YMMV / Gemini Man

TV Series

• Adaptation Displacement: Thanks to being featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000 and its wider distribution on VHS, the Riding with Death compilation film is better known than the entire series and hence more people know about the two episodes used to make the movie than any other episode.
• Awesome Music: The Riding With Death version's opening theme, a great example of early electronic synthesizer music that is frankly better than the series ever was. (actually written for the Code Name: Minus One).
  • Lee Holdridge's theme for the series. Is good and exciting as well.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
  • Apparently Gemini Man was more popular in England than it ever was in America. Unlike the US, they actually aired all eleven episodes, released a record album, and even released one issue of its own annual.
  • The only country to release the show to DVD was France, which saw a 2013 complete series release in French and English that is now long out of print.
• Heartwarming Moments: Say what you will about Buffalo Bill, but jumping into the fray to offer backup when he sees thugs beating the crap out of Sam despite their blowup in the bar earlier has got to count for something.
• Narm: Damn right, you turkey. The edits done to turn the two episodes of the series into a "movie" are about as seamless as a baseball, but the narm doesn't stop there:
  • "This can't BE?! You're DEAD?!"
  • "Optical illusionnnn-uh!"
  • "I wonder what happened to Abby. She's some gal."
  • "Hold it hold hold it Sam."
  • "Now waaaaaaaait a minute you two..."
  • "Dynamite! This here fist packs sheer dynamite! WA-HOOO!!"
  • "You're as elusive as Robert Denby!"
  • "Leonard, I hear you've grown quite a mustache while I was on vacation."
  • "I'm going to start to work on my patent applications."
  • "I'm working on my patent papers, and I really would appreciate it if you wouldn't disturb me."
  • "Be careful, Sam!" "Give it the old college try!"
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Kim Basinger makes her film debut in "Night Train to Dallas".
  • That's Alan Oppenheimer, the future voice of Skeletor, as the dastardly Dr. Hale (and he really has to work on his patent papers).
• Special Effect Failure: One of the best scenes is when Casey, holding a gun, punches out a mook standing four feet away without causing the revolver floating in the air to so much as wiggle.

Film

• Cliché Storm: Critics complained that this movie has a very generic plot.
• Critical Dissonance: Was eviscerated by critics for being generic, but audiences were more forgiving.
• Dancing Bear: The film was strongly publicized using its filming technique of 120 FPS and the CGI de-aging technology used to create Junior as selling points. Unfortunately, only select theatres could actually display the full frame rate, and the movie has been criticized for putting these gimmicks ahead of more important things, like the story.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Many people saw this movie for one or a few reasons. These include the high frame rate (which is quite rare in movies), the Visual Effects of Awesome that is Junior, the nostalgia of having a young Will Smith in a new movie, seeing two Will Smiths, or some combination thereof. What wasn't a major drive to see it? The plot.
• Magnificent Bastard: Henry Brogan is an aging government assassin who, after yet another narrowly successful heist, wants to retire permanently. After discovering he killed an innocent spy, Henry outmaneuvers hitmen sent by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) using security measures and a bunker full of weapons he prepared previously. Slipping away with Dani, Henry is pursued by Junior, a clone of him made by GEMINI, who he engages in a firefight throughout the Colombian streets, including on motorcycles. When Junior sets up an elaborate death trap in the catacombs, Henry shows he's one step ahead of his younger self by planting a wire on the kidnapped Dani so he can undermine the whole gambit and offer advice to Junior. This proves pivotal in the final fight against GEMINI soldiers and an even more advanced clone when Junior comes to their aid. In the end, Henry was able to use a lifetime of skills to find retirement and give "Jackson" a chance at life he failed to give himself.
• Narm: From the first trailer, Junior's line of "You made...a person...out of another...person" almost sounds like a Fesh Pince of Blair sentence mix.
• So Okay, It's Average: Many critics were incredulous that in the decades it took for the special effects that made filming this script possible to be invented, apparently not one single person ever thought that maybe that script could use some work.
  • Lapping into They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot, many people are curious to see what original screenwriter Darren Lemke’s version would have been like.
• Special Effect Failure: While Junior visually is an example of Visual Effects of Awesome, the hand-to-hand fight scenes unfortunately have some really obvious CG effects put in to simulate hits connecting. This is an unfortunate side-effect of the movie being in a higher frame rate, which otherwise would've exposed all the moments where their hits failed to connect had it been filmed completely traditionally.
  • While the de-aging effects were nearly flawless for most of the film, the final scene takes a significant nose-dive in what should be one of the simpler sequences to handle.
• Took the Bad Film Seriously: While critics have not liked the film's story very well, Will Smith's dual performance has been acclaimed.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Junior, for the most part, is completely convincing as a young Will Smith.

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