6.1 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
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 Caine, fueled by latent megalomaniac tendencies, quickly becomes intoxicated with his new-found power.
Starring: Elisabeth Shue, Kevin Bacon, Josh Brolin, Kim Dickens, Greg GrunbergThriller | 100% |
Horror | 67% |
Action | 21% |
Sci-Fi | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 16-bit)
Spanish: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Jacket incorrectly states Spanish 2.0
English SDH
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Note: This review is of the edition of Hollow Man available as a bundle with Hollow Man 2 from Mill Creek Home Entertainment. A previous version of Hollow Man released by Sony Pictures was reviewed here. 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. Having revisited Hollow Man several times since its release, I have come to the conclusion that the problem is inherent in the script by Andrew W. Marlowe (based on a story by Marlowe and Gary Scott Thompson). Marlowe went on to create the successful and imaginative ABC TV show Castle, but in Hollow Man he and his co-author made a fundamental mistake by endowing invisibility with the same moral significance that H.G. Wells saw when he published The Invisible Man in 1897. In today's world of the internet, tiny remote webcams, satellite surveillance and a myriad other extensions of stealth technology, the notion of a naked man running around unseen so that he can spy on people has become faintly ridiculous. Even the invisible protagonist's physical attacks, many of them sexual in nature, seem unremarkable in comparison to what is daily reported in the news and routinely portrayed on screen—and, in any case, Verhoeven had to cut the worst of it after preview audiences objected. He restored it all for this director's cut, but it's still just heinous behavior. What's transparency got to do with it?
Mill Creek's 1080p, AVC-encoded presentation of Hollow Man appears to use the same transfer as Sony's 2007 Blu-ray, which looked quite good for its day and still does. However, the transfer has been remastered for this double-feature disc, with different audio and subtitle options, and the bitrate is substantially lower (18.99 vs. 25.47 Mbps). As hard as I looked, however, I was not able to perceive any diminution in video quality, and when I put on the Sony disc immediately following my viewing of Mill Creek's, there was no obvious improvement. The skills of Blu-ray compressionists have no doubt advanced in the six and a half years since Hollow Man's first appearance on the format. It's possible that large-screen front projection may reveal flaws that were not obvious on my 72" screen. If so, I would like to hear from viewers with such equipment. In the meantime, I see no reason for purchasers to favor one version over the other on the issue of video. Although Hollow Man pre-dated digital intermediates, so much of the film was digitally composited that it closely resembles a contemporary DI creation. The Blu-ray image is clear, sharp and detailed, with an almost harsh quality to the lighting in the research facility, which was no doubt designed to enhance the "transparency" effects. The color palette is unrelentingly cold, with strong blues and whites (not teal, mind you: blues), and the blacks in the key scenes at night are deep and solid. Cinematography Jost Vacano was clearly going for a chilly sense of sterility, even in scenes involving copious bleeding, and he achieved it.
Where the Sony disc offered a choice of 5.1 soundtracks in lossy Dolby Digital or lossless PCM, the Mill Creek disc has a single option of DTS-HD MA 5.1. (An additional Spanish dub track is included as DTS-HD MA 5.1, misdescribed on the Blu-ray jacket as "2.0".) The track makes effective use of the discrete speaker array for such obvious effects as Sebastian's voice moving about the room to convey his invisible travels. Subtler effects like the sounds of the lab facility (steam, electrical switches, machinery) are placed throughout the array and register almost subliminally. Some of the soundtrack's best effects are quiet moments, when Sebastian's presence is revealed by a near-silent exhalation of breath or the sound of a chair swiveling. The true strength of a sound mix is often revealed by how well it handles the quiet moments, and this one does so effectively. Jerry Goldsmith's score is mixed seamlessly to "punch up" some of the bigger moments. It's not entirely Goldsmith's fault that the score often seem to echo Basic Instinct, since there are points in the film when Verhoeven himself seems to be reaching for some of that earlier film's perverse thrill. (He never comes close.)
This Mill Creek disc contains no extras. The Sony Blu-ray included an HBO "Making Of" featurette called "Anatomy of a Thriller"; an effects documentary entitled "Fleshing out the Hollow Man"; "VFX Picture-in-Picture Comparisons"; and trailers for other Sony features.
If you're a fan of Hollow Man and are more interested in its sequel than in extras, this disc from Mill Creek offers an attractive and cost-effective option. If you care about the extras, then the Sony disc can still be had for a reasonable price. Both offer good presentations of Verhoeven's film. As for the film itself, it hasn't improved with age, and I don't expect it ever will. No recommendation either way, but the options should be clearly laid out for the prospective purchaser.
(Still not reliable for this title)
2007
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1987
1997
Ultimate Collector's Edition
1986
40th Anniversary Edition
1979
2009
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Collector's Edition
1995
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3-Disc Set
2010
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Unrated Extended Edition
2005
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2008
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