Deja Vu - C

On DVD (2006). Rated PG-13, 126 minutes.

With the increase in the quality and production value of TV in the past few years, especially the 'crime drama', many similar films are worse than their small-screen competitors. Deja Vu is a good example.

This crime drama/thriller/sci fi(?) movie features Denzel Washington as an ATF Agent, in his type-cast role as the extremely competent outsider cop with a complicated backstory (see Crimson Tide, Inside Man, Out of Time and Pelican Brief). Denzel is one of the few actors whose presence in a movie automatically gives it the benefit of the doubt for me. Director Tony Scott has a good history with Denzel (Crimson Tide), so this seemed like a safe bet.

The movie starts with a bomb exploding on a ferry in New Orleans, killing 563 people, and the semi-related murder of a pretty woman Denzel seems to connect to on the medical examiner's table. Denzel is assigned to work the case, and is brought into a secret group that is working with new technology. Unfortunately, the secret group included a super-secret time machine and a cramped Denzel being transported, Mike Teevee style (see below) style to the past to solve the murder. Very complicated and stupid time travel/see into the past plot point that they failed to mention in the trailer or movie jacket. I am not a plausibility wet blanket on movies; but I don't need Star Trek technology forced into a present day crime drama.


(On the left is Mike Teevee, after transport in Willy Wonka. On the right is Denzel, pre-transport, holding his knees.)

Denzel and the team of 'funny' secret techies (including a Serpico-looking Adam Goldberg and a fat Ice-Man) trace the murder and learn lessons about altering the past (hello, Doc Brown). Some of the action sequences were cool, and Denzel can always breathe life into even a tepid story. Jim Caviezel is decent as the wild 'patriot' behind the bombings.

Not worth your time. Any CSI Miami is better.