"Hollow Man" - A Review by 'Anon'

There was a screening for a hundred or so workers for Columbia production staff team, for a four hour screening of Paul Verhoeven's 'Hollow Man'. There have been huge delays in the production of the movie. As well as the noted injuries to Elizabeth Shue, and the illness to Kevin Bacon's stuntman, which halted production for months, it has taken a long time to get this film out in any form for people to see, mainly because Columbia have not had any movies in release which would appeal to the market this film is suited for. So, the decision was taken by producer Douglas Wick, who presented the film, to showcase to the Columbia workers. First of all Douglas Wick, told us the film was still in heavy editing stages, not to gather a 'commercial user-friendly rating' (his own words) but rather trying to work around a manageable two hour length time. He insisted Paul Verhoeven and himself decided from the onset the film would go all the way in its graphicness and portrayal of the true essence of the story as Verhoeven has done in the past but with limited commercial success, as in 'Starship Troopers'. But he added this time the whole commercial campaign would play on the fact it will be a no holds, 'scare the **** out of you' film. Now for the actual film review, (i am no reviewist, so excuse me if it is all over the place).... The film stars Kevin Bacon who along
with a bunch of scientists (including Elizabeth Shue), discover a formulae to make humans invisible. However, instead of telling the government, who are paying them to do the research, they decide to keep it a secret, and test it more. After some graphic scenes on animals (which i will go into later), a decision is made by the team that Kevin Bacon will take the ultimate plunge, and go for the treatment. So Bacon is transformed into the Invisible man. He suddenly then realises the power of this - 'I'm the most powerful man in the world' - and decides he would like to stay this way. At the same time, there is a love story
thrown in. Kevin Bacon actually loves Elizabeth Shue, but who in turns actually likes another scientist on the team. So with these powers not only does Bacon act out a few fantasies, but also tries and destroy the lives of Shue and her lover.... Eventually the team discover Kevin Bacon has been playing games with them, while he was meant to be under observation, so they decide to report their discovery to Government. Only problem is once Bacon finds out, he kills the government guy before he can tell anyone, and then plans on killing his research team, who are the only ones who know about the discovery. In the end we are left with a situation of an invisible Kevin Bacon against the team. We were presented with two endings. One with Bacon being killed, and two of the team escape. The other an ending with them all being killed, and the formulae lying their free for anyone who takes it. (Sequel alert!)

Now this film is very graphic. And i mean VERY graphic. Scenes that will literally send shivers down your back, and you must ask is Verhoeven mentally sane? There would be no way some of those scenes will be passed for a commercial film, no matter what producer Douglas Wick says. The scenes in
question all involves animals, in particular monkeys. One of the opening scenes has a monkey being chased around a glass cage, being chased by an invisible 'animal'. The monkey is thrown round and round the cage, blood comes from its mouth, and eyes. Then the monkeys eyes are pulled out, by the invisible animal. So literally the monkeys eyes, are hanging in space, while the monkey still alive is going mental. In my opinion,this was gross, despite the fact it was all done in the effects room. In general there were too many pointless effects to harm animals in this movie - they didn't move the plot along. In once scene an angry invisible Kevin Bacon, picks up a monkey and decides to beat it up for about for about 5 minutes. Granted this was a four hour preview, but those effects look like they cost a lot of money; seems an awful lot of waste for what will probably end up being a 1 minute shot. Now i'm not one of those who cares about animals or that type of that guy, but even i was feeling rather uncomfortable with those scenes - especially the sound effects of a dying monkey.

Then, there are the shots of Bacon
disappearing. These will definitely what will be heavily played in the trailer. Verhoeven has excelled himself to another with some of these effects, and this one effect is worth the ticket seat alone. The great thing about it - and its hard to explain - is the attention played to detail. You literally see Bacon's ***** disappear strand by strand (ever want to see what a ***** looks like without skin?) ; you go right through his body, from his skeleton to his organs - amazing.

Another great scene, that has been played on a little in the teaser trailer - is the rape scene. Bacon is a lonely man, so once he becomes invisible he goes and rapes a lady, who he has always fantasised about. The act itself is digusting of course, but the techincal execution of this scene is just so brilliantly done. It had to be done by the effects team, because the lady is having sexual intercourse with an invisible man, and the way she react moves her body, is very cool (It's hard to explain).

The let down of the film, in plot terms is the last quarter of the film. In what is a blatant rip of 'Alien'. You know the scene in 'Alien' where they have a computer which tracks the Alien's movement, and there is a team of them behind the computer telling the man who is out looking for the alien, the alien is right behind him - well you get the same scenario here. They are all trapped inside a building, and they know Bacon wants them dead - so they use a combination of a temperature controlled computer and glasses- which tracks Bacon's movements. So you get that scene where they are yelling at the man, 'He is behind you'.... It is cool, but a blatant copy of 'Alien', and was the only cliched part of the film.

However, Verhoven takes it one step further - after all the effects in the Science fiction term, we get a great action stunt. The final set up with Elizabeth
Shue and her boyfriend trying to escape in an elevator alley, by climbing the cables, is a scene which even Stallone and Swarzneggar would be proud to have in their movie. Shue and her boyfriend are literally hanging onto a cable being pulled down by an invisible Bacon, who is pulling at her legs to kill them. They are all literally hanging of the cable - with a huge drop to the floor - great fun.

Script wise, the film is barely passable. It's of course the effects that take the major role. There are way too many scenes of dialogue, which go into Kevin Bacon's infatuation for Shue, while she in turns doesn't like him in the romantic sense. With the current four hour length, these will have to be cut. So, you might get Verhoeven going all the way effects, cutting out major chunks of the dialogue; or going with the dialogue with the effects in second place. I don't think he can combine the two; you can't go with a monkey having its eyes being squeezed out then in the next scene have one of the characters tell a joke about Superman. (Yes that's what happens). I think the effects route will be taken, for obvious reason - its the strong point of the film.

Performance wise, Shue is passable as are the others, who don't have much to do other than act in a foil to the effects and the story of the invisible story line. Kevin Bacon, despite not being all there (half the time you only hear him), his presence is huge, and is absolutely perfect for the role - a man you can feel sorry for, sympathise, but also a man who can be a psycho and be hated; he has that great mixture of both qualities. You actually route for him, when he rapes the women - something which is hard to explain - but something only Paul Verhoeven has the twisted mind to do to the audience, and Bacon the
only actor to pull off. Direction wise, this film will put Verhoeven onto another level. Despite having the old premise of the invisible man - this film effects wise, and the way they will cause you to react will haunt you for a long time. This will be THE film of 2000.