Déjà Vu (2006)
Directed by Tony Scott
Called in to recover evidence in the aftermath of a horrific explosion on a New Orleans ferry, Federal agent Doug Carlin gets pulled away from the scene and taken to a top-secret government lab that uses a time-shifting surveillance device to help prevent crime.
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13 films that influenced Déjà Vu
What critics say influenced Déjà Vu
It’s a sort of science-fiction riff on the old film-noir classic Laura, where detective Dana Andrews finds himself falling in love with the portrait of a woman (Gene Tierney) whose murder he’s investigating, probing her life through the flashback reminiscences of her associates.
…even if its romance is essentially a time-travel variant on the classic 1944 Otto Preminger film, Laura.
A return to formulaic thrillers for Director Tony Scott, “Deja Vu” plays out like a slicker and more realistic hybrid of a Bruckheimer movie combined with 1994’s rather silly “Timecop”.
Back to the Future (1985), for example, mapped out each milestone clearly and carefully so that it earned its payoff.
The time travel narrative is always going to be a bit suspect and the explanation of time travel is no more implausible in Deja Vu than it is in The Terminator and Back to the Future films.
This is hardly new territory (remember Biff Tannen and the “alternate 1985” from Back to the Future Part II?), but Deja Vu initially ropes us in.
The time travel narrative is always going to be a bit suspect and the explanation of time travel is no more implausible in Deja Vu than it is in The Terminator and Back to the Future films.
In fact, a light much like that explored in films like The Terminator, Paycheck and other time-travel stories.
The time travel thing repeats the idea of The Terminator, with Jim Caviezel playing a more terrestrial bad guy than Arnie Schwarzenegger.
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It's an intriguing idea, with echoes of Minority Report, and Scott certainly makes it entertaining.
The detective trying to prevent a crime foreseen is the same as in Minority Report.
But if you want to see a film about using time to solve crimes, I've got another two-word title for you: "Minority Report" .
It's the best Tony Scott film since the underestimated, unofficial The Conversation sequel Enemy of the State , which ran over on the same technophobic ground.
After the rampant excess of Domino - Tony Scott's all-but-unwatchable 2005 actioner - the filmmaker has thankfully done away with most of his over-the-top stylistic tendencies and instead infused Deja Vu with a comparatively toned-down vibe that's reminiscent of past efforts such as Enemy of the State and Crimson Tide.
Within their surveillance radius, the FBI team can see literally anything happening four days ago — even looking through walls, a bit like in Scott’s earlier Enemy of the State, thus allowing agents to peer in on the last hours of a murder victim named Claire Kuchever (Paula Patton) as she changes clothes, showers and so forth.
He's capable of making smart, politically engaged thrillers like Enemy of the State and Spy Game, but usually he prefers to blow things up.
Certainly Tony Scott’s best movie since Enemy of the State, and probably since the Tarantino-scripted True Romance (or maybe Crimson Tide?), Deja Vu is a surprisingly engaging story of voyeurism, obsession, and a very odd complication in an unusual romantic relationship.
Schlock action director Tony Scott ("Enemy of the State"/"Top Gun"/ "Man on Fire") teams once again with schlock action producer Jerry Bruckheimer for this gobbledygook sci-fi action thriller concerning Denzel Washington as New Orleans-born ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) agent Doug Carlin, who travels back in time to not only solve but prevent a devastating terrorist crime committed by a Timothy McVeigh-like patriot played by Jim Caviezel spouting his gripes against the government with the same passion he played Jesus in Gibson's Passion Of The Christ.
Big question: Can director Tony Scott ("Domino," "Enemy of the State") keep his jittery style in check and have "Deja Vu" make at least a little bit of sense?
After the rampant excess of Domino - Tony Scott's all-but-unwatchable 2005 actioner - the filmmaker has thankfully done away with most of his over-the-top stylistic tendencies and instead infused Deja Vu with a comparatively toned-down vibe that's reminiscent of past efforts such as Enemy of the State and Crimson Tide.
Tony Scott is a director known mainly for his high-class action thrillers, things like "Top Gun," "Days of Thunder," "Crimson Tide," "Enemy of the State," and "Man on Fire."
Certainly Tony Scott’s best movie since Enemy of the State, and probably since the Tarantino-scripted True Romance (or maybe Crimson Tide?), Deja Vu is a surprisingly engaging story of voyeurism, obsession, and a very odd complication in an unusual romantic relationship.
Director Tony Scott – re-teaming with Washington for the third time after Man on Fire and Crimson Tide - effectively cranks up the tension as we watch Carlin use his future knowledge to alter the past.
Teaming together before on Man on Fire and Crimson Tide, director Tony Scott and producer Jerry Bruckheimer have proved they work well together, so the movie is full of their proficiencies.
Washington, who also starred in Scott's films "Man on Fire" and "Crimson Tide," turns in one of his most hearfelt performances.
After the rampant excess of Domino - Tony Scott's all-but-unwatchable 2005 actioner - the filmmaker has thankfully done away with most of his over-the-top stylistic tendencies and instead infused Deja Vu with a comparatively toned-down vibe that's reminiscent of past efforts such as Enemy of the State and Crimson Tide.
As dedicated readers may recall, Director Tony Scott’s Domino garnered the number one spot on my Worst list of 2005.
After the seizure-inducing circuses that were “Man on Fire” and (especially) last year’s “Domino,” it is a properly subdued Tony Scott who has made “Deja Vu.” Gone are the jittery editing and the preposterous plotting.
Director Tony Scott, whose last film Domino assaulted the senses with its jumping-bean pyrotechnics, tones it down here.
Big question: Can director Tony Scott ("Domino," "Enemy of the State") keep his jittery style in check and have "Deja Vu" make at least a little bit of sense?
And the movie also benefits from direction by Tony Scott that concentrates on clean storytelling for a change, and shows none of the stylistic excesses that marred his 2004 collaboration with Washington, "Man on Fire," and helped make last year's "Domino" a travesty.
I go into every film hoping it will be good, the prospect of finding merit in just about anything signed by Tony Scott (Spy Game (2001) and The Hunger (1983) to one side) seemed sufficiently remote to warrant something approaching cinematic dread when settling in for Déjà Vu.
Tony Scott is a director known mainly for his high-class action thrillers, things like "Top Gun," "Days of Thunder," "Crimson Tide," "Enemy of the State," and "Man on Fire."
Laboring in the shadow of big brother Ridley for decades, his output has been spotty—bonanzas like Top Gun, middling stuff like Days of Thunder and Man on Fire, and unwatchable dreck like Domino.
It probably never occurred to Scott and writers Bill Marsilii and Terry Rossio that a movie like Primer (2004) was possible -- pure sci-fi, exploring the ideas and ramifications behind time travel itself, rather than exploiting it for the sake of a timely terrorist/bombing story and a hackneyed romance.