Director's Cut
Mill Creek Entertainment | 2000 | 119 min | Unrated | Region A (B, C untested) | No Release Date
Sebastian Caine heads a top-secret research project to unlock the secret of invisibility. When the formula works successfully on animals, an ecstatic Caine recklessly disobeys orders and experiments on himself. The invisible...
After Robocop, Total Recall and Starship Troopers, news that director Paul Verhoeven was
preparing to unleash yet another sci-fi spectacular sent shivers of anticipation through his loyal
fans (myself included). Then we saw the movie and wondered what had gone wrong. How could
a talent as singular, extravagant and kinky as the Dutch wildman have produced something so
utterly banal? Sure, the effects were eye-popping, groundbreaking and suitably icky (and they
still hold up today). But the story was no more than a tale of a nerd who snapped at the office
after his girlfriend dumped him for a colleague. The fact that the nerd happened to be invisible
made his rampage a little more intriguing than bringing a Glock to work, but not that much. Even
Verhoeven's usual windowdressing of nudity, voyeurism and misogyny couldn't disguise the fact
that he'd essentially made a slasher film—and a fairly unoriginal variation at that, with a villain
who was neither scary nor especially interesting.
Despite mostly dreadful reviews, Hollow Man managed to turn a profit at the worldwide box
office on the strength of its impressive effects. Lesser films with worse performance have been
given a sequel, which means that Hollow Man 2 was almost inevitable. Six years later, it arrived
and went straight to video. The director, Swiss-born Claudio Fäh, had neither Verhoeven's
ambition nor his budget. Hollow Man 2 returned to what worked for Claude Rains in the original
The Invisible Man, which was tossing people and
objects about at the hands of an unseen force.
Fäh's best "effect" was casting Peter Facinelli as the film's true lead before the actor was well
known for his roles in the Twilight series and Nurse Jackie. Facinelli is a genuinely talented
performer, who lends Hollow Man 2 what little credibility it can claim.
Pairing the two Hollow Men films has the benefit of putting Paul Verhoeven's film into
perspective by revealing it for what it always was: a pricey update of The Invisible Man.
However, if you're a fan of Hollow Man and want the extras, its original Blu-ray release by Sony
can still be had for a reasonable price. Both offer good presentations of Verhoeven's film. The
two-for-one disc from Mill Creek is the only release of Hollow Man 2. The choice is yours.
