I love this dark, horrible little movie. Awesome special effects aside, it dares to go into brutal territory so quickly it will shock even the most jaded movie goer. Kevin Bacon plays a cocky-yet-still-likeable scientist who turns instantly into psychotic rapist/dog & people killer once he becomes invisible to the human eye. There’s some throw away line about how “the serum is effecting his mind” but I am sure this was at the last minute insistance of the studio. This is about an average person realizing there are no more consequences for his actions and embracing evil because he finds evil to be addictive fun. Hence, a difficult movie to market. This is a “director’s cut” version, but I couldn’t find a difference between it and the earlier one (which I saw not all that long ago.)
Many cry foul at this movie. They say the movie is evil and that Verhoeven is a sick, demanted man who is sympathetic to rapists. Being a swaggering dick is what Verhoeven does best. Sometimes this envelope-pushing works brilliantly, as in RoboCop and Starship Troopers. Sometimes the text itself doesn’t merit the transgression, as in the unfortunate Black Book. Hollow Man is probably somewhere in between in this regard. But if you turn your brain off completely, it also works as a pure popcorn flick. I think it is worth your time.
