Déjà vu

Have you ever had the feeling that you've seen something before? Like when you're in a cinema and it all starts looking sickeningly familiar. Tony Scott's new movie starts with a hectic mix of shots of people having a good time but the discordant editing or whatever made me say to myself, "Any minute now, there will be an explosion or a similar disaster." I waited another full minute of meaningless collage. If this was TV I need that explosion about now to stop me changing channels. And then, sure enough, Whooooomph! Big explosion. Déjà vu! Denzil Washington is a law enforcement officer (Doug) who cannily discovers, after the explosion, a woman burned to death. Except that closer examination reveals to him that she died beforehand, so her death is probably a clue to the terrorist. He joins an elite force with the technology to see four days into the past. They give him an unbelievable explanation as to how this is done, and eventually a 'real' explanation (which is not done very convincingly either). Doug, being the sad, sensitive type, has fallen in love with the dead woman and offers to be flung back in time to save her – just so he can prevent the devastation of course. About this time you will be getting Déjà yoohoos along the lines of, "I think I've seen this before – was it in Terminator II or The Prestige?" At least by this point the explosions-per-minute ratio has ratcheted up a bit, so you may grudgingly feel you're getting your money's worth. But when you realise the two best scenes were in the trailer, it's easier to accept you've been had and just spend the rest of the movie waiting for them to appear. On the plus side, the action does eventually kick in, making it at least better than a bad episode of CSI, and a car chase conducted simultaneously in two time frames stretches the brain momentarily. Against this is a sci-fi element that will be clumsy and unconvincing to the most credulous of sci-fi fans and it bit too daft for those who hate such things. I was touched by the fact that it was made in post-Katrina New Orleans, although they probably needed the tax breaks just to break even. Déjà vu is neither pleasantly mind-numbing entertainment nor intellectually stimulating sci-fi, but is a tolerable action movie with a sweet enough twist. Some of the sets are cleverly constructed and the plot is a bit different to the average cops and robbers movie. Ironically, it is not likely to be a film you will remember.

I am really sorry if I offend some of the commentators' tastes, but for me this movie was a complete disaster. Tony Scott, Denzel Washington, these names to me mean reputation and a guarantee of a decent, solid entertainment. I wasn't expecting anything deep or any food for thought, but pure, perfect entertainment. How disappointing! A time machine?! Ability to watch the past?! Through the walls?! Plus audio?! The scene where Denzel uses his laser pointer to unveil the truth about the real function of the machine and then exclaims in such a dramatic tonality "Can anyone tell me WHAT-IS-GOING-ON-HERE" was just...funny and made me literally fall of my chair... Please don't see this movie, for sake of your well-being. Remember "The Village" from 2004 and the disappointment of it not being an intriguing horror movie, but a piece about some isolated place in the national park...? After seeing "Deja vu", you'll enjoy a similar aftertaste of disappointment, ridiculousness of the content and waste of your money as well as time.

OK, am i wrong, or is the comments area in IMDb there for commenting a movie? What can i say? Some of the people in here are not commenting the movie, they adapt it to our own reality and try to make sense out of it. I will not make the same mistake.... The movie itself is a complex of thriller-drama-action-SciFi and i have to say that Tony Scott did a very good job (especially for his action scenes). Denzel and Val are very good but the applause goes for Jim and the new girl Paula Patton. She actually steals the first role from Denzel. And Jim who plays for about half-or-less an hour makes you think immediately that he is the bad guy. What more can you expect from an actor? The film has a fast pace that doesn't let you get bored and although it lasts about 2 hours, it's coming to the end quite quick. I have to admit that there are some errors (the-country-hurt-my-feelings explanation for the bad guy turned to a terrorist is at the least laughable, the time-travel theories cannot be minimized into a 2 minutes analysis such as portrayed here), but after all, when you see a film of this kind you do not expect everything to be clear as the stars in the night sky (without clouds of course). And that's the BIG question. Do you watch this kind of movies for entertaining reasons, just simply to pass your time relaxed, make your mind forget the things you worry about the rest of the day etc, OR you want every single movie you watch - even a SciFi-action-thriller like this one - to make you think about our cosmos and the universe and the societies and the world and whatever? Answer the question, what you REALLY want and expect for any given kind of movie and i promise that you will find yourself to be more amused after you watch any film from there on..... For myself speaking, this film deserves a brave 8. It was pretty amusing - and that's really the whole point, isn't it?

the opening credits. and they try and be clever. it doesn't work. our cast: Agent Doug Carlin is played by Denzel Washington who seems to be sleep-walking thru this movie with the occasional sudden inexplicable deviation of character. Val Kilmer has not aged well as Special FBI Agent Pryzwarra, a thickly-jowled pot-bellied cardboard representation of the one-dimensional G-man. Adam Goldberg tries (and really, really fails...i mean...oh boy) to pull off the super-brain heart-of-gold physics professor "Denny". Paula Patton makes great eye-candy damsel-was-in-distress and flashes us a nipple. the rest of the cast? meh...who cares? so how is the movie. eh. a 5/10 and that's being generous. here were the big problems: * the science was...well...utter crap AND inconsistent. why could they only see in the New Orleans radius and how exactly did the portable rig work outside of this area? why could a laser pointer go thru the main "screen but they needed this big-ass nuclear toaster to send that sheet of paper back? and, oh, the paper was the utter maximum we could send back but we've changed out minds and now we can send Denzel back but he has to be in his undies 'cause his shoes would weigh too much. wha? and if you want to emphasize that sending the laser bean, sheet of paper and Denzil use HUGE amounts of energy, don't use the same "aerial view of the city blacking out" all three bloody times. * there is NO character development in this film. none. nada. zilch. and Denzil's character has these unprecedented changes of emotion and character "quirks" that makes it nearly impossible to relate to him. * Denzil creates mayhem and carnage on the streets of New Orleans with a tricked-out Hummer (with enough product-placement stickers on it to make the movie's endorsement agent shudder uncontrollably with logolistic ecstasy) with impunity. he prolly kills several dozen innocent by-standers and doesn't get as much as a reduction of his expense account. and it's BORING! Tony Scott has sucked every atom of "thrill" from the whole sequence. oooh...here comes a semi-truck, head-on. will Denzil die? hell no...AND the Hummer will still be drivable afterward!!! * in the final climax, where the HECK did the bad guy get the kelvar vest, automatic weapons, and ammo? he didn't have it when he ran back onto the ferry. * and while we're talking about magic guns, and why would Navy personnel, on their way to Mardi Gras, just happen to be wearing full combat gear and toting M-15s?