Hollow Man 2 (DVD)

Paul Verhoeven's Hollow Man wasn't bad, but it quickly disappeared from my memory. Now, six years later we have a sequel — Verhoeven is a producer, but Kevin Bacon is nowhere to be seen. Nope, this time around we've got unknown Claudio Fäh in the director's chair, and the mostly unseen Christian Slater providing the disembodied voice of the hollow man.

Hollow Man 2 is a pretty cut-n-dried follow up, which has absolutely nothing to do with the original expect that some dudes disappear and they're mighty ticked off by their lack of substance. You might feel the same way about the script — Joel Soisson, he-scribe of the many recent Prophecy and Wes Craven's Dracula sequels — but it's servicable.

The story follows a clean-cut detective (Peter Facinelli) and a beautiful biologist (Laura Regan) who are hot on the trail of a dangerous invisible assassin gone rogue (Christian Slater). Griffin is indeed rogue, but he's got his reasons: he was forced to become a freak when the government-sanctioned mad scientists injected him with the no-see-um serum. There's also an evil politician in the mix. Everyone's on the run.

One thing I do remember about the first Hollow Man is that it was pre-advertised as a scary, possibly horror, movie. It wasn't. It was kinda creepy, though and had some jump-scares and even a bit of blood. Hollow Man 2 is even less a fright flick, though it is being advertised on horror websites and such (and sent to horror reviewers!).

Hollow Man 2 is a serviceable thriller and the invisibility scenes are well done. Slater's distinctive intonations add to the value of the proceedings, but you don't see much of him. And when you do, he's half-dressed and you wonder how he ever passed the military physical to become a super-soldier… the only six-pack he's got includes pull-tabs. (By the way that's not a swipe at Slater, who I actually like and would enjoy seeing in more movies, it's a figurative thump on the head to whoever did the casting.) At any rate, Slater's the best thing in the movie — the main hogs of screen time, Facinelli and Regan, might as well be cardboard cutouts their characters are so 1-D.

I didn't hate Hollow Man 2 — in fact, if you're into government conspiracy chase flicks you'll probably be on NetFlix any minute now — but I didn't feel much of anything else for it, either.

The DVD includes a reasonably interesting and informative making-of featurette, but it's pretty standard fare. It's likely fun for fans of the cast to see them in on-set interviews, and cutting up on set.

= = =

Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson