In Hollow Man, Kevin Bacon plays Sebastian Caine, a scientist who is on the verge of a breakthrough. He has the technology to make animals invisible. All he needs now is to find the antidote, that special formula that will reverse the process and bring the creatures back to full visibility without any ill effects. One night, he finds the answer, and calls up his colleague and ex-lover Linda, played by Elisabeth Shue. Very soon, the team are back in the lab trying out the new formula on an invisible gorilla. This is where the special effects begin. The gorilla becomes visible from the inside out, and we can see the intricate detail of every blood vessel, bone and internal organ. What's more, the animal is thrashing about and the team is interacting with it . The whole thing is absolutely convincing and seamless.
When he realises the importance of what he's done, Sebastian decides to hold the breakthrough back from the military types who are funding the project, because he knows they'll take over and start making weapons out if it. He want to play with it first, and convinces his team to take the next step. He volunteers to be the first invisible man. All goes well until the time comes to revert him back to normal, when, of course, something goes wrong and he ends up stuck invisible, at least until someone is able to modify the formula to work properly on humans.
And so begins the next stage of the film. Sebastian starts to go stir crazy being cooped up like a lab rat, so he leaves and goes back to his apartment. At this point the film takes an unexpected turn, and in a way, I think it's quite brave that the director had the guts to go there. Even before he becomes invisible, we learn that Sebastian has peeping tom tendencies, so now he's invisible - well, I'll leave you guessing. This scene also serves to show that he's starting to turn evil, and as time goes on, he gets more and more nasty, and the storyline deteriorates into a kind of Friday the 13th thing.
While Hollow Man is not a particularly brilliant film in itself, it had enough special effects and action to keep me interested until the end.