Hollow Man is one of those films that I kept missing for the last several years, and I finally got around to watching it. It's a Sci-Fi thriller that borders on a B-rated monster movie flick at times, but successfully skirts the line. It stars Kevin Bacon and Elisabeth Shue.The story is that a group of scientists are working on an invisibility protocol for the military. They think they can make people invisible by phase shifting them. The team is led by Dr. Sebastian Caine (Bacon). After some initial success in animal models, they decide to "take it to the next level" and make Caine invisible, in the grand tradition of testing a great scientific advancement on yourself first. While the invisibility works well, unfortunately the reversal doesn't go according to plan. Next thing we know, we have Caine racing around the lab invisible, spying on his coworkers, and creating problems for all concerned.
The special effects were very well done throughout the film. When the invisible man splashes himself with water, it looks quite realistic. Also, the anatomy they showed during the transformation looked quite accurate.
Unfortunately, yet again, I did find another medical error. At one point, one of the scientists gets a penetrating injury to the left lower abdomen. The other scientist looks as the trauma, says it's not that deep, and duct tapes him up. Two issues here folks. First, from when the crowbar was embedded in, it looked pretty deep. In this type of injury (essentially an abdominal stab wound) it would require an exploration of the wound to assess for fascial violation to assess the need for exploratory surgery (laparotomy). This would also involve palpating the fascia in the assessment to see if it was intact, which they didn't do. The second issue is that then they tape up the wound with duct tape. First of all, with a bleeding wound, the tape won't stick with the gushing blood (and they didn't even dry it first). A few scenes later we see him climbing up a ladder, duct tape and all, like nothing happened. This is pretty implausible.
Overall, I did enjoy Hollow Man. Medical nitpicks aside, it had some of the better special effects than I've seen, and while the plot is not too deep, at least it does have one. If you're looking for some Sci Fi cinema, than Hollow Man is for you.Overall Grade: B
Reviewed by Jonas
1 comment:
You're too kind. Though the effects are indeed great, the acting and execution is pretty B-grade, as you alluded to. Shue has that effect though, I suppose...
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