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Right from the first scene of Hollow Man, I knew I was in for a long, gruesome ride. It begins with a mouse (a cute little mouse -– like the kind your science teacher kept as pets) scurrying into a cage. It stops for a drink. Suddenly, it’s lifted off the ground by something unseen. It contorts, it shrieks, and then it pretty much explodes into a bloody mess.
And it doesn’t get any better.
The story is about Dr. Sebastian Caine (Kevin Bacon -– who once again proves that it’s beyond time for him to retire) and his team –- Linda (Elizabeth Shue) and Matt (Josh Brolin) –- who have been working for several years to discover a way to make animals disappear -– and reappear. Once they find it, the next step is to try the process out on a human. The team goes behind the backs of the Pentagon committee assigned to the project, and Caine undergoes the process and becomes invisible.
When it’s time to bring him back, however, the formula doesn’t work, and he’s forced to stay invisible until his partners can find a successful formula. But he gets tired of being stuck in the lab, so he escapes. That’s when he realizes that, since he’s invisible, he can do whatever he wants because no one can see him -– so he begins to rape and murder (and just plain scare people) while his team struggles to bring him back to his senses.
I’m pretty sure that I could have lived a perfectly complete and satisfying life without ever seeing this film. The story was somewhat ridiculous -– thanks to a handful of blatant impossibilities (like Shue creating a powerful electromagnet to get herself out of a room that’s set at –30 degrees) and a pathetically predictable love triangle. And this is no Casper the Friendly Ghost. It’s gory and disgusting and senselessly violent.
If you’re one of those people who really enjoy gore and senseless violence (and lame, predictable plots), then you’ll love this movie, and I totally recommend it.
But if you’re not one of those people, pass this one by.
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