“When you think about it, the man has the perfect profile. He was invisible before he was invisible.”

Justin’s rating: Can we make this one vanish?

Justin’s review: When I had heard — through my own subconscious — that we were going to be doing a John Carpenter theme week here at Mutant Reviewers, I figured it was finally time to stop putting off Memoirs of an Invisible Man and finally eat this diseased pony of a movie. I knew it would be bad, but I was fascinated by the fact that this seemed to be quite un-John Carpenterish. In his entire strange filmography, this sticks out like a sore thumb.

I’m going to eat that thumb, too.

Nick (Chevy Chase) is a fairly dull yuppie who falls for Alice (Daryl Hannah) right before he gets trapped in a science building that zaps him fully invisible while he’s napping. His freak out at this change of lifestyle is going to have to sit on the backburner, however, as the government wants to nab him for science experiments and/or spy work. So he goes on the run.

I think the first thing that you have to disabuse yourself is of the notion that this is a comedy. If it had some of Chase’s amusing snark from the Fletch or Vacation films, I could see this working. I mean, an invisible man against his will has a lot of potential for jokes and silliness. But that’s not the route they went with for this, as Chase pushed this vanity project to get his foot in the door of more serious roles.

Yeah, that worked out well.

Why so serious?

So Memoirs of an Invisible Man ends up being a mild chase thriller with some light scifi elements. There’s some clever green screen work to pull off the invisible effects, but the majority of this movie either shows Nick to the viewer like he’s normal (we can’t take away our expensive lead actor’s face, after all) or pulls off the same “stuff moving about on wires” tricks that Universal’s been pulling since 1933.

While Nick has the advantage of invisibility (with rules that change depending on the scene), he’s not very good at using it. Between his general incompetence — running into sheets! talking instead of hiding! continually returning to familiar places! — and the G-men’s clever devices, he’s constantly two seconds away from capture.

What I couldn’t stand was the constant narration by Chevy Chase. Since he has so many scenes by himself, I guess it gave him someone to talk to (the audience). It feels like a crutch, especially since what he has to say is usually not that important or interesting.

By all reports, John Carpenter was caught between a rock and a hard place with this one. Chevy Chase and Daryl Hannah were entitled brats, and the studio kept interfering in an effort to make this a tame, mainstream-friendly romp, so he put in his time and fled the scene as quick as possible afterward.

I kept thinking that Memoirs wanted to be kind of an Innerspace for the ’90s, a thrill ride with some laughs and special effects. Again, it’s not a terrible concept… just uninspired in its execution. About the only good thing that came out of this flick is that John Carpenter forged a friendship with Sam Neill that led to the two of them collaborating on the far better In the Mouth of Madness.

Intermission!

• Nothing like trying to look casual with big honking tech goggles on your face
• Oh great, boring Chevy Chase narration
• Computers can shoot off a whole lot of fireworks if properly motivated
• Knocking out a drunk and using his body to flag down a taxi is somewhat clever
• Seeing a stomach puke from the inside
• Wait, wouldn’t his new clothes be visible? What are the rules for all this?
• Our hero, knocking old ladies down
• “I don’t have time! I want my molecules back!”
• How many times Nick gives himself away?
• Wait, why don’t the clothes he puts on later turn invisible too?
• Invisible genitals
• The fall-for-a-yawn trick
• “Someone broke into my house and put stuff in my refrigerator?”
• “He’ll probably wash up on the shore one day, bloated and eaten by crabs.”
• The smoking effects are neat
• The rain effects on Nick’s invisible form is probably the coolest part of the movie
• OK those are weirdly abrupt credits