Sebastian Caine (Kevin Bacon) is a scientist working on an invisibility serum. He's working with his ex Linda McKay (Elisabeth Shue) and her new secret boyfriend Matthew Kensington (Josh Brolin). Without telling his military backers, he moves forward to human testing with dire consequences.

It doesn't surprise me that this was directed by Paul Verhoeven. The first thing the invisible guy does is to grab sleeping lady's boob. There is no surprise or suspense here. The guy turns from peeping tom straight to murder and rape. It's the limit of his vision.

The CG is well done for that era. It's well integrated into the real world. That could have made this a great horror movie. It's been a long time since the Invisible man was a relevant character. It's not going to be one on the backs of this movie.

I watched Hollow Man not expecting much but while it was flawed the film was decent. The story is predictable despite a very interesting theme complete with a rather abrupt ending, the characters are hollow particularly Elisabeth Shue's character and the script is on the weak and cheesy side. However, visually it is fantastic with the photography crisp and the effects spot on and the music from master Jerry Goldsmith is very atmospheric. A lot of scenes are genuinely suspenseful and taut and the action is well choreographed. The acting is mostly good, though I thought Shue tries a little too hard with her shallow character, with Kevin Bacon particularly impressive. All in all, decent. 7/10 Bethany Cox

A 21st-century updating of THE INVISIBLE MAN with the added bonus of state-of-the-art special effects? It's a plan which sounds like it can't fail. Unfortunately for us, though, it does fail, and fans of director Paul Verhoeven are in for a big letdown. Eschewing his patented over-the-top gore, seen in the likes of ROBOCOP and STARSHIP TROOPERS, Verhoeven gives us a middling film which is only too happy to rip off most of its plot points from other, better productions.

Instead of having his invisible fiend on the loose in an unsuspecting world, the scriptwriter decided to place most of the action inside an underground laboratory. Like we haven't seen that one before. This immediately loses much of the interest which could have been aroused had the plot taken a different, unconventional direction. As it is, HOLLOW MAN soon descends into typical slasher territory, with a group of people trapped in a single location and being stalked by an unstoppable killer.

With a plot like this you can guess most of what will happen and very rarely does the film surprise or shock. One interesting angle of the story is to focus on the 'Peeping Tom' style voyeurism of Kevin Bacon's character, as he spies on undressing neighbours and fondles a sleeping woman while invisible. But even the horror of the climatic attack (and apparent rape) of a neighbour is ruined by some slap-dash editing which leaves the outcome to your imagination and makes you think "what?!".

Elsewhere, the acting fails to impress on all accounts. Elizabeth Shue is a boring heroine with little to impress in the way of charisma or personality. Josh Brolin is instantly forgettable as yet another bespectacled scientist, while none of the other characters are ever developed beyond basics - they're just there to be killed by Bacon. Bacon himself is off screen most of the time, and to be honest his performance is pretty forgettable too. Most unforgivable though, is the total waste of William Devane in a cameo appearance.

Where this film does succeed are the special effects, which are, of course, top-notch. Highlights include some startling regenerations and disappearances of a gorilla and Bacon himself, which are the finest ever put to screen and pretty disturbing (due to the fact that the subjects of the experiments are in agony while this happens). The SFX wizards also take full advantage of having the invisible man in a swimming pool, getting burnt, covered in blood etc, to show as much of him as possible, if you see what I mean. Gone are the quaint cigarettes on wires, we now have a partially invisible murderer soaked in blood and killing. Subtle it ain't.

The lack of gore is another big disappoint, and there's nothing here that you won't see in a typical slasher-fest. Probably the best bit comes when a nerdy scientist is impaled (from behind) on a metal bar of some sort, but that's about it. All in all it's a hollow experience, but worth watching just to see what the (very) special effects are like.