Hollow Man
Movie: Hollow Man (2000)
Watched with: Angelo
I wanted to see this because, after liking the corporate criticism of Robocop and the fascism psuedo-critique of Starship Troopers, I wanted to see some more Paul Verhoeven, and Angelo refused to watch Basic Instinct.
Unfortunately, Hollow Man lacks the screenwriter behind those better scifi movies, and in their place is the guy who brought us such thoughtful masterpieces as Air Force One and End of Days.
The very first scene of Hollow Man is already dumb, as an impossibly loud and impossibly fast rat (have you ever heard a rat loudly squeak or seen it run?) is eaten by an invisible gorilla. Considering gorillas are herbavores--not even omnivores like chimpanzees and humans--this is about is implausible as the invisibility serum itself.
More generally, the first 45 minutes or so of the movie are pretty good. The invisibiity effect is cool, the characters (while not exactly deep) are distinguishable and passably interesting, and it's all fittingly dramatic.
The movie fails once the screenwriter got bored and had Kevin Bacon just turn evil.
There's an interesting moment where he realizes no one can stop him from spying on his hot neighbor and he says, "I shouldn't...but...who would know?"
It could have been really cool if the movie was about his slow descent into creepiness.
Instead, he just breaks in and rapes her. Ugly and obvious and boring.
The other way it could have been interesting is if he turned evil immediately but then he stayed out of sight, and the other characters could be constantly paranoid about whether or not he's there. It kind of tries to do this, but then they get bored and have him start smashing windows and it's dumb.
The climax is senseless and uninteresting, inexiplicably involving an exploding elevator shaft.
The way in which Paul Verhoeven is awesome is not a way which precludes him doing shit movies, so I can't really say I'm dissapointed, but it should have been better.
Watched with: Angelo
I wanted to see this because, after liking the corporate criticism of Robocop and the fascism psuedo-critique of Starship Troopers, I wanted to see some more Paul Verhoeven, and Angelo refused to watch Basic Instinct.
Unfortunately, Hollow Man lacks the screenwriter behind those better scifi movies, and in their place is the guy who brought us such thoughtful masterpieces as Air Force One and End of Days.
The very first scene of Hollow Man is already dumb, as an impossibly loud and impossibly fast rat (have you ever heard a rat loudly squeak or seen it run?) is eaten by an invisible gorilla. Considering gorillas are herbavores--not even omnivores like chimpanzees and humans--this is about is implausible as the invisibility serum itself.
More generally, the first 45 minutes or so of the movie are pretty good. The invisibiity effect is cool, the characters (while not exactly deep) are distinguishable and passably interesting, and it's all fittingly dramatic.
The movie fails once the screenwriter got bored and had Kevin Bacon just turn evil.
There's an interesting moment where he realizes no one can stop him from spying on his hot neighbor and he says, "I shouldn't...but...who would know?"
It could have been really cool if the movie was about his slow descent into creepiness.
Instead, he just breaks in and rapes her. Ugly and obvious and boring.
The other way it could have been interesting is if he turned evil immediately but then he stayed out of sight, and the other characters could be constantly paranoid about whether or not he's there. It kind of tries to do this, but then they get bored and have him start smashing windows and it's dumb.
The climax is senseless and uninteresting, inexiplicably involving an exploding elevator shaft.
The way in which Paul Verhoeven is awesome is not a way which precludes him doing shit movies, so I can't really say I'm dissapointed, but it should have been better.
posted by Kane Lynch at
10:24 PM
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