The Hollow

A sort of a challenge for reviewers.

First time I watched The Hollow, I made the following notes:

* good attempt at film noir.

* overlong and quality fluctuates wildly from scene to scene. Sometimes you think you are watching an A-list production on the big screen and sometimes you think you are watching a stage play at the local dinner theatre.

* nice use of known "character actors" recycled into almost (but not quite) leading roles. Interesting.

* common problem with B-movies (B+ movies?) is that everything is much too clean. Supposedly we are in the deep south on one of the hottest days of the year and all the actors are wearing clothes that look like they are freshly dry-cleaned, no sweat or dirt anywhere, even the cars are shiny like they just left the car wash...?? (To see this done properly, get a copy of In the Heat of the Night!).

* actor playing Ray-Ray pulls ahead of the pack and steals every scene he is in. Real potential, real charisma, real talent.

And then I check out the credits and find the actor I noticed is also the writer, the director and the chief cook-and-bottle-washer.

Not too shabby.

Miles Doleac is more interesting than the movie. He's got mad skills.

Repulsive movie with slimy characters--even the "heroes"--and sickening plot line. Makes no sense in a world populated by evil, corrupted, or broken people entirely. . Feel like decontaminating from falling into sewer after trying to sit through it, did not make it past 20 min. Left with bad impressions of Mississippi, small towns, even Federal Bureau of Investigation. X-files this is NOT!

I just watched this ... thing. Luckily I didn't pay for it. Had I had to have paid for it, I would be really upset. As it is, I was just baffled.

Clearly, anyone who as watched it knows how bad it is and that's the end of that.

For those that have not watched it and who maybe are looking for something to watch and are looking at movie ratings in order to decide, run. Run fast and furiously away from this movie.

Not only is it all levels of bad, but it is so obvious that the people involved in making it tried desperately to lie and manipulate people into watching it through a series of fake reviews.

To begin, as another rater said, in no universe or galaxy anywhere would anyone give this craptacular piece of time-stealing trash anything above a 4, much less a 9 or a 10. I would bet the farm on that and with that in mind, let me do the faker math for you.

Reviewer stevenafillingane IMDb member since January 2017 only one review ever, you guessed it, for this movie rates it a 10, and cannot stop talking about Miles Doleac. A fake review and reviewer if ever there was one. I'd bet 10-1, the director himself as he seems a little angry at the real reviewers.

Reviewers kennedya-73401 and mindibennett both reviewed this AND ONLY The Historian (a film ALSO by - SURPRISE!!! - Miles Doleac), a 10. Obvious fakes and 10-1 another Doleac fake account.

Reviwer michaelscasey-05453 IMDb member since December 2016, one review, for yes, this crapfest of a movie, rating it an 8 and doing a much better job at not appearing to be overly enthused about it, but using basically word-for-word the same verbiage and 'film noir' references as in their other fake reviews, AND Lol ... he just CANNOT help but mention Miles Doleac (again). Mr. Casey goes on to say that the way they speak in this movie is more or less verbatim what he grew up around and that the director Miles Doleac has just moved that on to the big screen. No, Mr. Doleac, it is what you inferred and then translated onto the screen with pretty terrible results.

In closing, I believe that there must be a level of integrity and ethics involved in everything. No, I am not perfect, but I don't THINK I would ever try and fool others into watching something I had filmed, with such an obvious and unabashed series of lies.

Awful film, awful attempt at ratings deception.

Even if it is ever streaming for FREE, skip this one like the plague.

That a movie doesnt have to have the best plot or even a good one, to be entertaining. What do I mean? It's convoluted, full of stereotypes and cliches, but the acting is fantastic, the dialogue sharp, moves quickly and looks great. Loved the cast with some faces you will know well playing their parts perfectly.

Great movie to turn off your brain, because it wont withstand much scrutiny. Just enjoy the interactions from the hard drinking FBI agent, to the corrupt town elder running the show, the damaged vets, genteel ladies, tough Northerner female FBI agent, the bad cop and his toady, all set against a backdrop of gospel spouting rednecks. Probably will never go back and watch it again, but it kept my attention and that's saying something.

It was deleted.

Staff, please check before you delete, that it does not violate guidelines, and in fact, the reviews that should be deleted are all the fake ones which probably have the same originating address.

In any case, let me put this debate to rest right now. I'd never seen a film with such polarizing reviews, and neither side quite convinced me. After all, the positive reviews did in fact seem a little too similar in their wording and enthusiasm, and the negative reviews were somewhat harsh. No movie could be that bad, could it? As such, I decided to get to the bottom of this. I looked for clips of The Hollow on You know where and found them plus more.

Without further ado, the bad reviews are correct.

I clicked randomly at first, and every scene I stopped on, topped the last scene for laughably bad. I then went through it again (scanned it, as I couldn't bring myself to watch all of it), in an attempt to find one, just one scene that was good. No such scene exists.

Hopefully this puts the matter to rest, not in that you need to take my word for it, but that you can go catch it yourself.

Miles Doleac is not a good director, writer or actor. In fact, he's a quack and a hack who needs fake reviews to try and convince people his film are any good. The blatant attempts at rigging and manipulating ratings should be exposed. It is my sincere hope that if this director tries it again on anything else he is involved in, people will have a heads up and not fall for it as some did with this garbage.