HOLLOW MAN

COLUMBIA TRISTAR

RELEASED 29 September 2000

What would YOU do if you were invisible? I don’t mean the ‘zero personality’ type of invisible, we’re talking literally here. Sebastian Caine (Kevin ‘six degrees of separation’ Bacon) is the head scientist of a top US military project to discover the method of genetically rendering a person invisible to the naked eye. After sucessful tests on animals, Caine decides he should be the first person to undergo the proceedure. After a painful transformation Caine now has a unique power which could be open to corruption in the wrong hands. His team (numbering six, amongst them Elisabeth Shue) discover too late that the power of invisiblity is already in the wrong hands. What is essentially a horror movie has an interesting concept at it’s core i.e. what’s to stop you doing what you like if nobody can see you. And this is where the movie begins to fall apart. Bacon’s character doesn’t have any fun with his new gift. He gets nasty almost immediately and things very quickly descend into ‘monster in the dark’ shennanigans. One by one the supporting characters are killed off leading to a ludicrous showdown. The special effects are fantastic but one too many plot holes, some dire dialogue, and a weak plot ruin what is an interesting premise. Leave your brain at the door!

THREE OUT OF FIVE