Extras: Featurettes: "Fleshing Out the Hollow Man" and "Anatomy of a
Thriller", 3 Deleted Scenes, Trailers, VFX Picture in Picture Comparisons,
Filmographies, Animated Menus, 2 Audio Commentaries
Linda McKay: Elisabeth Shue
Sebastian Caine: Kevin Bacon
Matthew Kensington: Josh Brolin
Sarah Kennedy: Kim Dickens
Carter Abbey: Greg Grunberg
Frank Chase: Joey Slotnick
Janice Walton: Mary Randle
Dr. Howard Kramer: William Devane
Sebastian's neighbour: Rhona Mitra
Sweet Invisibility
Hollow Man is perfect B-movie nonsense and similar to Bacon's
thriller from ten years before,
Flatliners,
it features a group of wannabe scientists taking up far too much time and
public money on an over-ambitious project that'll lead to much trauma for all
involved and will adversely affect a few innocents along the way.
Dr. Sebastian Caine (Kevin Bacon) has hit upon a way to make animals
invisible, but that's the easy part. It's making them reappear that's the
problem. If you're against animals being tested upon then this film might not
be for you, but it's worth noting that in all the parts where it matters,
you're most likely to be looking at a work of CGI and not a real puppy or
primate.
Once they successfully bring back a gorilla from see-thru limbo, Caine decides
to have a go himself but things don't quite go to plan - otherwise we wouldn't
have a film here - and he's under the influence for longer than initially
predicted, which leads him to paying a visit to spook a few people including
his female neighbour (the original Lara Croft and one-time presenter
of Channel 5's Pepsi Chart Show, gorgeous model Rhona Mitra
- and yes, she does get 'em out for the lads).
It's up to the rest of the cast to track him down and bring him back to the
land of the living, which is where the film starts to descend into rather a
gory farce. You won't find much in the way of surprises in terms of the plot,
but in director Paul Verhoeven's hands he makes a splendid
job of it with brilliantly-realised special FX that blend nicely with the
real-life action, particularly noticeable as the camera pans around the
scientists' compound, taking in both people and 'patients'. A hugely enjoyable
treat for all who can stomach the occasional, but strong, violence.
Hollow Man is most definitely Bacon's movie, so why does the
terrible Elisabeth Shue get top billing as his ex-girlfriend Linda?
She's only had one shining moment in the superb
Leaving Las Vegas
but here she does nothing to prove her worth, apart from running about with
new partner - and colleague to both - Matthew (Josh Brolin). The rest
of the cast is made up with dim and fat Carter (Greg Grunberg),
Tefal-egghead Frank (Joey Slotnick), timid Janice (Mary Randle)
and feisty Sarah Kennedy (Kim Dickens) - any relation to the former
Give Us A Clue host-cum-Radio 2 presenter ?
Finally, the king of the TV movie scene, William Devane, has a cameo
as one of the suits putting up the funding to Caine's project.
Spectacular effects demand a spectacular presentation and Columbia have done
us proud. Artifacts are non-existant and colours are perfect. As you watch
the film you begin to notice CGI appearing where you'd normally least expect
it and it's all rendered perfectly.
The picture is in the original 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen ratio.
The average bitrate is 5.58Mb/s, occasionally peaking above 8Mb/s.
Dolby Digital 5.1 has been provided in English and Hungarian (Hungarians
please note the Region 1 DVD won't give you this language). Full use of it
is made, first as Jerry Goldsmith's memorable score sets the scene,
then when the tension builds as the experiment begins and towards the end
when the chase is on (but I'll reveal no more!)
There are two featurettes, Fleshing Out the Hollow Man (15 mins) - which
provides a breakdown of the special FX construction of Bacon's character - and
HBO's Anatomy of a Thriller (also 15 mins), which follows the more traditional
featurette formula: film clips broken up with comments and chat from the
cast and crew.
There are Three Deleted Scenes, the latter two of which contain
additional commentary from director Verhoeven. I won't spoil what happens
in them, but it's safe to say they didn't need to be included in the film
itself. They're worth a watch although you could figure out their content
for yourself and taking them out of the main feature quickens the pace.
Three VFX Picture in Picture Comparisons are also included, showing
'green screen' (wot no blue?) effects and motion-capture on Kevin Bacon.
Two Trailers are included, both in Dolby Digital 5.1, both of which
give away a little too much about the film than I'd rather know beforehand,
but only the latter provides the singular anamorphic content amongst the
extras. Filmographies for the director and the three leads and
Audio Commentaries from both composer Jerry Goldsmith and
a combined one with director Verhoeven, Bacon and screenwriter Andrew W.
Marlowe round off the extras.
Missing from this package are the trailers for
A Few Good Men,
Starship Troopers and the forthcoming Final Fantasy movie,
which can all be found on the Region 1 DVD.
As this is a Columbia DVD we have the usual 28 chapters and subtitles in a massive
16 languages :
English, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Icelandic, Hindi, Hebrew, Dutch,
Bulgarian, Turkish, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Greek, Norwegian and Arabic.
The menus mix Goldsmith's hypnotic score with cool animation showing off
Caine's laboratory.
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
Sweet Invisibility
There are two featurettes, Fleshing Out the Hollow Man (15 mins) - which
provides a breakdown of the special FX construction of Bacon's character - and
HBO's Anatomy of a Thriller (also 15 mins), which follows the more traditional
featurette formula: film clips broken up with comments and chat from the
cast and crew.