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I'll get over the plot of this movie right away: It is by far the most extraordinary amount of bullshit and techno-babble I have seen in ages. The amount of that terrible techno-babble even exceeds the ludicrous amounts that Star Trek had. There's an actual moment where the characters engage in a pseudointelligent conversation regarding the physics of the entire time machine video thingie. They try to make it seem possible by using fancy words that the writers hoped the viewers would adapt as actual words in their head, and the writers obviously assumed that none of the viewers didn't know anything about the basics of time and space. Hell, I don't know shit about them either, but I can tell when I'm being subjected to techno-babble and bullshit. I mean why should they try to make us believe that something in a movie that obviously bases itself on a fantasy world unlike ours would actually be possible in our world? Deja Vu has magnificent action and a nice premise, so why bother our heads with dull dialogue that we know is in no way intellectual or interesting? It makes no sense, bring in the action already! I must say that how they did the whole time seeing thing was kind of impressive, especially a chase scene around the middle of the movie where Washington is chasing a man from the past with a humvee (this is a Bruckheimer production after all) in the current day.
Tony Scott is a great visual director. He can make things look really cool and such, but he is terrible when it comes to creating actually intense sequences, which is something that was already apparent in his previous movie, Man On Fire, in which the last hour was somewhat boring, monotone action. He is pretty decent when it comes to the dramatic moments. The camera work is actually relatively impressive at a few points. Also, thank god that Scott didn't go over the top with the color filters and such like he did in Man On Fire, it wouldn't have fitted this movie. It must be said though, that the man has kinda gone low. I mean he directed True Romance, and now he's making movies like this? He deserves better. The acting here was rather questionable. Washington obviously did this for the paycheck, and showed little to no effort in maintaining his character as a believable human being. Kilmer has done nothing in the last years except cashing in on those paychecks as well, so his performance was pretty much the same as Denzel's: Mundane. The female character here is the ultracliched black woman™ who provides the most unbelievable and idiotic movie romance of all time with Denzel. Nothing whatsoever stands out from the rest of the cast, because the screenplay is good in nothing but creating these cliched run of the mill unbelievably predictable charecters who do exactly what you expect them to say and do exactly what you expect them to do.
All and all, I enjoyed the action scenes in Deja Vu, but the movie tries too hard to make itself seem plausible or realistic, and fails miserably. This, like the 2006 movie Lucky Number Slevin, simply ruins itself by trying to be smart and witty. Underneath the pseudointellectual shell is nothing more but a run of the mill CSI episode combined with a few action scenes.
4/10
