Nature vs nurture

Will Smith in “Gemini Man”

We’re often told, “Be your own competitor.” That pithy expression proves to be more of a deadly annoyance for Will Smith in his latest actioner, Ang Lee’s “Gemini Man.”

Nature versus nurture has always been a fascinating theme for us ever since we saw Daniel Craig and Michael Gambon in “A Number,” Caryl Churchill’s provocative play about cloning. It is about a man (Daniel) who confronts his father (Michael) after he learns that he has a grownup clone.

Lee’s “Gemini Man,” gorgeously shot in 4K 3D at a high rate of 120 frames per second, puts a tantalizing twist on that premise.

There’s something leaden and emotionally detached about the way the story of aging assassin Henry Brogan (Will Smith) plays out, but we couldn’t shake off the feeling that the movie’s conflict could become a morally contentious issue in the not-so-distant future.

In Henry’s case, he can shoot his target on a bullet train running at 238 kilometers per hour from two kilometers away.

Clive Owen

But after 72 hits, the 51-year-old executioner thinks it’s high time to hang up his holster. He soon finds himself in a tight fix after he guns down a molecular biologist who he was told was a bioterrorist!

Hot on Henry’s tail is a man (Clive Owen) who’s only too happy to play God. But while Henry isn’t an easy hitman to exterminate, he’s being pursued by someone whose predatory skills are just as exceptional—his lithe-and-limber 20-year-old self!

Will’s acting chops are nothing to scoff at, but the movie fails to use them in his favor. More than that, you leave the theater not worrying so much about what you would do if another version of you is watching “Gemini Man” in another theater.

Terror in the open seas

Gary Oldman is also battling a 50-year-old entity in Michael Goi’s dramatic chiller,  “Mary.”

Creepy stuff happens in the open seas when David (Gary) buys an old boat as a way to save his crumbling marriage.

Gary Oldman in “Mary”

But things take a turn for the twisted when Sarah (Emily Mortimer) and David’s 10-year-old daughter Mary (Chloe Perrin) begins talking about an imaginary friend.

How can David dream of a better future if he and his family are being hunted by the past?

Goi’s chiller doesn’t bring anything new and significant to the genre, but it somehow manages to stage a couple of truly sinister sequences and proficiently realized jump scares. What makes it even more terrifying is the way it makes viewers feel trapped about having nowhere to run in the middle of the ocean.

What do you do when you cry for help—and nobody answers?