GEMINI MAN (2019)

GEMINI MAN (2019)

Tagline: Who will save you from yourself

(Action, Drama, SciFi) [PG-13] 

When it comes to director Ang Lee, sometimes you are getting a hit, and other times you are getting a miss. HULK for instance sucked, but LIFE OF PI was amazing. The same goes for Jerry Bruckheimer, typically the movies he produces are amazing, and his TV stuff is blah. So here is a quick look at GEMINI MAN which both of these talents collaborated on. 

In this one, an assassin named Henry Brogan (played by Will Smith) realizes that his aim is like 6 inches off now and he wants to retire. I mean, he can still kill people but the bullets are hitting them in places he’s not excited about. After discovering that Ramona Flowers (just kidding, it's Danny Zakarewski played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is trailing him, the two must figure out why yet another assassin is after him and why? If you watched the preview you already know that the assassin trying to kill Brogan is a younger clone of Brogan.  Who is the assassin of assassin’s and what is GEMINI? 

You know when you go see a Bruckheimer movie, that you are getting top-notch action and this movie is no exception. Parts of it feel like a MISSION IMPOSSIBLE or 007 films. The performances are outstanding and Mary Elizabeth Winstead is great as Danny Zakarewski who is an agent of an off the book's organization that Henry Brogan works for. Will Smith, is great in this and he actually comes across as more polished and mature than he does in some of his earlier films. The movie also features Benedict Wong as a helper to Brogan. Wong is fantastic in this playing a character with a personality not all that dissimilar to his role in DOCTOR STRANGE. Clive Owen is also in this one playing kind of a stock character in a way that reminds me a lot of his role in VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS. 

GEMINI MAN does a good job of adding emotion in an assassin movie a lot like REPLACEMENT KILLERS does, but the back story at least early in the film is clouded by overly complicated dialog. In particular, the relationship between the clone and his creator is especially intriguing. The opening is solid, but there is a section just after that which feels like it’s dragging for a while before we get back to the action. I can see this being important to the movie if you were not going to just explain it all again in the final 15 minutes. This movie doesn’t feel almost 2 hours long, but they could have cut about 17 minutes out and been fine. There are a few things you can pick out in the CGI that look odd, but nothing worth beating this movie up about. 

For anyone complaining about some of the more cliché moments in this movie, I can see that. Some of the plotline is fairly predictable, but this thing is loaded with little details and scenes that make it a fun watch. There is even a nod to “The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air” in this one.  

Overall I really liked this movie and wish it had done better at the box office. GEMINI MAN gets a solid 5 out of 7 from me. I was pleasantly surprised. Admittedly the preview doesn’t do it justice. 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF SKYDANCE MEDIA AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.  

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