Uh oh: Dr McKay (Shue) tries to help her boss -- and ex -- Dr Caine (Bacon) when the invisibility experiment begins to go wrong.
Renegade scientist Sebastian Caine (Bacon) is using Pentagon money to research invisibility. He's figured out how to make animals invisible to the human eye--that was the easy part. What he can't do is shift them back to where we can see them. But when he stumbles onto the antidote, he decides to defy his bosses and test it on himself. But there's one problem: Invisibility makes animals more aggressive. So there's more than a little trepidation amongst his research colleagues--the old girlfriend (Shue), her new boyfriend and Caine's rival (Brolin), the concerned vet (Dickens), the computer whiz (Slotnick), the wacky guy (Grunberg) and the juttery assistant (Randle).
There are so many problems with the dialog and story that I don't know where to begin. Not a single line sounds like words someone would actually speak to anyone else, despite the valiant efforts of the very watchable cast. And the plot descends into a bad slasher film, by way of frequent voyeur sequences that border on exploitation. Even so, the effects are remarkable, keeping us watching and interested until things get far, far too silly in the big fiery finale. Yuck.
[18--themes, violence, nudity, language, vulgarity] 24.Sep.00
US release 4.Aug.00; UK release 29.Sep.00
"A new contender for worst film. Good God was that bad. Should have been called Hollow Plot." --Woody K, St Louis. "From the director of such films as Starship Troopers, Total Recall and Robo Cop comes another spectacular special effects film. The effects team enlisted all of the latest technology and they did it very well. I felt like I was a young girl watching my first Ray Harryhausen film. The story centers on Sebastian Caine (Bacon) a genius scientist on the verge of a breakthrough discovery, the creation of the invisible man. Linda Foster (Shue) is his associate and past lover. Matt Kensington (Josh Brolin) rounds out the trio in a scientific love triangle. When Caine breaks the code on this militarily funded project he decides to proceed with Phase III before passing on his findings. Foster and Kensington go along with the plan, however, they fail to inform the rest of the team that no one else knows what they are doing. The experimental drug has brought out violent tendencies in the animals that it was tested on but once brought back they become docile. What ensues when a human is injected with the serum is violent and a bit disturbing. As Caine says, 'It's amazing what you can find yourself doing when you don't have to look at yourself in the mirror.' The scenes are intriguing, yet predictable. What takes place in this top-secret, underground laboratory is an example of what mankind is capable of doing under the guise of advancement. The acting is good, the story fair, but the special effects great! Once again it's proven that duct tape is the universal instrument!" --Christine B, St Louis.
