Hollow Man, of course, is another take on the old Invisible Man theme that was done with depth and skill in 1933 by the inimitable James Whale using a script co-adapted by Philip Wylie and R.C. Sherriff for the H.G. Wells novel. In this one, closet sociopath Sebastian Caine (Kevin Bacon) is developing an invisibility serum for the U.S. military. In true mad-scientist fashion, he tries the stuff on himself--with all-too-predictable results.
Any good SF or fantasy film requires that well-known suspension of disbelief. The problem with Hollow Man is that it goes beyond suspension and demands unconditional surrender. Instead of developing any of several possible thought-provoking themes lying dormant under the subject of invisibility and the ethics of self-experimentation, writers Gary Scott Thompson and Andrew W. Marlowe opted instead to turn this into a festival of guts, gore and sex that eventually becomes mind-numbingly repetitive despite all the flash and bang of the effects. The fact that the eventual winner is Elisabeth Shue doesn't make it any less of a testosterone fest for the ethically-challenged.
Speaking of the effects, they are unquestionably terrific, especially the ones where Bacon is invisible. They are also considerably more revealing in some instances than I, for one, really needed. When he isn't among the unseen, here are many more shots of Bacon's hams than I found necessary as well.
Unfortunately, if you're looking for more than spectacular explosions and a primer on the possibilities of cgi animation, look elsewhere. Hollow Man is a two-hour mess of shallow plot and even shallower characters, all of whom might just as well have had "stereotype" tattooed on their foreheads. The story is clichéd, the dialogue boring, the ending derivative and the action nothing that hasn't been done and seen before.
Better you should watch the original.
Rated R for strong language, violence, nudity/sexuality.
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