Deja Vu (DVD)

...cast) -

Deja Vu is the story of federal agent Doug Carlin (played by Denzel Washington) who's called in to investigate and search for evidence after a bomb is exploded on a crowded ferry in New Orleans (the film is dedicated to the people in New Orleans, after what happened with Hurricane Katrina in real life), killing hundreds of people, including one woman, Claire Kuchever (played by Paula Patton), who's father begs him to find the ...
...Certificate -

Deja Vu is rated 12, which is due to the moderate action violence present in the movie. I didn't feel that there was much to really offend or scare teenagers here, though as the certificate suggests, I wouldn't recommend it to younger children. There is the odd one or two sensual scenes I suppose and possibly a couple of disturbing scenes/images, where Claire has a bag over her head and the bomber is shown going to spill ... more

- Introduction -

I can't remember where I first heard about this movie but the basic story interested me, it being to do with time travel which is a theme in movies I've always enjoyed since I was about 10 years old and fell in love with the Back to the Future movies, plus I heard that it was a Jerry Bruckheimer movie (well produced by him anyway) and I like his shows/movies, so I knew I wanted to see this but I decided to wait for a while for the price of the DVD to come down (I'm a bit of a miser when it comes to paying full price for movies, I must admit!). I managed to get one second hand for under £10 and was quite happy with that, though unfortunately it did turn out that it was a bit scratched and the DVD stuck in a couple of parts, luckily it didn't really ruin the movie as it only happened a couple of times and I managed to fast forward out of the 'sticky parts' so to speak.

Anyway I had decided to leave this movie to watch around the holiday time as a bit of a treat for me, considering its a fairly new movie and as I hadn't seen many action movies lately, I decided to finally give it a watch last night (December 22nd). I have to say, to start with I was a bit disappointed, it didn't appear to be the action movie I expected and instead it seemed more science fiction oriented but as time went on (so to speak lol ahem), it picked up pace and overall I quite enjoyed it and decided this was definately a movie that I wanted to review, having a few thoughts and opinions on it. Read on to find out more.

- Main Credits (non-actors, which are mentioned further on in the review) -
Source:- IMDB (see:- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0453467/fullcredits)

Director - Tony Scott
Writers - Bill Marsilii and Terry Rossio
Producer - Jerry Bruckheimer
Executive Producers - Ted Elliott, Chad Oman, Terry Rossio, Mike Stenson, Barry H. Waldman
Associate Producers - Don Ferrarone and Pat Sandston
Cinematography - Paul Cameron (director of photography)

- Story (incl. main acting cast) -

Deja Vu is the story of federal agent Doug Carlin (played by Denzel Washington) who's called in to investigate and search for evidence after a bomb is exploded on a crowded ferry in New Orleans (the film is dedicated to the people in New Orleans, after what happened with Hurricane Katrina in real life), killing hundreds of people, including one woman, Claire Kuchever (played by Paula Patton), who's father begs him to find the person who's responsible for killing his daughter. However, things take a different turn when he's taken away from the crime scene and he's shown a top-secret government lab where staff (including Val Kilmer, Bruce Greenwood and Erika Alexander) use this strange surveillance camera device which, he's explained, shows the crime scene (ie the ferry) some 4 days before the bomb explodes, using satellite technology its always on a 4 day delay, so they use it to try and spot who the bomber might have been, to help them try and track down the culprit.

However, Doug has his doubts about this rather suspicious seeming surveillance device and it soon becomes clear that actually it isn't just showing old footage from some days ago but rather it actually lets those viewing it, travel back in time and so Doug decides that its up to him to try and use this rather magical contraption to discover who the bomber is and to ultimately travel back in time and try and stop the explosion from ever happening, saving Claire in the process of course, who he becomes more and more enamoured with.

Is it possible to change the past? will he survive the transformation of travelling past and even if he tracks down the bomber, will he manage to take him down without being spotted and killed? can he save Claire? well of course, as always, you'll have to watch the movie to find out! (I love saying that hehe).

- Genre/Themes etc. -

This movie, while mostly advertised as being an action thriller (which it is, mostly in the last hour and less so during the first hour I'd say), also definately has a science fiction 'edge' to it, which shouldn't come as any surprise, given the main plot storyline explained above.

The themes covered include time travel and the effect of that, also I suppose it has a slight theme of terrorism, with the bomber being portrayed as some sort of patriot terrorist (I didn't entirely follow that either to be honest). Another theme covered by this movie I felt, if perhaps in more of a minor/slight way, is the issue of modern technology and privacy. Before it was clear that the surveillance device was using some science fiction based technology to truly be showing video and audio from the past, it did make me wonder whether anything similar could be existing in this day and age, certainly satellites are around and to have the ability, as in the movie, to be able to zoom in on people within their houses and watch what their doing, even a few days after it occured, well it certainly makes me wonder about privacy, I wouldn't like government staff watching me shower like they watched Claire, thats for sure! considering it was a top secret device in the movie and so the public obviously weren't aware of it, this is where you could get paranoid about their being such things in real life and worry what level of privacy you really have but I try not to be *quite* so paranoid! it does make you wonder about the topic a bit though, considering you are shown so much 'footage' on the device of Claire and what happened in the past...

- My Thoughts/Opinions -

I felt that the movie was quite slow for the first hour, it dragged a bit mid way through the first hour too, with there being too much pretty slow chat between Doug and the other government staff, using the device with not so much going on. There wasn't much action at the start, minus the explosion on the ferry but things do hot up and it becomes much more fast paced after the first hour, with Doug trying to chase the bomber from the past, in real time (if that makes sense, using a headset where the government staff in the present time could view where the bomber was driving in the past), involving car crashes and so on.

I felt that it was a bit like CSI (which makes sense in a way given that Jerry Bruckheimer also works on that show), relying on science and technology to help solve the crime, with a good dose of decent special effects (car crashes and explosions mainly) in the 2nd half of the movie. As I say being a fan of time travel movies, it always intrigues me to see new, modern takes on the idea of what it might be like if we could control and manipulate time and what the effect may be of altering it.

This is a movie that makes you think, at least you need to concentrate to really follow the story fully and its nice in a way that its not a substanceless sot of mindless action flick, though I do still feel that its a shame that it is rather slow to 'find itself' and get properly started. It definately did feel like it lagged/dragged on in the middle of the first half.

Another criticism would have to be that I wasn't overly keen on the ending, to me it didn't make a great deal of sense, maybe thats just me and I missed something but even so, I felt it wasn't that great really, it was one of those 'yeah right!' moments I'm afraid! though it didn't ruin the whole movie but I didn't really understand it scientifically speaking, to be honest.

I did feel that Denzel gave a very good performance in his role as agent Doug Carlin, he showed his emotions well and you certainly feel like you wish the best for him in his quest to try and save Claire, so I did feel that he gave a particularly good performance in this movie.

- Certificate -

Deja Vu is rated 12, which is due to the moderate action violence present in the movie. I didn't feel that there was much to really offend or scare teenagers here, though as the certificate suggests, I wouldn't recommend it to younger children. There is the odd one or two sensual scenes I suppose and possibly a couple of disturbing scenes/images, where Claire has a bag over her head and the bomber is shown going to spill gas over her etc. but other than that, there isn't really all that much to offend, no real horror or gore or particularly bad language present, certainly from what I remember so I'd say that its fine for teenagers but not for anyone younger, as the certificate suggests.

- DVD -

The DVD provides subtitles in English, French, Dutch, Arabic and Hindi. The movie is shown in 2.35:1 widescreen format and the bonus features present are as follows:-

* Extended Scene - Extended Ferry Aftermath (with optional commentary by director Tony Scott). This basically just shows some extra footage of Doug looking around the ferry at the start of the movie (when it was a crime scene) and seeing the surveillance goggles/headset being used by an FBI or government member of staff, it isn't particularly interesting and only lasts 1 minute 20 seconds.

* Surveillance Window - This lets you go to scenes in the movie with the filmmakers for behind the scenes access/information on scenes just before they happen in the movie. It starts off as basically commentary over the start of the movie and then goes on to being more of a behind the scenes, making of documentary. At the start, the director and writers discuss what the movie means and deals with and consists of, as well as their involvement in the film and how it (the story etc.) developed over the years (the original story originating from sometime in 1997, apparently), the usual sort of commentary discussion pretty much. As I say though, it goes on to being more of a behind the scenes documentary if you watch on and your shown before some of the more explosive and exciting scenes, some footage of how they filmed/made those scenes and your also shown the director, writers etc. being interviewed and discussing the making of these scenes and so on as well. Its pretty in-depth and lasts just over two and a half hours in total, which certainly isn't bad...

While I do feel that it seemed pretty low in bonus or special features, once I realised how long and seemingly in depth the 'Surveillance Window' feature is, I felt that made up for it quite alot. Still, its a shame there aren't any blooper reels or deleted scenes or trailers, TV spots or anything like that...

- Official Websites -

The Deja Vu official British website can be found here:-

http://bvimovies.com/uk/deja_vu/

This website provides the trailer, information on the story, information on the cast and crew, a photo gallery and downloads in the form of wallpapers, messenger (ie buddy) icons and a screensaver. It also offers to book tickets through Odeon but I doubt now that any cinema is showing it, at least its been out on DVD for some months now anyway. It also offers you the chance to win a limited edition Deja Vu branded Ipod Nano with the Film Factory as well as a link asking whether or not your in a Deja Vu hotspot, which im not sure what thats about, the link wasn't really working for me when I tried so I don't know about that.

There is also an official American site for the movie, which can be found here:-

http://video.movies.go.com/dejavu/

This provides a video of the trailer and information about the movie, a photo gallery and similar downloads too, although under downloads it does have something else, a video memory game, so that might be a bit of fun. Again sorry but my laptop is acting up and I can't seem to get that to work properly, so I can't really comment on it (grrr @ this blooming glitchy laptop!).

It also has numerous links to order the DVD lol which is to be expected from official site(s) I guess and the good thing with the American site is that it offers a text only version, considering both are basically Flash Player sites, they will take a while to load especially on slow connections, so the text only version will be alot quicker to load. Here's the link to the text only version of the American site:- http://video.movies.go.com/dejavu/textonly.html

Its interesting to see that on that page it only really gives you information on what the DVD special features are and a link to order it, guess they really are keen on us purchasing it lol what a surprise. It does also say a bit about the story of the movie too though, as well as showing some of the credits (as a graphic).

- Conclusions -

I wasn't sure what to make of this move at first but as it gathered pace in the 2nd half of the movie, I became more and more interested and enthralled in it. I always do like a decent time travel movie, something with a bit of action and imagination and this did have a good amount of both. Its good, like I've mentioned before, that its not a totally mindless movie and it does make you think.

Denzels performance definately helped make the movie more exciting and gave it more substance and it was an interesting story in general, though I did feel it lacked a bit mid way through the first half but it made up for that towards the end.

This is a movie thats worth seeing but I do feel that it is also slightly flawed, with a good start at the very start then it lags and then it picks up again but ends with, what I felt to be, a rather unbelievable and slightly confusing ending. Also again I'll say that I think its a shame that our Region 2 version of the DVD only has a couple of extras, though the 'Surveillance Window' is a good, in depth documentary/commentary mix that adds quite alot to it, still most DVDs have at least one of the followng - a blooper reel, deleted scenes, trailer(s) and/or TV spots, so having none of those is a shame and is another reason why I'm only giving this a 4 out of 5, star rating wise.

All that having been said though, I would still recommend the movie as generally it is a good movie, not perfect by any means but its still entertaining and has some pretty cool action scenes once it gets going properly. Worth checking out.

Also it might be worth noting that I spotted Deja Vu being sold obviously brand new and sealed in HMV for only about £8 yesterday, so its not too expensive to get it new now. Thats roughly what I paid for my second hand copy which is scratched so, I'd recommend buying it new since you can get it quite cheap now.

I hope you found my review useful in deciding whether to see the movie or buy the DVD, thanks for reading!

Oh and to say thanks for reading my review, here's a card from me to you & everyone on Ciao (feel free to pass it around or whatever):- http://www.yahoo.americangreetings.com/ecards/view.pd?i=290697714&m=2325&vc =1&source=yahoo&sync=1

Happy Holidays everyone! 

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