Kevin Bacon is centre stage in this film - corporeal or not - as Sebastian Caine, a research scientist with hubris and a Porsche who`s working on a Pentagon -funded project deep in the bowels of the earth in a secret laboratory. He has cracked the secret of turning animals invisible and late one night as he moves away from the window where he just misses seeing his neighbour undressing he clicks into the secret of the reverse process - making them visible again. Surrounded by his team of ex-girlfriend Linda - Elizabeth Shue, her new secret lover - Josh Brolin, and a stroppy vet - Kim Dickens and others Sebastian insists they venture into experiments with humans with himself as the guinea pig... let the special effects begin.
The special effects are really really impressive in Hollow Man and at first it seems to have the makings of a first rate psychological thriller - Sebastian`s narcissism is affected by the process, is he the victim of science or the abuser? But screenwriter Andrew W. Marlowe and Verhoeven opt for crowd-pleasing simplicity with predictability predominant in the latter part of the film. It`s amazing that Kevin Bacon manages to maintain a strong presence despite the lack of him for most of it. But not as much can be said for either Elizabeth Shue or Josh Brolin who turn out to be characterless clones. But as a run of the mill thriller, Hollow Man is probably better than most, the only thing that worries me about Verhoeven is an undercurrent of violence towards women that`s got a slightly sick element to it that`s present in this film too...
