directed by paul verhoeven . screenplay by andrew w marlowe from a story by gary scott thompson and marlowe . starring kevin bacon , elisabeth shue , josh brolin . running time : 112 minutes . rated r for extreme violence and offensive language throughout by the mfcb . reviewed on august 7th , 2000 . what would you do if you could turn invisible ? the possibilities are virtually limitless . there are the cheap , visceral thrills , such as sneaking into changing rooms and dormitories . there are more noble pursuits , like acting as a genuine force for good in your community . perhaps you could offer your services to the government as a crack espionage agent . well , if the makers of " hollow man " are to believed , you'd probably take a page from any generic slasher movie of the past twenty-five years and start hunting down your friends in gory , if not particularly imaginative , ways . uh huh . inspired by , though not really similar to , hg wells' novel " the invisible man " , " hollow man " is about a team of scientists trying to create an invisibility formula ( here it's described as " going out of quantum synch " with the universe , but of course that's just the technobabble explanation ) . the project head is dr sebastian caine ( kevin bacon ) , an arrogant genius with more than a slight streak of megalomania . his assistants include ex-girlfriend linda ( elisabeth shue ) and matt ( josh brolin ) , who are sleeping together behind sebastian's back . in fact , the team has already figured out how to make people become invisible -- the problem lies in trying to reverse the effects . in a flash of inspiration one night , sebastian thinks he figures it out , and indeed their test gorilla isabelle is successfully made visible again . without informing his superiors , sebastian decides to proceed to the next stage of the experiment and test both serums on a human subject : himself . but although he becomes invisible without undue difficulty , the antidote proves to be useless on humans , and sebastian is trapped in his phantomlike state . soon , the tantalising possibilities invisibility offers become too much for sebastian , and he begins to succumb to his base desires . " hollow man " falls short in all moviemaking fundamentals : plot , characterisation , atmosphere . even paul verhoeven's directorial flair , striking in " total recall " ten years ago , is absent here , as the director continues the downward spiral most recently evident in the tedious " starship troopers " . i find it appalling that a movie can take such a great , multifaceted concept -- invisibility -- and hogtie itself to a standard old slasher storyline . and " hollow man " isn't even a particularly good slasher film , because we're not so much as afforded an interesting death sequence . sebastian's murderous rampage , when it finally comes , is without tension , excitement , or invention . it's just an invisible guy killing people , as if that single gimmick would somehow enliven the entire film . there's no effort to create any suspense , or to really shock the viewer ; it just feels like the filmmakers are going through the motions , and rather feebly at that . personally , i'm more interested in special effects where i can see something , rather than those where i can't . sure , a good job is done to achieve the appearance ( as it were ) of invisibility , and i'm sure it took a lot of hard work , but the gosh-wow factor is exhausted pretty quickly . the same goes for the scenes where sebastian suddenly becomes semi-visible , when he is immersed in water or smoke or whatever . the first such sequence is appealing ; the concept gets tired soon thereafter . indeed , the only effects which really left an impression on me were the scenes where the invisibility formula and its antidote are employed -- first on a gorilla , then on sebastian . instead of taking effect all at once , the serums work layer by layer , giving us a view of the inner workings of the bodies like an anatomy textbook brought to life . beyond this , there is little to recommend " hollow man " . kevin bacon does a reasonable job in a role in which his voicework is paramount . but sebastian caine is a desperately uninteresting character . we are robbed of the chance to investigate whether or not it is invisibility which has affected his mind , because he's clearly on the edge even before the experiment . a far more interesting approach to have taken would have been to give us a less unscrupulous character and really delve into the temptations he experiences . sebastian is already such a bastard that his swift decision to abandon his already loose morals comes as little surprise . i realise that " hollow man " is , first and foremost , a thriller , and i am not suggesting that it should have been bogged down in ethical posturing . but i think a more clever movie could have balanced its protagonist's inner turmoil with the requisite action scenes . to make matters worse , the screenplay by andrew w marlowe ( from a story co-conceived with gary scott thompson ) doesn't even come up with interesting things for the invisible sebastian to do . indeed , of all the scenes involving sebastian's abuse of his power , the only one that's at all intriguing is the very first one , where he molests a co-worker ( kim dickens ) , with her being only barely aware of it . there is a definite eroticism to this scene , not the least because of the conflict previously established between the two characters . but it's all downhill from there -- we subsequently get another excuse for partial nudity , and then it's slasher time . that such a fantastic premise is so thoroughly wasted is the surest sign of the sheer creative bankruptcy of the movie . amongst the supporting cast , shue and brolin try gamely to play the heroes , but neither of their characters have much personality to speak of . the film's engagement in a bit of role reversal , casting shue as the more proactive of the pair , is but a minor triumph . most of the other characters are simply there to act as cannon fodder , although dickens and joey slotnick make the most of their small roles . no fair guessing who survives and who doesn't , though . in order to surprised on that point , there would have to be some imagination behind the movie . on the set of " hollow man " , it seems that bodies weren't the only things made to vanish . copyright © 2000 shannon patrick sullivan . archived at the popcorn gallery , <a href= " http : //www . physics . mun . ca/~sps/movies/hollowman . html " >http : //www . physics . mun . ca/~sps/movies/hollowman . html</a> _______________________________________________________________________ / shannon patrick sullivan | " we are all in the gutter , but some of us \ | <a href= " mailto : shannon@mun . ca " >shannon@mun . ca</a> | are looking at the stars . 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