Movies: September 2000 Archives

Just a few minutes into Hollow Man, my jaw hit the floor. Paul Verhoeven, who advanced the technique of computer animation by requiring scores upon scores of alien bugs to do interplanetary battle with a human army in Starship Troopers, now turns the same fearsome energy loose on the interior of the human body. He's directed an invisible-man story that's decided we should see the man's physical form disappear from view one layer at a time, taking us on a visual tour of guts, organs, and sinew. I'm not a fan of CGI, but the intricacy of these visions are really something -- gross enough to make me wince a little, but beautiful enough that I hardly want to blink. At that point, I swear, I was hoping I'd walk out of the theater convinced that Hollow Man would rate as one of my favorite movies of the year.