Hollow Man 2



When a biologist working on a special project with the Feds dies under unusual circumstances to an apparent invisible assailant, detective Turner and his partner are charged with protecting the biologist’s co-worker, Maggie Dalton from a similar fate. But the whole thing ends up being a poorly thought out trap by the government to capture the invisible killer, and Turner and Dalton go on the run. So with an invisible rogue assassin on their tail and the government not to be trusted, it’s up to the detective and the doctor to stop the killer before he gets to them or any other political enemies that may wander into his path.



This here, ladies and gents, is another one of those movies that I was vaguely aware of, but had completely forgotten about over the years. Because I actually remember seeing this little Direct-to-Video film sitting on the shelf back in the day. But even back then much younger me was smart enough to see it and steer clear of it, probably because I thought the same thing then that I do now, and that is: Why the holy hell would you bother making this? I mean, really, who was clamoring for a sequel to the first Hollow Man? Not that that’s a dig at Hollow Man, because I’m actually really fond of that little horror/thriller update to the Invisible Man mythos. But even I know it wasn’t a perfect film. Or at least it certainly wasn’t good enough to acquire some sort of rabid fanbase like American Psycho where people might be begging for more (not that I remember anyone asking for more of that either…). And I guess I’m right and they really weren’t, since this came out six years later and went directly onto the rental shelves and was promptly forgotten about. But that really just makes its existence even more puzzling, because after all that time one has to wonder: what was the point?


Hello? Reasoning? You there?

And that’s not even to say that the movie is all that bad, per say. Because it’s not. At least for the most part. For the most part it’s a fine little horror/thriller thing-a-ma-jigger, without too many glaringly annoying issues. I’ve read that the script for Hollow Man 2 was actually based on the original draft for Hollow Man. So I get the feeling that the idea may have been to elaborate on the film’s original intentions and dig deeper into the moral implications of what would happen if someone was actually given the power of invisibility. So, not necessarily a bad plan, overall. But really, all they really did was re-tread the same things that already existed in the first film. They just moved some of the emphasis around. Like highlighting and focusing on the government corruption, which was only briefly touched upon in the first film.


Because it always has to lead back to government corruption.

But while they use most of the same ideas, they don’t always utilize them all that well, either. For instance, the first film really focused on the violation of personal privacy, by having Keven Bacon’s character spy and grope (and rape?) people, all with the benefit of not being seen. Basically he was a dick and the invisibility made him even more dickish. Shocking. And then of course the filmmakers re-hash that same plot point here. Kinda. Because all they do here is add a superfluous scene where our invisible friend is spying on a couple of horny teens…. For some reason? Like, why? Why was he even there? Didn’t you just say he was trying to kill someone a minute ago? And that the killer’s on a time crunch? Why’s he detouring by peeping in windows and sneaking into houses so he can watch a couple of teenagers strip? I don’t get it. I mean, I know the reason. The movie just wanted an excuse to show some boobies. But plot-wise it feels extra dumb. We don’t know who they are. We never see those kids again. They’re just there for some T&A and to show that this Invisible Douche is a perv too, and that’s it. Cause it never comes up again in the whole movie. It’s like the film was just trying to fulfill some unspoken nudity quota, and tacked this on at the last minute.



And that’s not the only instance where the film seems to contradict itself. Like telling us that the killer is slowly becoming crazier or more and more erratic/violent (which is a holdover from the first film), yet at the same time showing us how strategically cunning he continues to be by kidnapping people and breaking into government buildings. And then they give us a scene where he’s perfectly calm and polite to the nice blind woman on the elevator, and I start to think our crazy friend is only “crazy” in that he’s super pissed off at all these government assholes because they won’t give him the “un-invisibility” serum to take him out of the translucent state that he’s in that is slowly and painfully killing him. Cause, let’s be real, I think most of us would start to feel a little stabby-stabby too if the people we trusted to take care of us were purposefully not helping us and perfectly willing to let us die. And I think the movie kinda realized they were making their antagonist a little too sympathetic, so they tried to point out all the people he’s killed. But like, he was still working for the government when he did most of that? And the people in charge of him are corrupt and now he’s killing them? *looks left*….*looks right*…. I’m not sure you guys thought this story-line all the way through…


And why do they always choose mentally unstable people for these jobs? Wouldn’t it make more sense to choose people who weren’t likely to snap and kill you?

So the story’s okay, but it’s got a few holes in it. Thankfully though it’s pretty well acted with the likes of Peter Facinelli, Laura Regan and Christian Slater taking up the main cast. Not that you get to see Slater all that much, cause he’s, you know, invisible for most of it. But he does have to pop up here and there to do something more than voice-over work, so you do actually get to see him. It’s just not for more than around 5 minutes.


Soak him in folks, cause you don’t see him for long.

The one really nice thing the movie has going for it though is the effects. The effects in the first Hollow Man were already pretty good for the time, but after 6 years you can tell there was at least a mild improvement. There are also a lot more practical effects used here than I was expecting, likely because a Direct-to-Video film didn’t have the funds to go all-out, but everything still looks really good considering the time period. So kudos to them for not skimping too much.



The only downside is the ending. And that’s not because of the quality of the effects, but because of the effects themselves. Because for some reason the filmmakers thought it would be a good idea for the climax of the film to revolve around two (yes, TWO) invisible men having a brawl in the rain. Think about that for a second. They wanted their ending to center around two invisible guys fighting in the rain. And yeah, because of the rain you can see them, but really…. You also can’t. It’s annoying. You see faint outlines and a pipe flying through the air, but that’s about it. And I really wanna give a good solid smack to whoever came up with the idea for that ending, because dear god what a horrible idea.


Ooooh look, I get to watch two water smudges fight? How thrilling! *weeps*

Other than that though, Hollow Man 2 isn’t really that bad. Yeah, it’s got a few obnoxious holes and even a couple of bad ideas in it (maybe more than a few, actually), but 80% of the film is still okay. But it’s also not all that impressive either. It focuses on boring things (government conspiracy…woo…). It doesn’t do anything new, either generally or in conjunction with the previous film…. Like I said, there’s just really little point to its existence. But it still ends up being a well put together and perfectly watchable little film, so I can’t say it outright sucks either. It’s just…meh. So watch it if you’re curious, but there’s really no need. There are more fun horror/thrillers out there.

Hollow Man 2 is available on a variety of streaming services.

Hollow Man 2 is also available on DVD and Bluray, either by itself or as part of a double pack with the original Hollow Man.

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