The Steel Caves Movie Review

"Hollow Man"

Subtle is probably not a word that Paul Verhoeven uses that much, blood, gore, sexual titillation and graphic violence yes, but subtle? not a chance. I would be very surprised if he even knew what it meant. Judging by the looks of Hollow Man I would say no.

I don’t know why I am surprised, his previous outings have been loud, in yer face, movies that are impossible not to enjoy at some primal level. Starship Troopers, Total recall and Basic instinct were good, popcorn viewing (the less said about the goddamn awful Striptease the better) and yes I did thoroughly enjoy them. Well okay, basic instinct was a bit patchy but when Mr. Verhoven puts his mind to a science fiction film he knows exactly what he is doing.

The story in his latest big budget flick has Kevin Bacon as Sebastion Caine, a brilliant but cocky scientist who having helped developed the act of invisibility, decides to defy the powers that be and become the first human guinea pig. After a painful (and very disgusting) metamorphosis into invisibility, the rest of his scientist buddies are unable to bring him back to the land of the seeing. Thus, the good scientist goes stone bonkers and happily abuses his new found powers (as any insane loon would).

Not for Paul are the old fashioned bandages and subtly, no he goes straight for the jugular and shows as what a man would really be like after becoming invisible. Hence a story of voyeurism, violence and a few hundred gallons of blood.

I have to admit that it did become a little too much after a while, and a I felt myself longing for a bit of credible shock, rather than just gore, gore and more gore.

What saves the film however, is the performance of, the always excellent, Kevin Bacon, his portrayal of the fiend that is Caine is the big saving grace of the film. You don’t see him for the majority of the film but he is sizzling none-the-less. Elizabeth Shue (the girlfriend) and Josh Brolin do what they can with their parts and the other players are all adequate, the special effects are excellent as you would expect and the film does have it’s fair share of trouser filling shocks, but you can’t help feeling so what?

This is old time when a bit of subtlety may have been a plus. Overall I would say that if you are after a b-movie, splatter, thriller then this is right up your street, if not, then wait for the DVD release.

6/10

Cast

Kevin Bacon
Elizabeth Shue
Josh Brolin
Kim Dickens
Greg Grunberg

Directed by Paul Verhoeven.

Hollow man was released at British cinemas 29.9.2000