the director keeps uncomfortably aligning the invisible cinemagoer's intrinsic voyeurism with Sebastian's own, showing us to what depths of depravity the male gaze can lead.

A labored, implausible piece of action-movie hack work.

Despite a wealth of special effects and direction by Paul Verhoeven, Mr. Over-the-Top himself, this movie is surprisingly inert, more dull than anything else, with little to recommend it on any level.

Verhoeven's work is always fun to look at it. What's far shoddier is the story itself; it starts poorly and grows progressively worse, finally collapsing into an ending that is so laughably dreadful that I don't want to ruin it.