A scientist, part of the team that developed an ''invisibility'' drug for the US government, decides to test it on himself. It works fine. Problem is, the anti-drug serum fails to work as expected, leaving our hero invisible. After a while, he begins to see the advantages of his condition, and his baser nature begins to exert itself, as he becomes increasingly violent and criminal. Great special effects, expect lots of gore.
112 minutes, No persons under 16 (Language, Violence) Action, Crime, Thriller
Vimal Sardar (27): Basically all this movie is, is a modern day version of the classic ''The Invisible Man'' with more violence and nudity. Kevin Bacon gives a sizzling performance as a brilliant but egotistic scientist who begins to enjoy the fruits of his handicap. Worthwile watching if only for the special visual effects. This movie is very much in the Paul Verhoeven style of shocking the audience like he did with the violence in Robocop and Starship Troopers and the sex and nudity in Showgirls and Basic Instinct. This movie has both those elements.
Jan Terblanche (16): It's a excellent movie.
Rick Smith (29): Some interesting effects, but the story could have been developed better. If your fantasy is to run around invisible, then this movie is not for you.
Ian Douglas: This film has come in for mixed reviews, with a bias towards the negative. Much criticism has been directed at the director. I'm not sure that this is justified. The director interprets the script, he does not write it. If there are flaws in the plot, blame the scriptwriter, not the director.
Now with that off my chest, what did I think of the film?
Well, there is no other way to describe the special effects other than astounding. A real tour de force, and a must-view for fx junkies.
As for the story, it starts off with an interesting premise and wanders on to explore the moral question of ''what would you do if no one ever knew it was you''. But it has hardly started down this path before degenerating into Yet Another Kill-The-Monster-Guess-Who-Dies-Next clichéd teen thriller, full of holes in the plot. Which is where all the low ratings from the critics come from.
The concept of being able to act with detection poses the question of what is man's basic moral nature. Will he do good or evil? And if so, why? The script takes the view that man will descend into criminal activity at the first chance, which is a rather dim view of humanity in my opinion. Or maybe not, on second thoughts...
