Actors: Elisabeth Shue, Kevin Bacon, Josh Brolin, Greg Grunberg, Peter Facinelli, Laura Regan, Christian Slater
Directors: Paul Verhoeven, Claudio Fäh
Rated: Unrated / R
Studio: Mill Creek Entertainment
DVD Release Date: March 26, 2013
Run Time: 210 minutes
Our Score: 3 out of 5 stars
When I think about Paul Verhoeven, I immediately think about the brilliant work he has done with “Robocop”, “Starship Troopers” and “Total Recall”, hell, even “Showgirls”…but I don’t really think about “Hollow Man”. The film was a see once and then forget about. Watching the film about on Blu-ray gave it a bit of new life. There are parts that I really liked and some I didn’t but overall it is a pretty good film. “Hollow Man 2” is exactly what you expect it would be. It is a lower budgeted direct-to-video film. It doesn’t reach half the standards of the first film due to time and budget but still entertains. Both of these films together on one Blu-ray seems like a no brainer, especially when it is less than $10 bucks. Can’t go wrong.
“Hollow Man” Official Premise: What would you do if you were invisible? How far would you go? After years of experimentation, Dr. Sebastian Caine, a brilliant but arrogant and egotistical scientist working for the Defense Department, has successfully transformed mammals to an invisible state and brought them back to their original physical form. Determined to achieve the ultimate breakthrough, Caine instructs his team to move on to Phase III: human experimentation. Using himself as the first subject, the invisible Caine finds himself free to do the unthinkable.
“Hollow Man 2” Official Premise: Christian Slater stars in the action-packed sequel to the box office hit Hollow Man as a volunteer soldier/assassin who goes mad after he turns invisible. A driven Seattle detective and the molecular biologist he s been assigned to protect, find themselves on the run from an undetectable solider gone rogue as he destroys everything in his path in order to find the serum to save his life and punish the unscrupulous scientists and agents of the government responsible for this creation.
Mill Creek delivered impressive audio and video and both films, even being compressed on one Blu-ray. The 1080p transfer for “Hollow Man” is sharp and clear, as was Sony’s 2007 Blu-ray. The audio is slightly different yet still very effective, boasting a DTS-HD MA 5.1 track. The action and the score sound great. “Hollow Man 2” has that direct-to-video feel but still looks decent with its 1080p. Same goes for the DTS-HD MA 5.1 track, which works well but doesn’t have the same suspense the first film did, also the score is not comparable. There are no special features on this release but at least “Hollow Man” comes with the director’s cut of the film. If you couldn’t care less about the sequel and want some extras you could always pick up the original “Hollow Man” Blu-ray from 2007, which still holds up.