Hollow Man (2000)

Elevator Pitch: In a secret underground facility in Washington a group of scientists are developing a means of making people invisible. They have succeeded with animals but have problems restoring them to a normal state. When they seem to have solved the problem, scientist Sebastian Caine submits to the process and is successfully made invisible, but his team are unable to restore him to normality. It also seems that the process causes the subjects to become deranged and in Caine’s case it enhances his tendency to be a sexual predator. After he takes advantage of his invisibility to rape an attractive neighbour, how can he be stopped?

Content: The team can see the invisible man by wearing heat detecting goggles, and so can we, so Kevin Bacon naked occasionally. Caine’s creepy activities result in him, and us, seeing a number of partially clothed young women although the actual rape in inferred. There is a lot of time spent in the underground facility which is approached by a very deep diving elevator – important to the plot. There are a number of corridors and animal cages, and a central area containing some very technical looking equipment where the serums are manufactured. To allow him to move about Caine wears a latex mask, also very creepy.

A View: This film cost a lot, $50 million being assigned to the special effects, but despite the cost and the negative reviews it made a bit of money. The voyeuristic activities of the invisible man are just a bit unsettling since we see them from his POV. Elizabeth Shue and Josh Brolin are supposed to be lovers, but don’t really make a success of it. So, all in all probably a film you could have on while doing something else. Look up when it gets noisy.

Additional Info: . I am a bit of an admirer of British actors who have had a go in Hollywood, and these include Rhona Mitra, in an early outing as the rape victim. She is an ex-pupil of Roedean, the most expensive girl’s school in UK.