Deja Vu

Deja vu is one of those intricate action thrillers that requires a bit of faith and attention, but it does it so well. The cast is outstanding, each playing their part with depth. The storyline is well developed and plays out in an interesting and exiting way. This is by far my favorite Denzel movie.

The reason I waited a few years to do this review is that I wanted to see the film a few times - something that reviewers should consider before dashing off a critique.

I have seen Deja Vu four times top to bottom and my comments:

1. Near perfect hi-concept film. Involves sci-fi, time travel, detective work, etc. But when push comes to shove it is about connection and saving the person you love.

2. Technically flawless. Well written. Great acting. And with Denzel holding the camera scene to scene even if there were some flaws, you would not notice them anyway

3. I will be honest. The picky reviews bother me because the purpose of the IMDb is to create a record for viewers of the futures, not a whine fest for reviewers of the present. I am a film buff (see my other reviews) and I tried to make a list simply of other films in this category, yet alone films that are this good. Maybe a dozen tops in the last 100 years. Which means that films like this are rare and when a good one comes along you treasure it, not belittle it.

Highly recommended. Hi emotional impact. A feel-good film.

Continuing my plan to watch every movie in Denzel Washington's filmography, I come to Deja Vu

If you can get on board with a lot of the technology (the ability to watch the past, through walls with audio) and time travel aspects, a lot of fun can be had with Deja Vu.

It's totally illogical, with incomprehensible definitions of how things work, and I still don't know how many time lines there were, but I recommend turning your brain off and just going with it, as it is entertaining, enough.'

Deja Vu grossed $64 million at the domestic box office and was the 42nd highest grossing movie of 2006.

I've seen and read so many time travel things over the years that I know one could pick at this forever. Still, once we embrace the technology and go with the plot, it's hard to stop watching. This evaded me when it first came out. I rented it and was captured. First of all, it's that cool Denzel thing he does. Especially when he is quizzing someone. He knows he's the man and he leaves the person being spoken to looking to see if his wallet has been stolen. I remember some of this from "Remember the Titans." The passing in and out of realities begs the question of what will happen to the characters when they make it back? Especially if we like them. And we do. The government, of course, does what it can to screw up, but the rebel always get his way, doesn't he? This is a film one thinks about long after seeing it. I decided to ignore the science and just enjoy it. I would have given it 9 but there are some plodding parts in the middle. It also suffers from a bit too much avoidance of common sense.

I usually like sci-fi when it's pure sci-fi. I usually like present day drama when it's believably real. Disaster, at least for me, looms large when sci-fi meets real life drama. So here we have a present day crime thriller crossed with sci-fi time travel...And, this movie kicks butt, works so well, in fact, it's nuances should be studied in film school. It's original enough to be compelling-where we are not in some distant future, but the here and now.

The story, the characters, and the effects mesh well to suspend belief to the point that you "get on-board" and enjoy the ride. This is the way to do sci-fi with believable real life situations. The cinematography, the implementation of technology, and even a beautiful (but presently dead) damsel in distress, combine to give the actors, who are uniformly good to excellent, the boost to put this in rarefied good sci-fi territory. Genre fans are shoo-ins and those who think they don't like sci-fi should enjoy this one too. 7.5 to 8 out of 10.