Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you are a devoted Jerry Goldsmith collector, since the highly derivative nature of Hollow Man really only seems to satisfy his most ardent fans. Avoid it... if you expect Goldsmith to conjure creative new ways to address the film's elements of action, science, or suspense (or its spectacular visual effects). Filmtracks Editorial Review:
Hollow Man: (Jerry Goldsmith) Excessive gore, nudity, and profanity. The trademarks of almost any Paul Verhoeven film. All of these were on display in 2000's Hollow Man, but the gore stole the show. With nothing resembling the original H.G. Wells "Invisible Man" concept, Hollow Man instead takes an hour introducing the audience to a team of scientists making a top-secret effort to shift a person "out of quantum synch with the known universe" and thus making him (or first, some animals) invisible. The latter half of the film dissolves into an Alien-like horror bonanza of extreme violence. The only aspect in the film's favor was its incredible visual display of living anatomy, using visual effects to brilliantly show both a gorilla and human in the process of shifting transparency, layer by layer. But other than those effects and Kevin Bacon's obnoxiously capturing performance, Hollow Man was a disappointment. Despite failing to recover its budgetary costs in its domestic showing (drawing only $73 million), Hollow Man would surprisingly inspire a terrible straight-to-DVD sequel starring Christian Slater in 2006, which says more about the actor's career than anything else. Verhoeven had a long-standing association with Jerry Goldsmith, and Hollow Man represented the composer's only score of 2000. As such, it was much hyped and anticipated with great expectations by Goldsmith collectors who, at the time, defended the score to a fault. In retrospect, Hollow Man remains a disappointment compared to the composer's fantastic output in 1999 because it represents some of Goldsmith's least inspired work in the latter stages of his career. It is undoubtedly an example of the composer on autopilot, a sad reality that effected many of Goldsmith's later scores (especially those for wretched films like this one) and begged unfavorable comparisons between Goldsmith and the habits of James Horner. In many cases, a poor film didn't stop Goldsmith from going over the top with his music, and yet, for Hollow Man, you get a distinct sense that everything contained in the work is pieced together from other Goldsmith scores. It'll make a decent entry in the collection of a Goldsmith fan who's in the business of finding a comfortably predictable score. Otherwise, it'll taste more than a little stale. Perhaps the greatest weakness of Hollow Man is its pleasant, but unexciting title theme. Goldsmith had the opportunity to really accentuate the action, the science, or the suspense of the film with a cue that plays without interference over the opening titles. Unfortunately, his piece is a lazy recapitulation of both Basic Instinct and The Haunting, using the pulsating piano, woodwind, and electronic rhythm from the former underneath a meandering, disembodied theme for high strings not much unlike the latter. While definitely a recognizable Goldsmith product, this theme (despite some outstanding, delayed brass counterpoint in its final statement over the titles) is far too incongruous with the content of the film to really make sense. There were even better sound effects in Goldsmith's library that could have been used to represent the idea of invisibility. The lack of regular use of the theme in the score is another problem; on album, the only other major performance is fleetingly heard in "What Went Wrong?" There is no solid secondary character theme in Hollow Man, with "Linda & Sebastian" unable to light some fire in a relationship that no longer existed in the film anyway. There are two rhythmic motifs at work in the film that are both, ironically, more effective. The first is the "transitional motif," which is heard in the cues "Isabelle Comes Back" and "This is Science." As either the gorilla appears or Bacon disappears, the awesome, lengthy special effects sequences are treated to a bass thumping and array of prickling electronic effects that slowly increase their pace and volume as the scenes progress. The other, lesser motif worth noting is a rambling piano and bass-element ostinato heard for the violent chasing in "The Elevator" and "The Big Climb." Its foreshadowed moments in "False Image" and "Hi Boss" could be effective if not so tired by this point in Goldsmith's career. There also seems to be another idea introduced in the sixth minute of "Bloody Floor," one that is surprisingly harmonic and upbeat given the nature of the scene, calling for almost a tragic atmosphere. Otherwise, Hollow Man is devoid of really interesting material, and this applies even more to action cues in the middle of the film. There is a sense that this material is as generic to Goldsmith career as the mundane parts of Chain Reaction or Executive Decision. By the fourth minute of "Isabelle Comes Back," we hear familiar shades of The 13th Warrior, with zapping sounds from Star Trek: Insurrection abounding. Some have compared the action bursts, especially with the drum pad and synthesizer combos, to Total Recall, and there is some merit to those comparisons. But Total Recall always gave you the idea that its music was going in a distinct direction. By Hollow Man, the techniques of slurred brass, screeching and cascading strings, and an array of timpani to shake the floors was simply too rusty to carry the score on "that Goldsmith sound" alone. Because the score was recorded in London, the album runs over 50 minutes, which is almost too long in this case. The first track (and maybe the second as well) is substantially the only music that will interest many more casual Goldsmith listeners. The sound quality, while still very clear, is not as resoundingly wet and well balanced as his scores of the previous few years (from Small Soldiers to The 13th Warrior), marking an end to that era of terrific-sounding Goldsmith music. No matter the sound quality, Hollow Man is both derivative and unexpectedly timid, a surprising way to reach the failure that the film was tempting. ** Track Listings:
Total Time: 51:29
All artwork and sound clips from Hollow Man are Copyright © 2000, Varèse Sarabande. The reviews and notes contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Filmtracks Publications. Audio clips can be heard using RealPlayer but cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 8/3/00, updated 6/22/08. Review Version 4.1 - PHP (Filmtracks Publications). Copyright © 2000-2013, Christian Clemmensen. All rights reserved. |
