In his most effective thriller since Enemy of the State, Tony Scott makes time travel seem plausible. It helps that his New Orleans hero, ATF agent Doug Carlin (Denzel Washington in his third go-round with the director), spends more time in the present than the past. In order to catch a terrorist, FBI Agent Pryzwarra (Val Kilmer) invites Carlin to join forces. They have the technology to see the past. He has the expertise to interpret the data. Unfortunately, the bomb has already gone off and hundreds of ferry passengers have died. Then there's the body of a beautiful woman, Claire Kuchever (Paula Patton, Idlewild), that turns up in the vicinity of the blast. Evidence indicates she was killed beforehand. Since the FBI enables him to observe Claire prior to her murder, Carlin gets to know what she was like and finds himself falling in love. He becomes convinced that the only way to solve the case--and prove her innocence--is to travel to the past. But as Pryzwarra's colleague, Denny (Adam Goldberg), argues, "You cannot go back in time. It's physically impossible." Or so he says. D??j?? Vu is constructed around a clever script and executed by a top-notch cast, notably Washington, Patton, and an eerie Jim Caviezel (miles away from Passion of the Christ). In shedding the excesses of recent years--the sadism of Man on Fire and weirdness of Tarantino favorite Domino--Scott re-affirms his rep as one of the action movie's finest practitioners. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Deja vu is a good watch spoiled a bit by it's dodgy execution. I came away feeling I'd watched two short films both with Denzel Washington in them that had been stuck together to make one feature.

The plot revolves around Washington's character Doug Carlin investigating a bombing on a ferry in New Orleans. One of the bodies that washes up is that of beautiful young woman who is missing four fingers (this is important later) but it turns out couldn't have been a victim of the ferry blast istself as forensic evidence points to her death being some two hours before. This leads Carlin to investigate the young woman's relevenace to the case.

It's at some point around here that the FBI introduces itself to Carlin and more specifically introduce him to some new technology they've been working on. Using satellites and some fancy software the FBI has access to a seamless stream of video which they can view from any angle on the area targeted by the satellites. This is where it gets simultaneously quite interesting and a bit far fetched at the same time. The thing with this video stream is that it's always 4.5 days behind the 'now'. The video stream is used to investigate the bombing of the ferry before it happened. Due to Carlin's nifty deductive work earlier in the film the FBI wants him to help point them in the right direction with regards to pinpointing the activities of the bomber in the past so they can nail him now. They can't stop the bombing(or can they...) but hopefully they can gain enough evidence to track this nutter down.

Carlin, who again is played with effortless charisma by Washington, poses the question that if we can see into the past then can't we change it and prevent these 500 odd people dying in this blast? The FBI tell him no, this is strictly one way viewing of a 108 hour old video stream. It's a delayed stream because it takes the computers so long to compile the data into a coherent stream apparently.

Carlin knows the young woman who washed up is key to this case and they start following her with the surveillance gear back when she was still alive. The case starts to make a lot more sense. However, during one surveillance session Carlin is determined to find out if this really is only one way viewing as the young woman seems to know she is being watched. He shines a laser pen onto the video feed of the woman and she sees it. So apprently large flat screen displays can let laser pens penetrate back in time....right.....!

Carlin is then determined to send himself a note back in time so he can prevent the bombing and is shown the 'time machie' the FBI have been playing with.

It gets more interesting as the layers start to build up on this complex set of possible outcomes to the story. It's very well told as it keeps things fairly straighforward for such a potentially confusing story.

The best part of the film comes after all the science fiction part, as Carlin realises what he needs to do to put things right. There's a really good twist at the end too.

So all in all you have a really great concept for the story that flounders a bit with it's utterly far fetched premise for being able to see back in time but then redeems itself quite well when it leave the sci-fi fluff behind and gets back into what this film is really - a good detective yarn with an excellent twist.

At this price it's an easy recommendation for a friday night DVD with a pizza and a few beers.

3.5 stars.

i'm a big fan of denzel washington, so i was looking forward to this film after having read the blurb on the dvd cover. the tagline on the cover asks "What if you could change the past?". my first thought after i'd watched this film was if i could change the past, i would have saved the last 121 minutes by not watching this nonsensical drivel. sory denzel, not this time

In the beginning of what appears at first glance to be a well constructed thriller, Tony Scott (Top Gun, True Romance) seems to very carefully lay a number of important building blocks in place. I was impressed with the first half hour of so of the movie, one I wished to see because, in spite of some turkeys, Tony Scott has turned in some great pieces too. Once the sci-fi element was unravelled, the scripting went to great pains to make suspension of disbelief as easy as possible on the part of the viewer, once again a point for the movie-makers.

It wasn't long, however, before the whole thing just descended into an absurd action mish mash, the viewer's credulity being stretched further every moment, and seemed to abandon the carefully constructed base on which it was built in favour of mediocre visuals and irregular pacing. Add to this an ordinary performance from Denzel Washington (not that he had much to work with), and a comprehensively phoned in performance from Val Kilmer (he didn't have much to work with, but he didn't even bother using that), and all in all you've got a fairly hopeless result. I gave it two stars because the first half hour proved that there was probably a decent film in there somewhere. Sadly though, no-one in the production team showed any interest in freeing it.

This should be the sort of film I enjoy - a bit of science fiction plus some mystery and a bit of detective work. Alas, It failed to live up to expectations. Not wishing to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it already, I won't go into detail with the plot, aside from saying it doesn't quite add up, and it doesn't seem to try very hard to do so. There is also a rather extended car chase (albeit with a temporal twist) with multiple pile-ups which stretches credibility to breaking point.

Denzel Washington is as ever very watchable but even he seems a little unconvinced at times. Paula Patton is passable, but could have done with tighter direction in places. Jim Caviezel has appeared in a much classier time travel film (Frequency, with Dennis Quaid - well worth a look!).

To sum up then, nice idea but doesn't really work.

I have always been a bit of a sucker for a time travel story. Whether it's the 'science' of the Terminator, or the everything but the kitchen sink and to hell with the consequences joyousness of Back to the Future, I'll cut a film a lot of slack. Given that, I recorded this film on an impulse from Sky+, knowing little about it other than there was some time travel element.

I should not have been surprised, given the pedigree of Tony Scott, Jerry Bruckheimer and star Denzel Washington, but for nearly its whole running time, Deja Vu is a great movie. The movie opens with a bombing of a ferry. Washington plays Doug Carlin, an ATF agent brought in to investigate who quickly realises that the key to solving the crime lies with one of its victims. The trademark Scott flourishes, zippy editing, flashy camerawork, the whole nine yards, keep the tension high as Carlin realises that all is not what it seems in the special unit he is assigned to in order to find the killer...

Enough of the plot. Washington is excellent as always, well supported in unshowy roles by Val Kilmer and Adam Goldberg. Some have questioned the more fantastical elements of the plot. Hey, it's science fiction! What are you expecting? If you're not up to suspending disbelief, best stick to period drama. However, the film is not without its flaws. Jim Caviezel is underused in a role that could have been fleshed out- but then, the whodunnit is not the point of the exercise.

So, yes, the time travel. Well, right up to the end, it worked quite well. To discuss further would risk giving the game away- but in my view the ending is botched badly and makes something of a mockery of what has gone before. Not everyone will agree, but is has slightly tarnished my view of what is otherwise a superior thriller well worth anyone's time.