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Hollow Man (2000)
Kevin Bacon stars opposite Elizabeth Shue in Paul Verhoeven’s take on the 1897 H.G. Wells sci-fi novel The Invisible Man. Both are about scientists who discover a way to make a person invisible but struggle to bring them back. When being invisible starts to take a toll on them they become murderous.
Dr. Sebastian Caine (Bacon) and his team of scientists have been contracted by the U.S. Government to find a way to make a person invisible. Up until now, all of there testing has been on a Gorilla named Isabelle who is still invisible because they haven’t found a way to reverse it yet.
After 11 months of brain storming, Sebastian finally cracks Reversion( ability to make visible again) at 4:00 am. Wasting no time, he calls his ex-girlfriend Linda (Shue) and informs her of the great news. Linda rounds up the rest of the team and they meet at the lab extra early.
They get Isabelle ready to become visible again. Once she is hooked up to all the monitors, they inject her with visibility serum. Before their eyes, Isabelle starts to re-appear, starting with her vascular system. Seconds into the procedure, her heart rate elevates and she starts to go into cardiac arrest. Thinking quickly, the team shocks her heart back into rhythm and Isabelle is 100% visible. To the team it’s a victory, but to Sebastian is isn’t enough.
After their celebration dinner, Sebastian, Linda and Matt appear before their employers at the Pentagon. During the presentation, Sebastian lies to them telling them that he needs more time. Linda and Matt confront him about it and he tells them that if he had told the truth, the government wouldn’t need them anymore and that they would take over the project.
They all agree to move to phase 3 without the governments consent,
using Sebastian as their guinea pig. When they arrive at the lab, they
tell the others that they have the governments permission to move on to
phase 3. Sebastian waists no time getting onto the lab table. He
injects himself with the serum to assure the other that if something
went wrong that he would be liable. Within a few moments his skin
starts to disappear and then his vital signs start to go haywire almost
causing a seizure. Just when it looked like he was going to have a
heart attack, his vitals returned to normal and he slow became
transparent.
Sebastian slept for almost 24 hours before waking. When he finally awoke, he went to look at his accomplishment in the mirror, or at least try to look in the mirror.The plan is to have Sebastian stay invisible for three days of monitoring and then he will undergo Quantum Reversion to become visible again. The crew decided to have one person each night stay and monitor Sebastian. The first night was Sarah’s watch. After observing Sebastian sleeping she decides to take a nap not knowing that she was going to have what she thought was a nightmare.
Becoming restless in the middle of the night, Sebastian uses his invisibility to sexually assault Sarah and get away with it. In the morning Sarah tells the others what happened and that she didn’t know if she just dreamt it or not. The team takes turns for the next two days. On the fourth day the prepare to bring Sebastian back. After the reversion serum was administered, he started to go into cardiac arrest and then he just went back to being invisible.
The team decided to make him a latex mask and gloves so that they could at least see him until they figured how to bring him back. After the 10th day of being invisible, Sebastian gets stir-crazy and decides to go out. On the way to his house he decides to scare a couple of kids for a laugh. While in his home, he notices his neighbor undressing in her apartment and decides to have a bit of fun. He sneaks into her place and scares her right before raping her. He then returns to the lab like nothing happened.
When Sebastian sees his ex, and his co-worker Matt together, he becomes enraged. Going back to the lab, he paces around ready to snap. When one of the invisible dogs won’t quit barking, he takes his anger out on it, smashing it to death off the inside of its cage. The team has had enough. Linda and Matt decide to go to their boss, Dr. Howard Kramer(William Devane) and confess. When Sebastian finds out, he kills Dr. Kramer before he has a chance to tell the Government.
At this point, Sebastian has lost his mind. He deletes all of his workers access codes so that they can’t leave the lab. The gang decides to find him and neutralize him with a tranquilizer. Sebastian adds to his body count by killing Janice. He strangles her with a wire while the others search for him. Next is Carter(Greg Grunberg), and on down the line until it is just him, Linda and Matt. He locks Linda and Matt in a freezer to die as he gets dressed to enter the city. Before leaving he mixes up chemicals to make nitro and puts them into the centrifuge. He sets the timer for 5 minutes to allow his safe exit.
Will Linda and Matt make it out alive? Will Sebastian get away with the murders? It is either kill or be killed. But how can you kill something you can’t see?
Paul Verhoeven has brought us thrillers such as RoboCop, Basic Instinct, and Total Recall. Hollow Man is one to add to that list. The Star-filled cast speaks for themselves. Elisabeth Shue and Kevin Bacon were great in the lead roles while Greg Grunberg(Alias) and Josh Brolin(Mimic) were great on the supportive end. The CGI was amazing during the swimming pool scene and especially during the transformation.
The storyline could have been a bit more original but the acting and the effects make up for that. If you pic up the Directors cut DVD you will be able to see 8 extra minutes of footage never shown in the theater.
Special Features:
* HBO’s Making of : Anatomy of a Thriller
* "Fleshing out the Hollow Man"
* VFX Picture in Picture Comarisons"
**1/2
-Jim Cain
