The Hollow Man is in many ways an updating of the old invisible man films from the 1930's but has the added benefit of some truly wonderful CGI visual effects.
Some movies overuse CGI and can detract from the storyline but in this movie all of the effects work enhances the film.
In order to use the title the producers bought the rights to the novel Hollow Man written by Dan Simmons but the book has absolutely nothing to do with invisibility.
Shot on 35mm Kodak film and with a 1.85:1 cinema aspect ratio.
When i originally viewed this several years back i was not that impressed by the story or the characters in it but on this repeat viewing i found myself enjoying it so much more and getting wrapped up in the story line.
Dutch film maker Paul Verhoeven directed this and he is someone who can usually be relied upon to make a very good sci fi movie.
Some of Verhoeven's past films includes RoboCop, Total Recall, Showgirls and Starship Troopers. He also directed the wonderful Zwartboek ( aka Black Book ) and the controversial Basic Instinct.
The cast of Hollow Man is also impressive featuring some well known faces you will recognize from television and other movies such as Greg Grunberg ( Heroes ) Kim Dickens ( Lost ) Joey Slotnick ( Nip/Tuck ) William Devane ( 24 and Knots Landing ) and Rhona Mitra ( Doomsday )
The most well known members of the cast are Elisabeth Shue, Josh Brolin and Kevin Bacon.
Film Plot
Scientists working for a top military project try to uncover the secrets of invisibility.
The research team manage to get it to work with animals but when tested on a human subject the experiment leads to insanity and before long murder.
Scientist becomes pitted against scientist with survival the only prize.
Positives
Science allows us to examine human morality and our place in the universe.
Within the context of movie making our imagination can be let loose and while invisibility may seem very over the top the fact is that the military have been working on just such a notion.
This film's science is well told and imaginatively played out onscreen and all the cast give wonderful performances.
The storyline is simplistic and yet very engaging.
The direction from Verhoeven is assured and brilliant and once again the fabulous Jerry Goldsmith composes a wonderful music score which is appropriate for the visuals and involving for the audience.
Kevin Bacon is not seen much in the movie but manages to convey the emotions and downright ugliness of his mad scientist very well and Elisabeth Shue and Josh Brolin add an appealing touch to the proceedings and are characters you can care for.
The ending is exciting and appropriate and the cinematography is excellent.
Very good image quality. Detailed and film like and the film grain structure has mostly been left intact which is important for preserving the finer detail when a film gets transferred to Blu Ray.
Colors are bold and contrast is very good and never overdone and shadow detail is very good.
The uncompressed sound is dynamic and open and Goldsmith's score sounds very spacious and rich. A wonderful film music score.
You hear some nice rear split surround sounds and deep heavy bass during the final part of the film and when all channels and the subwoofer are playing at the same time speech is never drowned out and always sounds intelligible.
I was very pleased with both the picture and sound quality on this disc.
Negatives
I would have liked to have seen Kevin Bacon's mad scientist use his abilities for more than just spying on women and sexual intent.
A handful of scenes might have had some minor grain reduction and i thought i spotted ringing in one scene, all minor complaints though as it's mostly good.
The original DVD had a wonderful audio commentary and an isolated music score but both have been dropped for this release. Other extras are also missing.
Final Thoughts
The fact i didn't like this film much when i first viewed it shows me that sometimes you can too easily dismiss a film if you are not in the right mood and that often you need to give a movie another chance before you can reach a proper decision on your feelings about it.
It helps in giving the film another chance when it looks this good and the presentation is high.
Studio's need to preserve the grain structure of their movies when transferring it to disc as that is where all the high definition detail resides. I am glad this disc has most of that detail intact.
My reaction to this movie now is that it is a very entertaining film and if you can let loose your imagination for just a few hours then it will pull you in and satisfy you.
I enjoyed the interaction between the characters and felt the script was well written. Open your mind to the possibilities that we can only dream of and you can broaden your horizons and enjoy this type of film so much more.
Yesterday's science fiction can sometimes become today's science fact.
I have an active imagination so found it easy to put myself in this world and enjoy it.
I recommend this film for all those with an imagination.
Technical Disc Specifications