THE MIND READER (1933)

Down and nearly out hucksters Warren William and Allen Jenkins hit the jackpot when they come up with the idea of changing their carnival act to a psychic mind reader act.  Almost immediately, they're rolling in cash and life is sitting pretty...until Warren falls for an innocent girl who actually believes in his psychic powers.

Made in 1933, THE MIND READER is one of the last Pre-Code films and although it's extremely tame by today's standards it's pretty easy to see how this film could have irked the morality police.  The entire mood of the film is dismissive towards the public in general; one of the main ways the psychic makes money is from talking about cheating husbands; a carnival worker discusses the negative part about messing with girls on the road by saying “The minute they get in court, they’re all 16 and under!” and then when one guy is sent to prison he says “It sure must be tough to be going away just when beer’s coming back!”; one girl is upset that the psychics advise ruined her marriage so she opens an elevator shaft door and jumps to her death!  Wow.

For those interested in films from this era, THE MIND READER is a lot of fun and it still feels kinda modern in a weird way.  Strong performances, daring script, the underrated Allen Jenkins, quick pace, Mayo Methot before she married Humphrey Bogart.  Recommended.

HOLLOW MAN (2000)

Scientist Kevin Bacon, while on a strict diet of Twinkies, develops a serum that can make you invisible.  After some animal testing, he decides to try it out on himself and guess what?  It works!  Unfortunately, they can't figure out a way to make him visible again.  During this time Dr.` Bacon descends into madness and eventually starts killing people.

Coming from the director Paul Verhoeven, the man behind STARSHIP TROOPERS and ROBOCOP, I was hoping that he would have a fresh and unique vision of the invisibility story, but no, HOLLOW MAN is just you're standard stuff and by the end it's pretty much a weak slasher film with Bacon stalking people around a science lab.

Impressive special effects (for the time), Elisabeth Shue with short hair, Twinkies, Bacon listening to horrible music, a tasteless joke about Superman attempting to rape Wonder Woman, that one woman from "Nip/Tuck" topless, messy science, silly story that gets sillier as it goes along, old computers, average pace.

Worth a watch if you're really bored, but overall it's pretty forgettable.