For all the hype about the modern technology,
the story is curiously stale and at times feels
like a mashup of other, better movies. It makes
more sense when you learn that “Gemini Man”
was written over 20 years ago and has gone
through enough possible directors and stars
to fill out a baseball team. Certainly it’s been
updated since whatever version was making
the rounds in 1997 — “Game of Thrones”
showrunner David Benioff shares a story and
screenplay credit with Darren Lemke and Billy
Ray — but it still has a dated core, and not in a
good, self-consciously retro way.
Smith, at his current age, plays Henry Brogan,
a talented assassin employed by the U.S
government who just wants to retire. The film
begins with his last job: He has to assassinate
someone on a full speed bullet train while
perched on a hill outside. Brogan is a one-in-
a-million sniper, you see, and a bunch of other
guys failed where he succeeded.
But of course hanging up his hat afterward
for a quiet life of fishing isn’t as simple as
he hoped. He soon finds out that he’s being
monitored, and then hunted by his former
employers including a bureaucrat played by
Linda Emond and a private contractor named
Clay Varris (Clive Owen), who is one of the most
one-dimensional “bad guys” we’ve had the
privilege of spending time with in a while.
Henry has no choice but to go on the run,
bringing the young agent who was assigned
to surveil him, Danny (Mary Elizabeth
Winstead), along because, well, there has to a
potential love interest in a movie like this, so
why not?