Hollow Man

Columbia Pictures | Release Date: August 4, 2000

4.9	USER SCORE Mixed or average reviews based on 401 Ratings

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Toasty87Jul 12, 2020

Bad script but decent casting and plot could have and should have been better.

26 of 29 users found this helpful263

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longjetty7Mar 30, 2015

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Not as bad as the critics might have you think, but it's still not so good. This movie comes across to me like a wasted opportunity. The special effects and the premise are intriguing, but there are so many interesting and thought-provoking ways this movie could have gone that are left unexplored, and it instead ends up being a cliche and mediocre thriller. The last 20 minutes or so are actually entertaining, but it's all so illogical and ridiculous. Why can't you see food that Kevin Bacon eats if he's invisible? How did he survive being electrocuted and randomly appear in the elevator shaft? How did that other guy survive getting a gaping hole in his abdomen and yet 10 minutes later he was running around and climbing elevators? How did they not get hit by the rubble falling all over them? Lazy, lazy writing!… Expand

27 of 32 users found this helpful275

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eva3si0nJan 4, 2021

Hollow Man is surprisingly a very weak film. It has an interesting plot, but then the plot becomes linear and predictable. The characters are not spelled out at all, they have no motivation. Dialogues are primitive. Very weak régessure. Is itHollow Man is surprisingly a very weak film. It has an interesting plot, but then the plot becomes linear and predictable. The characters are not spelled out at all, they have no motivation. Dialogues are primitive. Very weak régessure. Is it possible to distinguish only visual effects, here they look normal, and the empty shape of the head looks fresh.… Expand

19 of 23 users found this helpful194

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SpangleJul 7, 2017

Throughout his career, Paul Verhoeven has been criticized for his film's rampant misogyny, violence against women (rape is a constant), and strong violence. Hollow Man, unarguably his worst film, embodies all of these. Yet, as always, it isThroughout his career, Paul Verhoeven has been criticized for his film's rampant misogyny, violence against women (rape is a constant), and strong violence. Hollow Man, unarguably his worst film, embodies all of these. Yet, as always, it is through a unique lens. While Verhoeven himself claims that anybody could have directed Hollow Man - and he is right - few could have pulled off the antagonist of Hollow Man (Kevin Bacon) in the fashion that Verhoeven did. Turning this heinous man into a compelling antagonist to protagonist Linda (Elisabeth Shue), Verhoeven makes this film one that is squarely about the dangers faced by women in a world dominated by men, their ambitions, and their potentially nefarious intentions with women. It is unfortunate, then, that the rest of the film is so bland.

This thematic consideration is introduced quite early. Sebastian Caine (Bacon), is a brilliant scientist who discovers how to not just make animals invisible, but how to make them re-appear again. Confident that his experiment will work on humans, he uses himself as the test subject. Unfortunately for him, things go wrong and he stays invisible. Unfortunately for everyone else, Sebastian is a truly wicked man and a perfect portrait of toxic masculinity. Wishing to own Linda, Sebastian is immediately incensed when he sees another man in her bed when giving her the news about his initial breakthrough. Yet, he never gives up the chase and continuously makes advances on her to try and make her "his" once more. When he learns that she is dating co-worker Matt (Josh Brolin), his rage only becomes more pronounced. Thus, it is no surprise to see Verhoeven set the film up as being Sebastian versus Linda. In dream sequences, Linda imagines being raped by the invisible Sebastian and that is exactly the plight she must face. Verhoeven, like many male directors, is often obsessed with putting women in dangerous situations out of a fear that women in the world are in danger. Linda is put in this position in the film via her connection to Sebastian before his invisibility. Now, with him invisible, it is only natural that he will continue to act on his belief that Linda belongs to him and nobody else.

Yet, Sebastian, as with many men who possess this dangerous toxic masculinity, believes that he is owed any woman's body. Leering at a woman undressing in the apartment across from his in a disturbing act of voyeurism - in sequences that feel like a Verhoeven-led interpretation of Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window - Sebastian continuously is disheartened when she closes the blinds before revealing her nude body. Not taking no for an answer, he quickly takes advantage of his invisibility and opts to rape her. Driven out of a desire to demystify the woman and assert his ownership of his body, Sebastian's act of violence is driven by a need to see her nude and is an urge he cannot put away. It is primal, violent, and thoroughly disturbing. At work, he sexually assaults veterinarian Sarah (Kim Dickens). The sequence is similarly alarming and brilliantly approached by Verhoeven. On the surface, however, if Sebastian were the protagonist, this would be troubling. Instead, by making him the antagonist, Verhoeven turns it into a terrifying display of rape culture in the world with Sebastian Caine being the embodiment of any man who believes that women owe him sex or to simply see them nude. By doing this, Verhoeven turns Hollow Man into an unexpected, but chilling, realization of the classic "male fantasy". Ask some young men what they would if they were invisible and you will get the answer that they would spy on women in the locker room or through the window. It is a classic "boys will be boys" answer that will likely elicit laughter from the right crowd, but is a chilling confirmation of one thing: some average men would sexually harass, sexually assault, or even rape, women if there were no consequences. Sebastian is one of these men. Before raping the girl across the way, he tries to talk himself out of it before realizing that nobody will ever know. He lives out work fantasies of seeing Sarah naked who he views as "feisty" due to her constant fights with him. By making Sarah be the one he assaults at work, it is a smart tactic to show how Sebastian craves power. She emasculates him by challenging him and his decisions, thus he must ensure he can reclaim power over her and make her subordinate to his manly strength. After watching Sebastian's terrifying reign of terror on the women of the city, it is hardly a surprise that he is reluctant to give away his "power". It is the only thing that makes him feel like a "complete" man with the way in which he gets the sex he wants with who he wants, even if they do not want the same. It may even be able to restore Linda's body to him if he can sneak past Matt. It is a chilling depiction of the dangerous and possessive toxic masculinity that lurks in the background of many average people.… Expand

18 of 22 users found this helpful184

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bfoore90Jul 17, 2020

An effective thriller at times with good special effects for its time. I've seen most of the criticism being aimed towards the film's rampant misogyny and while that is a very valid criticism, it's still an effective and largely containedAn effective thriller at times with good special effects for its time. I've seen most of the criticism being aimed towards the film's rampant misogyny and while that is a very valid criticism, it's still an effective and largely contained thriller when it gets down to it. The cast is good, Kevin Bacon is effective as the arrogant and very misogynistic Sebastian Cain and it offers up decent scares and intense moments. Its mostly okay… Expand

9 of 11 users found this helpful92

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Aversion68May 2, 2021

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. A scientist volunteers himself to turn invisible for his research. He can't turn back and he loses his mind attacking his colleagues later in the film. The concept is brilliant but it is underused the results are very underwhelming. The movie would've been great but it turns into your run of the mill, cliched slasher thriller. Kevin should have played the protagonist not the antagonist, that would have worked. Someone else should have been the invisible one. Bacon is lousy as a villain and many scenes also add nothing to the movie as when he attacks the lady in the apartment across from his. That scene is very gratuitous and pointless.… Expand

8 of 12 users found this helpful84

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RindApr 23, 2021

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8 of 18 users found this helpful810

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BigK.Dec 20, 2005

I've seen better and worse films with Mr Bacon. This film is simply another cliched foray into the sci/fi/horror type flick. Truly ordinary in the way it ends with the lacklustre defeat of the (by that stage) poorly computer generated I've seen better and worse films with Mr Bacon. This film is simply another cliched foray into the sci/fi/horror type flick. Truly ordinary in the way it ends with the lacklustre defeat of the (by that stage) poorly computer generated Bacon. (in fact he looks like he might actually have been made out of bacon).… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful

LuchidorAug 11, 2023

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0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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