Deja Vu is dubbed a science fiction thriller, and rightly so because to my surprise the movies premise focuses on time travel. I’ll get to all that in a minute, but before watching Deja Vu it seemed to have quite a bit of promise. I’ve rarely been let down by a Denzel Washington movie, combine that with the fact that it’s a Jerry Bruckheimer production and things really look optimistic. Add onto that this movie has an impressive supporting cast, an amazingly talented Jim Caviezel and the equally talented and better known Val Kilmer. Although Kilmer looks too have put on a few pounds he still has that same dramatic charm that I miss, but enough but that lets get into the movie.
Doug Carlin (Denzel Washington) is an ATF agent who is called in to recover evidence on a recent ferry bombing. Quickly he discovers that it was an act of terrorism, and soon finds the washed up body of Claire Kuchever (Paula Patton). Through deductive reasoning, Doug determines that she was murdered and did not die on the ferry. His eye for specifics and general smarts attract the attention of FBI agent Pryzwarra (Val Kilmer), he introduces Carlin to a futuristic device that allows you to look back in the past four days and six hours previous to your moment in time. From this point they have to try and look back into the past for clues as to who the killer was, and the whole investigation revolves around Clair Kuchever who Carlin seems to become quite attached too.
The concept of this picture starts off with some originality but turns out to be just average. The movie sets itself up too be pretty entertaining, but then just completely falls short in the last 30 minutes or so. Of course time travel isn’t a realistic concept, but if it was the happenings of the last portion of the movie would make no sense. What I’m really trying to say is that I think the ending sucked, everything about it. I don’t know how many of you will feel the same, so don’t let the interesting first three quarters of the movie lure you into a false sense of acceptability. Aside from the total cliché ending, there were some really cool scenes in the movie – one I really liked involved a mobile headset that showed the past while Denzel was trying to drive on a freeway in the present. On top of the good setup this movie delivered I enjoyed several of the performances in this picture, including Washington, Kilmer, and Caviezel.
That last paragraph may have been a bit overwhelming for you so I’ll break it down; Deja Vu was quick out the gate, it started off pretty interesting and even thrilling. But as it got closer and closer to the ending it became oblivious how it was going to end, in total Hollywood clich? form. Regardless of the ending Dea Vu was a pretty good movie, but definitely not a must own.
Video
Presented in a 1080p 2.40:1 aspect ratio, Presented in a 1080p 2.40:1 aspect ratio, sorry I had to throw in a Deja Vu pun. But seriously, Deja Vu is a spectacular looking disc, almost flawless. The thing I liked most about this transfer were the spectacular details. If I wanted to I could count the individual pours on Denzel’s face, or even if I wanted too I could count the follicles of hair protruding both of Val Kilmer’s chins. Deja Vu takes place in New Orleans and if the city is looking half as vibrant and delicious as this movie portrays it, it looks like they are overcoming the horrible disaster quite admirably. Everything from the ripples in the water to explosion of the ferry impressed me.
Audio
Buena Vista has included two separate audio tracks on the Blu-ray release of Deja Vu, a Dolby Digital 5.1 and a more impressive PCM 5.1 track which blew me away. Being a Jerry Bruckheimer movie I expected to hear several explosions and gunshots, I got what I wanted and boy did it sound good. Right from the opening sequences ferry explosion my speakers were getting a good workout, more specifically every channel was in use, and the bass rattled my living room. Throughout the movie there are several impressive scenes in specific, an intense Hummer chase, scenes out in the rain that produced an exceptionally well sounding ambience, and of course the always impressive ringing of a gunshot. In the end, Deja Vu sounded just as good as it looked, which made for a very enjoyable viewing experience even though I wasn’t completely impressed with the film itself.
Special Features
Although there aren’t a whole lot of extras on this disc, the ones that they decide to include are decent enough. More specifically I enjoyed the Surveillance Window feature which is worth checking out.
- Deleted Scenes – 5 deleted scenes that hardly add anything to the picture, I can see why they were cut but are still entertaining to check out.
- Extended Scenes – 3 extended scenes, of course they add onto 3 different scenes in the movie, just like the deleted scenes they added little importance to the overall picture and I can see why they were cut.
- Surveillance Window- Gives you the opportunity to go back and experience behind the scenes moments, including the ferry explosion, various stunts, and aspects pertaining to filming in New Orleans. Very similar to Warner’s In Movie Experience.
Final Thoughts
Most of the movie was good, the acting was good and the plot was pretty cool. Of course the Hollywood ending ruined yet another movie for me, because in my eyes the way a movie ends is the most important aspect of it. But even with an ending I didn’t really like the movie was still decent enough for me to check out again sometime in the future. For those of you that already like the movie, this disc is slick, definitely worth the purchase for fans of the movie. The audio and video are great, and although the special features aren’t all that impressive, this is definitely a disc worth purchasing for fans.
