There’s some good stuff out this week, including Kino upgrading Jack Clayton’s Room at the Top and Preston Sturges’ The Great McGinty and Paramount remastering all three Beverly Hills Cop movies in 4K, although not actually releasing them on 4K Blu-Ray (then again, not paying 4K prices for Beverly Hills Cop 3 might be enough of a blessing to compensate). But more than those, I would like to talk about Gemini Man. It received a reaction from critics only slightly more positive than you’d expect to see about the death of a small child and seems to be the final nail in the coffin of Ang Lee’s attempts to make 120fps a thing. I can’t say it’s a great film; the script had been passed around for more than 20 years by the time it made it on-screen, and it feels like a garbage Bruckheimer programmer from 1999, with its bare-bones hook (an assassin fights his younger self) and cringey attempts at quips. But, again, it’s directed by Ang Lee, so it instead becomes his typical contemplation on the meaning of family (the daddy issues of Hulk return with a vengeance) and the modern world, complete with the most mournful Will Smith performance ever. Occasionally it becomes a reminder that Lee is still a superlative action director even all these years after Crouching Tiger, especially with a mind-melting motorcycle chase near the middle. And all of it is a pretty stunning showcase for both 120fps (approximated on the 4K release with 60fps) and de-aging tech, presenting a world that feels fundamentally out-of-whack despite its hyperreality, making the uncanny valley part of the experience rather than an intrusion on it (it helps that the de-aging is incredible outside of the ending, which looks like it was finished in a day). And if none of that intrigues you, it also has many high-resolution close-ups of Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who both gives a terrific performance and is maybe prettier in this than anyone has ever been in a film. If you’re as satisfied by simple pleasures as I, that will be enough for you.

Air Bud (Mill Creek)
Beverly Hills Cop Trilogy (Paramount)
Brewster’s Millions (Shout Factory)
The Fugitive Kind (Criterion)
Gemini Man (Paramount)
The Great McGinty (Kino)
Jexi (Lionsgate)
Maid in Manhattan (Mill Creek)
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (Disney)
The Mindy Project: The Complete Series (Mill Creek)
Room at the Top (Kino)
Veep: The Final Season (HBO)