Hollow Man  ★★★

THE recent Invisible Man remake prompted me to revisit Paul Verhoeven’s Hollow Man from 2000.

The film stars Kevin Bacon as a scientist who is leading a team conducting invisibility experiments for the military.

Dr Sebastian Cane is a brilliant and driven but reckless genius with dubious morals who decides to fast-track things by experimenting on himself.

The resulting initial success of the bold move is marred by Cane’s increasingly unhinged attitude and actions when he decides to play God with his new-found powers.

Bacon is well cast as the arrogant, playboy scientist who starts using his invisibility to firstly perve on naked women and eventually, as his ego-fuelled paranoia builds, physically attack the other members of his team who are trying to control him.

The supporting cast are all reasonable, including Josh Brolin in an early role, and some of the special effects are eye-catching for their time. Verhoeven builds the tension nicely to a bloody and exciting final showdown.

Hollowman is another example of the semi-exploitative, mainstream cinema for which the Dutch director is known.

For those not aware, he was also responsible for Starship Troopers, Basic Instinct, the original versions of Robocop and Total Recall and the infamous, trashy Showgirls.