Deja Vu Review

Deja Vu

Year: 2006
Director: Tony Scott
Starring: Denzel Washington, Paula Patton, James Caviezel, Val Kilmer, Adam Goldberg
Distributor: Buena Vista Pictures
MPAA: Rated PG-13

Deja Vu marks Tony Scott and Denzel Washington's third collaboration together and it is not really the adrenaline charged, intense thriller that many were expecting from the "Man on Fire" director, but it is a very interesting film.

Doug Carlin (Denzel Washington), a dedicated ATF agent who must investigate the horrific terrorist bombing of a New Orleans ship, a disaster that cost over 500 lives including his very own partner. An intriguing FBI agent, Andrew Pryzwarra (Val Kilmer), recruits Carlin into his special task force, a team which scans the images produced by a futuristic surveillance device, capable of observing anything within a wide radius of four days and six hours into the past. Carlin decides that the most effective course of action would be to study a woman named Claire Kuchever (Paula Patton), whose murdered body was dumped in the water two hours before the actual explosion, meaning that her killer knew of the inevitable disaster and intended on passing her off as just another unfortunate victim. However, throughout her surveillance, Carlin receives the disturbing impression that Claire can sense that she is being watched, despite her life playing by four days and six hours in the past.

I felt Deja Vu's story was alittle bad. I mean the opening intro took off to a good start, but then it kind of got alittle hectic. If you looked at the actual trailer for the movie, you wouldn't suspect that this film is actually about time travel. When you look at movies that have had time travel experiences, you would see that there aren't alot of movies that can incorporate that factor into a movie without the film being bad. The only one I can think of that pulled this of really good was the 1985 success, "Back to the Future". I mean a machine that can look into the past 4 days, but also send you there? It just doesn't go well together. People aren't interested in seeing time travel movies since their have been a billion films just like that in the past. With all this said, Deja Vu is still pretty entertaining. The timing and paste is perfect and really interests the viewer making them wonder whats going to happen next.

The acting is sub-par and nothing too special. It isn't bad, but it isn't great either. You wouldn't expect a 2 time Oscar winner like Denzel Washington to be playing a role in this film, but none the less hes in it. Denzel gives a performance that really isn't up to his standards especially after coming off a great film like Inside Man. He still pulls off the cop like character that is Doug Carlin, but anyone can notice that hes not really trying. The other actors are the same and I don't know if its just me, but in certain scenes, Jim Caviezel looks high off his ass. Maybe its just me.

The thing that really shines in this movie is its music. I mean the dialogue is crisp and clear, but also very straight forward. The beats and strong music really makes this film worth watching. In some scenes, its really heavily focused on the action and intensiveness of that moment. It really makes the film a whole lot better hearing it especially on surround sound.

In the end, Deja Vu is just another action thriller that has what its going for, but loses it during transition. Its not perfect, but its pretty entertaining if your open to some action that doesn't really have a strong story, but makes up for it in its intense moments. Deja Vu could have been alot better, but some how it lost it when it went back in time.

Rating: 7.0 / 10