Great special effects, very little story, voyeuristic fantasies played out--but ultimately quite unsatisfying.

The film starts out with a rat being dropped into the cage of an invisible predator. Seconds later, the rat is reduced to a bloody pulp.

Welcome to the kingdom of lurid thrills, director Paul Verhoeven at your service. On this level, if no other, the pic will not disappoint.

We then cut to government mad scientist (but no geek) Dr. Sebastian Caine (Kevin Bacon). It is night, and Caine is at home, hard at work trying to create a formula to reverse the invisibility potion that he has already developed. His concentration is momentarily broken as he peers across the street at a sexy neighbor (Rhona Mitra) undressing, in a fully lit room, with the shades up. Since this isn't Psycho, and he isn't Norman Bates, the shades go down at just the strategic moment.

Fear not. This IS a Verhoeven flick, and all titillations will be fulfilled.

As our attention goes back to Caine's computer screen, we see a molecule, which is now deemed "stable." Voilà! Caine has cracked the code and visibility can be restored--or so we think.

The next day, the new formula is tested in his top-secret underground lab, replete with mazes of corridors, heavy doors, shafts, and ladders--apparently designed by the same architect who did all the Alien movies. Assisted by his former girlfriend Dr. Linda McKay (Elisabeth Shue), hunky scientist and now Linda's secret new love Dr. Matt Kensington (Josh Brolin), and veterinarian Dr. Sarah Kennedy (Kim Dickens), Sebastian restores visibility to an invisible ape.

The next step, of course, is for Dr. Caine to try the formulas on himself. There is one little problem, though. He can't become visible again. So, he has to make the best of it, which in his case means to go completely BAZERK (apologies to Billy Jack).

After tiring of such diversions as invisibly fondling a sleeping Dr. Sarah, he leaves the compound to have some not so innocent fun with his neighbor. By judicious cuts, helmer Verhoeven attempts to satisfy our baser instincts and condemn them at the same time, but no one who has tried this has ever succeeded.

The rest of the pic becomes a grade Z slasher film, as the crazed invisible man tries to kill all his colleagues. Picture an invisible Jason walking around the Alien compound. No cliché is left unturned, including the unstoppable bad guy versus the heroine who combines outstanding resourcefulness with amazing stupidity.

Verhoeven could have done a whole lot better. At least the lurid effects he used in Starship Troopers (1997) helped tell a reasonable story, that didn't stray too far from Robert Heinlein's novel. Hollow Man's screenplay is much too weak for a big budget production, but nobody seemed to notice--or care.

Way back in 1933, James Whale made a far superior Invisible Man, that incidentally featured Titanic's Gloria Stuart as the love interest.

At least three questions emerge from all this:

Will Paul Verhoeven ever make a good film again?

How much longer will we be subjected to movies that have special effects and nothing else?

What kind of role will Elisabeth Shue have in 2064?