Paramount Home Entertainment, out now on digital; 4K, Blu-ray and DVD February 17

Henry Brogan wants to retire – but assassins don’t simply walk away.

Ang Lee’s action movie has a lot going for it, not least one of Will Smith’s more enjoyable performances as Henry Brogan. While it might have been more interesting to not be one step of the characters, and know up front that it’s a younger version of him who’s trying to kill him, you can understand why the film’s producers wanted to make a big thing of the technology that de-ages Smith for the younger role.

You can read Greg’s take on the film here; he watched it on a very big screen, in 3D, and a lot of the issues that he raises about the ‘uncanny valley’ effect of the de-aging are ameliorated by seeing the film on an HD television. Even the scenes where the two Smiths are together work much better, certainly enough for suspension of disbelief.

Without the ‘gimmick’, what’s left is a decent but by no means exceptional action thriller – we don’t really get any insight into the process of cloning (bar an acknowledgement that it was a year earlier than the first admitted cloning experiment, Dolly the sheep). Clive Owen snarls through his role, and Mary Elizabeth Wanstead and Smith have decent chemistry as on-screen partners.

The extras include a different opening – which dilutes some of the later effect of the dual Smiths, so was wisely changed – as well as behind the scenes information on how they built the younger Will Smith. It’s quite fascinating, but actually emphasizes that the film needed a stronger story upon which to layer the technology. The 4K version includes the film at a 60fps frame rate and more behind the scenes details.

Verdict: A decent action film with a clever gimmick that is probably better suited to home entertainment than the big screen. 7/10

Paul Simpson

Click here to pre-order the Bluray from Amazon.co.uk