Deja Vu

Every now and then I have the need to watch a film that I know won’t challenge me in the slightest and is just full of car chases and stuff blowing up. Déjà Vu is just one of those films. And surprise, surprise it’s produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. One of my friends likes to mock Bruckheimer (producer of Armageddon, Gone in 60 Seconds, King Arthur, Pirates of the Caribbean) by pointing out that Bruckheimer likes to pick a colour and paint the entire screen with it. (For Déjà Vu, he decided to broaden his palette by choosing green and orange.) This film is directed by Tony Scott (Spy Game, Domino, Man on Fire) so you know the camera is going to zoom around to try and make you dizzy, I mean ‘caught up in the action’. Tony brought his favourite actor, Denzel Washington on board so get ready for quiet impassioned speeches, yelled out threats and a light comic line or two. And I’m usually okay with all of this. I think this trio of powerhouses work great together, so why was I so disappointed with Déjà Vu?

I think this one comes down to the premise. Sure, there are a couple of moments of déjà vu. (A phemonenon that had to be overly explained in previews because the studio feared that we’re all a bunch of morons who are scared of French words or can’t look up the term in the dictionary. Raise your hand if you already knew what déjà vu is all about. Wow, I could crowd surf on that response.) But let’s face it, the movie really deals with time travel. And I would be fine with a time travel storyline, if they didn’t make it sound so stupid and unbelievable. Okay, I’ll grant you that Bruckheimer films are filled with completely unrealistic scenes. Gone in 60 Seconds has the laughably overdone car jumping scene on the bridge, King Arthur has those ‘smart’ Viking warriors running on a lake surrounded by those large mountains I often see in England geography. (Guess what happens when they reach the middle of the lake.) Armageddon puts an untrained drilling team in space where they would surely die due to the fact that their bodies would not yet be accustomed to space travel. Take your pick. But I can forgive these. Well, maybe not King Arthur. Hated that movie.

What bothered me in Déjà Vu was the way time travel was explained to a surprisingly clueless Denzel without mentioning films that have come before it. In Déjà Vu, the scientists draw a straight line on a piece of paper to indicate the passage of time. If Denzel were to go back in time and change something, that would create a new reality, which is then shown by another line branching off the original and going its own path. I believe I saw that exact same drawing in Back to the Future Part II where Doc Brown is explaining to Marty why Biff is the king of Hill Valley in this alternate reality. Are you trying to tell me that these scientists in Déjà Vu haven’t seen Back to the Future? Come on! Would it have been so bad if the dialogue went like this:
“Hey Denzel, you seen Back to the Future Part II?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, it’s just like that, but this time it’s real.”
Give credit where credit is due. No one is going to turn off the movie because they realize that you’re taking a gimmick from another movie. Ignoring it just makes it worse. The same thing goes for that Day Break show that’s taken over for Lost. Taye Diggs tries really hard to explain to this girlfriend that his day keep repeating. He should just say, “Have you seen Groundhog Day with Bill Murray, it’s like that but real.” Done and done.

I know it sounds like a dumb reason to dislike a movie, but oh well, that’s the way I feel. If you want a brainless popcorn action flick, go see the movie, but don’t be surprised if you leave feeling a bit insulted. I’m just surprised they didn’t spend the entire movie talking really slowly to make sure I understood all the big fancy words.

PS. Adam Goldberg was the only saving grace. His ‘more cowbell’ line made me laugh.