John Carpenter directs Chevy Chase, Sam Neill and Daryl Hannah in this sci-fi misfire where a feckless executive is turned invisible and pursued by a shadowy intel agency.

The big problem with forgotten flop Memoirs Of An Invisible Man is it is accidentally “non-genre”. Chevy is trying to be more serious but his instincts are comedy… and broad comedy to boot. The strain is obvious on both him and the project. Hannah’s character is superfluous and exists for marketable romcom sub genre reasons. Neither star was at the height of their success by 1992 and any on screen heat is the most invisible aspect. The narrative is in the vein of Marathon Man or The Fugitive but has no sense of urgency. The VFX by Bruce Nicholson are technically impressive but lack wonder. How can you tell the man at the hot dog concession that what he cannot see is groundbreaking stuff? Imagine what a nightmare Chevy would have been getting those second exact composite shots every other take? I would have rented this for Chase back in the day. These days I watched to see if any of Carpenter’s signature style was apparent? Not really. He states he had a hellish time with the uncooperative leads. Both of whom had too much Prima Donna power on set. That scans. But Carpenter has never been… diplomatic… when it comes to blaming others for his failures. Here he did “one for them”, took the devil’s dollar and it felt like work. Shocker! At least he met Sam Neill and they formed a relationship that led to In The Mouth Of Madness. His sole top tier movie of the Nineties. Many of his other, later, weaker flicks didn’t have Chase and Hannah’s egos to excuse their iffyness.

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Perfect Double Bill: The Deal Of The Century (1983)

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