Wednesday, July 20, 2005

story2 holow
In principle, Paul Verhoeven's violent take on the traditional Invisible
Man yarn is perfectly legitimate. However, his delivery of this piece of
work is hopelessly stuck in a creative mire. From the offset it is clear
that "Hollow Man" was produced with one eye firmly on the suspect values
of 1990's horror movies.
Special effects are given a free ride – and as many a director can pertain
to this is often at the cost of the script.
Kevin Bacon stars as a brilliant young scientist (Sebastian Caine) who
manages to perfect a technique where living creatures can be effectively
rendered be invisible.
His research team includes Linda McKay (Elizabeth Shue) who aids him
closely in preparing a live specimen on which to try out the new technique.
McKay is still a target of Caine’s emotions although their relationship has
long ceased to exist.
Josh Brolin provides a typically wooden performance as Matthew Kensington
– understudy to Caine and heartily jealous of his achievements. A successful
experiment on a gorilla is the cue for the now legendary "Hollow Man"
special effects.
To give Verhoeven and his team some credit, the visual aspect of the movie
is quite simply stunning. As the gorilla is injected with Caine’s secret
serum, it seemingly disappears before our very eyes.
Then, upon it's successful materialization the creatures whole anatomy is
laid bare in exquisite detail. Muscle, tissue, bone – its all there. This
is very much a scene for budding pathologists.
Unfortunately, Verhoeven simply fails to deliver any surprises from this
point onwards. Caine is show predictably sampling the formula for himself.
Equally predictable is how he finds himself unable to re-materialize after
having successfully vanished. Neither he nor any of his team can understand
why the formula worked on the gorilla but not Caine. Nor can they establish
a means of manipulating the drug to bring him back. This leads to increased
tension in the laboratory as Caine meanders around invisible – incensed at
his teams apparent failure to procure an antidote.
Bacon and Shue carry much of these particular scenes alone. Brolin is
painfully inadequate in his role – quite typical of this new breed of
detestable sub-standard American actors (Hartnett, Damon and Affleck to
name other offenders) Verhoeven does manage to bring solid performances out
of the two main stars in the piece.
So much so that by the time Caine decides to leave the laboratory to have
some invisible fun, the script has gained a rather surprising momentum.
Also, Bacon shows his quality as he demonstrates the gradual decline into
madness of a man doomed to remain in his current state.
This madness turns to fury as he becomes aware of a secret affair between
McKay and Kensington. Whatever impetuous the script did have is then lost
under a barrage of bloody murders. These killings are moderately entertaining
but far too extreme given the context they are placed in.
As mentioned earlier, Hollow Man’s aesthetic quality is unquestionable. It
is this virtuoso display of computer-enhanced wizardry that makes the
paper-thin conclusion bearable. Bacon manages to maintain a modicum of
control whilst developing his character further. However, Shue goes downhill
rapidly as her character subjects us to an un-edifying display of feminist
twaddle. This kind of banal material has become rather commonplace in
Hollywood horror scripts and stands out a mile to even the most inexperienced
of viewer.
Hollow Man could have been an interesting addition to the under-explored
Invisible Man sub-genre. As it is though, the movie simply lacks enough
substance to keep the viewer interested. Breath-taking effects soon become
tired on the eye, as does much of the robotic cast. Verhoeven’s direction
contains much to be admired.
His Steadicam work is pleasing on the eye, as is his presentation of "The
Hollow Man". Unfortunately, these are the only strings this rather tiresome
piece of work has to it's bow.
Picture and sound quality were of a high standard on the UK DVD used for
this review. Through a quality amplifier, the Dolby Digital Sound is quite
magnificent.
Also impressive is the discs's extras package. Here you will find a number
of short presentations pertaining to how the Hollow Man was constructed and
the excellent special effects involved. These features are of a suitable
length to inform but short enough not to become over-burdening. Two
commentaries, deleted scenes and filmographies complete the package.
A classic case of all style and no substance?


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