Hollow Man


A scientist, part of the team that developed an ''invisibility'' drug for the US government, decides to test it on himself. It works fine. Problem is, the anti-drug serum fails to work as expected, leaving our hero invisible. After a while, he begins to see the advantages of his condition, and his baser nature begins to exert itself, as he becomes increasingly violent and criminal. Great special effects, expect lots of gore.


112 minutes.
No persons under 16 (Language, Violence).
Action, Crime, Thriller
Are you sick? You look kinda pale...
Are you sick? You look kinda pale...

Credits

Cast
Kevin Bacon, Elisabeth Shue, Josh Brolin, Kim Dickens, and tons of special effects
Director
Paul Verhoeven
ScreenplayGary Scott Thompson, Andrew W. Marlowe
MusicJerry Goldsmith
CinematographyJost Vacano
Sound formatsDolby Digital, Sony Dynamic Digital Sound, DTS
Made in2000
Produced byColumbia Pictures Corporation

Official Site




Ratings

Scale (Max)20

What the Critics say

Movies for Africa
Ian Douglas
8
Cape Argus
Gary van Dyk
5
Cape Argus
Adrian Monteath
1
The Star
Joanne Rix
8
Die Burger
Herman Wasserman
10
Sunday Times
Barry Ronge
1
Beeld
Marius Jooste
10
TV3 Screenplay
Barry Ronge
12
eye Weekly
Jason Anderson
5
Box Office
Annlee Ellingson
5
Rough Cut
J. Rentilly
14
Total Film
Matt Mueller
15
Film Review
Jason Caro
10

What the People say

Internet
1492 Netizens
11

Average .. 41%

8

Visitor Ratings

Scale (Max)20
Jan Terblanche 20
Mzolisi Mtshemla 5
Rick Smith 12

Average .. 62%

12

Visitor Comments

Vimal Sardar (27): Basically all this movie is, is a modern day version of the classic ''The Invisible Man'' with more violence and nudity. Kevin Bacon gives a sizzling performance as a brilliant but egotistic scientist who begins to enjoy the fruits of his handicap. Worthwile watching if only for the special visual effects. This movie is very much in the Paul Verhoeven style of shocking the audience like he did with the violence in Robocop and Starship Troopers and the sex and nudity in Showgirls and Basic Instinct. This movie has both those elements.

Jan Terblanche (16): It's a excellent movie.

Rick Smith (29): Some interesting effects, but the story could have been developed better. If your fantasy is to run around invisible, then this movie is not for you.

Ian Douglas: This film has come in for mixed reviews, with a bias towards the negative. Much criticism has been directed at the director. I'm not sure that this is justified. The director interprets the script, he does not write it. If there are flaws in the plot, blame the scriptwriter, not the director.

Now with that off my chest, what did I think of the film?

Well, there is no other way to describe the special effects other than astounding. A real tour de force, and a must-view for fx junkies.

As for the story, it starts off with an interesting premise and wanders on to explore the moral question of ''what would you do if no one ever knew it was you''. But it has hardly started down this path before degenerating into Yet Another Kill-The-Monster-Guess-Who-Dies-Next clichéd teen thriller, full of holes in the plot. Which is where all the low ratings from the critics come from.

The concept of being able to act with detection poses the question of what is man's basic moral nature. Will he do good or evil? And if so, why? The script takes the view that man will descend into criminal activity at the first chance, which is a rather dim view of humanity in my opinion. Or maybe not, on second thoughts...

What do you think?...






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