Hollow Man (2000)

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Elisabeth Shue (Adventures in Babysitting) stars as a scientist working on an invisibility experiment for the U.S. military in this thriller from director Paul Verhoeven (Spetters, RoboCop). Things are looking good until her brilliant cohort and ex-boyfriend, played by Kevin Bacon, decides to be the first human subject. He successfully becomes invisible, but the transformation also weakens his state of mind and moral grounding. First he’s a ‘peeping tom,’ then a fondler, then a rapist, and finally a murderer. When he learns Shue and her new laboratory bedmate (Josh Brolin) plan to shut the whole experiment down, he sets out to kill everyone involved.

Hollow Man coasts over the safe line on the charisma of Shue and Bacon, neither of whom have great characters here. Bacon is pretty much a womanizing asshole from the start, and how seriously are we supposed to take Shue as a scientist when she’s sleeping with half the laboratory? The film would be more emotionally engaging if Bacon’s character were noble in the beginning, engendering our sympathy as the invisibility deteriorates his mind. Without that hook, you never really care what happens to anyone in Hollow Man.

If you set your expectations to ‘mediocre’, though, not everything is bad. There are several interesting visual effects sequences in the movie — including an underwater swimming pool fight with the invisible man. And lest we forget this is a Paul Verhoeven movie, there’s also the sight of a victim’s breasts being fondled by invisible hands. Jerry Goldsmith’s soundtrack is a little too similar to his work on Basic Instinct, but his action cues help propel a violent third act that delivers the action/thriller goods.

Oscar Nomination: Best Visual Effects