Review: This film's strength is neither the special effects nor the action sequences, but rather the time it spends exploring the psychological realm: anger, jealousy, and of course, what you would do if you never had to look at yourself in the mirror.

Kevin Bacon plays Sebastian Caine, an egotistical scientist who is leading a government-funded project on invisibility. Caine is so determined to make his project work that he sidesteps Pentagon authorization and brashly makes himself the study's first human test subject.

Trouble arises with the invisibility antidote, however, and Caine is unable to regain opacity. This turn of events, and his subsequent extended confinement to his underground lab, quickly bring out the dark side of Caine's megalomaniac personality. He begins to vent his emotions in most unhealthy ways, violently seeking outlets for his bitterness over a recent split with his girlfriend, his jealousy and rage towards her new lover, and his obsession with the female neighbor he watches through his window. Drawing on the premise that invisibility eliminates feelings of guilt, Hollow Man has Sebastian become a very, very bad man.

The dilemma, of course, lies in how to stop him: what do you do to defend yourself against a man that you can't even see? The situation is resolved, but not before Caine creates an enormous bloodbath, and unfortunately not before I began to lose interest in the film. Near its end, Hollow Man begins to transform into a fairly rote action movie, complete with fireballs and (spoiler alert!) a dramatic escape through an unstable elevator shaft. Trust me, you've seen it all before.

One advantage of the DVD format is that the discriminating viewer can skip fairly directly to the middle of the movie, which is where the psychologically-driven sequences lie and is the part worth watching. The rest, honestly, is rather hollow.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good special effects, but a hollow plot
Review: The special effects are the real winners this time since the movie itself is sort of a mix of thriller, horror, and mad scientist film. After the first thirty minutes or so, after Kevin Bacon's character, Sebastian, is turned invisible, the film goes downhill, degenerating into a standard run around thriller. It's not that the movie is actually all that bad, but it could have been so much more if anyone had really thought about what they were doing and was more interested in telling a story than in using special effects just to show us what they could do.

Granted, I could possibly see how being turned invisible could affect your mind, and even eventually turn you psychotic, but it just happens so fast in this movie, almost from the get go. There had to have already been problems going on in Dr. Sebastian's mind for him to snap so fast, and the reasoning behind him going so ballistic, seeing his former lover and another colleague in bed together, seems so asinine. Especially since he'd already been running slightly amok, using his invisibility to open another colleagues blouse as she slept, and attacking his next door neighbor because he was sexually attracted to her.

I would also like to know how becoming invisible also turned Sebastian into such a superman. We see him getting blasted by steam, he's burned bad enough to turn someone into a barbecue, clobbered with a large crowbar, and electrocuted, but like the energizer bunny, he keeps on going. Ludicrous, how could the makers of this film possibly expect us to buy into this? Neat special effects can only take you so far, after that you have to have a story worth telling, and this just wasn't it.

So, my three stars are for the special effects, and I can't justify giving the actual storyline anything, so my review remains at three stars. Rent or borrow this movie if you can, but I don't advise spending your money to buy it, there's better stuff out there to spend your money on.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Shallow Man: Case study in wasted potential
Review: If one spectacular special effect could make a movie, this one would be great. The scenes of experimental subjects going from invisible to visible are wonderful, they bring things into being anatomical layer by anatomical layer. It's a shame that's virtually the only thing worth seeing about this movie.

Kevin Bacon's potentially interesting role as loose cannon scientist was too shallow to keep my interest. The other characters in the movie are much more impressed with him than the audience should be. Even the transition he makes from merely egocentric to violently grandiose is largely unconvincing. It isn't clear

As shallow as his character is, the remaining roles were cartoons compared to him, and the story is simply awful. For the science fiction minded, there was not the least explanation or development of the "quantum shifts" that are supposed to allow invisibility to occur. For the drama minded, there are lost opportunities galore to allow an invisible man to exploit his situation. Having him unbutton a woman's blouse is hardly creative use of the potentials in this situation.

If there's an award for a movie making nothing of its great potential, this one would be close to the top. I hope they use those wonderful effects in another movie that has more of a plot and better developed characters than this one.

I gave this two stars because it is high gloss and visually interesting, and keeps you thinking about how the character might next exploit his situation ... but he never quite does (does sneaking into a woman's apartment and then just outright attacking her count as an interesting way to exploit invisibility ?)

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: The Movie is Hollow,Man!
Review: Have you ever had the feeling that the movie's trailer was better than the movie?Well Hollow Man is one of them.The promos made it look like a cool sci-fi thiller,but instead it was B-grade horror/slasher trash dressed up with grade-A special effects.Don't get me wrong;I can suspend disbelief and enjoy mindless entertainment,but the bad acting and ludicrous scenarios(once the pet project's leader makes himself invisible,what does he do?He fondles and rapes woman.What class!)in this flick made this eye-candy buff sleepy.Had it been made with soild,well-written script and a different cast,it could have been killer.As it is,unfortunately,Hollow Man is last year's most disappointing movie.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: mismatch...
Review: I liked the special effects of the movie. It was amazing to see Sebastian changing from a man to something like the model we see in the laboratory which you can see the muscle and organs, but moving! And at last invisible. It was really impressing to see what computers can do these days. However, the story was just too straight forward. The whole story was within your imagination. A genius made himself invisible, committed crimes and had bad consequences at last. It lacks creativity. It was really disappointing to see such great special effects used on such a dull story.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Hollow Man. Empty Movie.
Review: I thought this film might be worth watching if only for the special effects. Wrong. It was truly one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Totally illogical, gory enough to be nauseating, with characters so poorly drawn, you don't even flinch when they die. Brrrrrr...

Sebastian (played by Bacon) is the principal scientist (and lunatic-at-large) in a vital, underground, top-secret government project to render living beings invisible.

Sebastian is arrogant & immature, with a serious God-complex. He's also a playboy, a foolish risk-taker and an animal abuser. This guy just seems to get off on pain, even his own.

Linda (Elisabeth Shue) is supposedly a gifted scientist as well. But her role is more that of a flirty, contemptuous teenager juggling boyfriends (Bacon-Ex & Brolin-current) & tossing verbal barbs with Bacon.

You'll see a lot of blood & guts and a lot of death - via slaughter by the genius-gone-madman (invisibility produces insanity, don't ya know.) Also, graphic anatomy shots as Bacon's organs, muscles, & flesh disintegrate, then attempt to regrow.

Don't waste your time or money. The effects just couldn't save this one.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Gag, gag, gag
Review: When will Hollywood ever learn that special effects do not make a movie. Pitiful acting, pitiful script, pitiful, pitiful, pitiful. And the ending is so dissappointing. Just another predictable special effects bonanza film for the weak minded.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: I SAW ALL I NEED FOR THIS WINNER
Review: WHEN MY MOM AND DAD WERE WATCHING THIS MOVIE,I WAS ON THE COMPUTER,AND I'D WATCH SOME PARTS FROM HOLLOW MAN AFTER MY MOMS LIKE,YOU SHOULD WATCH IT AND I WAS THINKING PFFT.IM NOT REALLY INTO MOVIES ABOUT INVISILBE PEOPLE AND I HATE THAT ELISABETH SHUE TOO[ELISABETH,THATS A CLASSEY NAME,PFFT]

AND THE SCENE WHERE INVISLBLE MAN KILLS THAT POOR DOG,NO THANKS


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