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Deja Vu
Directed by: Tony Scott
Starring: Denzel Washington
Genre:
Action-Adventure/
Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Run Time: 128
min.
Release Date:
November 2006
On The Web:
Official
Site
Teaser:
Movie Trailer
Reviewed by
Byron Merritt |
Let’s make one thing
perfectly clear: director Tony Scott does action. Whether it’s TOP
GUN or THE LAST BOY SCOUT, he knows how to keep viewers
riveted to the screen. He’s also worked with the best Hollywood has to
offer, from Madeleine Stowe and Gary Oldman to Nicole Kidman and Denzel
Washington. This last name is significant since Washington and Scott
have worked together on several previously successful film ventures (CRIMSON
TIDE and MAN ON FIRE), and come together again with DEJA
VU.
More of a science fiction action-drama, Scott dips gingerly into the
genre to test its waters utilizing his own unique style. The staged
explosions. The high body count. The dessication of morality through
characters. It’s typical Scott fodder but brandishing the SF genre
adequately if somewhat disrespectfully.
There’s a lot to like about Deja Vu and one big hunk of burnin’
dislike that might make or break it for some viewers (and we’ll cover
that in a moment). But first, let’s look at the film’s machinations...
Denzel (INSIDE MAN)
stars as Doug Carlin, an investigator for the ATF. He’s summoned to a
ferryboat explosion in Louisiana and quickly wraps-up evidence regarding
its cause: terrorism. Domestic or foreign? We’re not sure. But the ferry
carried a bunch of navy personnel on shore leave, which brings in the
FBI. Specifically, Agent Pryzwarra (Val Kilmer,
10TH & WOLF), who
realizes the brainpower of Carlin (Denzel) and asks him to join his team
of experts. Carlin agrees and Pryzwarra takes him to an elaborate mobile
facility where “monitoring” equipment takes on surreal proportions.
Carlin meets up with the rest of Pryzwarra’s crew, Denny (Adam
Goldberg), Gunnars (Elden Henson) and Shanti (Erika Alexander), and
checks out the new gadgets (involving wormhole/foldspace theory coupled
with time-travel).
Carlin isn’t immediately let in on how the technology works, but soon
surmises that they are looking at the past. Three days past, to be
exact. He’s also interested in finding out who killed a woman who’s body
was found several hours before the explosion, burned and battered like
the rest of the ferryboat victims but who’s time of death doesn’t match
up. She’s a beautiful Louisiana native named Claire Kuchever (Paula
Patton, IDLEWILD), and even in death, Carlin is oddly attracted to her.
And when he sees her walking around in the FBI’s three-days-past
time-machine, he knows there’s a connection between the bombing and her
life.
While checking out her kitchen, Carlin also finds a message on her
refrigerator (“U Can Save Her”). Who wrote that and why? How can you
save someone who’s already dead?
Racing against fate, destiny, and lateral time-lines, Carlin boldly goes
where no man has gone before. And this is where the hitch comes in. When
Carlin offers to risk his life to save Paula, we as the audience are
supposed to believe that an entire human body can be transported through
time using a machine never designed for such a thing (they send back a
piece of paper and, in so doing, use so much of the local power grid
that they blackout most of the South). Imagine the power required to
send something as complex as a person and you see where the problem lay.
There is one other thing that I have to mention that bugged the crap out
of me, and that was the film’s title. Deja Vu isn’t really mentioned or
hit upon until the closing moments, which made me wonder why they gave
it its current title. And Deja Vu is more of a feeling and that didn’t
come through in the movie.
But it was certainly entertaining. Tony Scott has another successful
action film on his hands. But you might want to switch-off your overly
analytical brain when it comes to the SF elements.
(back to top) |
Image from Deja Vu
DVD cost: $19.99
Purchase:
BestPrices.com
Film Review Stew
Favorite? No.
Stew Poo-Poo? No.
Newsworthy:
Denzel Washington and
Bruce Greenwood, who have several scenes together in this film, both got
their first big career break as cast members on the TV series "St.
Elsewhere".
Movie Quote: "We've
got some unique time constraints."
Other Actors/Actresses
from Deja Vu
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