Aw Man, Tony Scott's Toning Down

Rating: 7/10 (26 November 2006)

As opposed to the growing ambition, heart-stoppingly violent tension, and grandiosity in what Tony Scott's been leading up to with his past two movies, Man On Fire and Domino, is deflated with Deja Vu. Deja Vu is just another action thriller about a cop and a bad guy, an interesting twist and an "unexpected" love interest, corny comic relief tech teams and a PG-13 rating. I wanted more out of it, because ever since the final credits started rolling for Domino, I was expecting Tony Scott's next film to be next to the biggest rush of grunge, sleaze, eye-candy film-making, and music video editing I would ever get from a movie. I'm sure that somewhere deep down I felt that his next movie would have to be a lighter, almost cute actioner, because it's very difficult not to be stabbed with angry words from a studio exec who just flushed millions of dollars on a flop that read 17 or 18% fresh on the Tomatometer, not to mention the amount of cockiness and filmmakers' rebellion that was so aggressively lunged into Domino, a sort-of-biographyish action extravaganza that featured two stars of Beverly Hills 90210 playing themselves as they get their noses broken and later find themselves screaming as they happen to be there when a crazed Mexican is ripping a man's arm off with Tom Jones's cover of Mama Told Me Not To Come blaring over the soundtrack.
Nonetheless, Deja Vu is a good, neat little thriller, even if it doesn't pack a punch or feel as twisted and comfortably numbing as Domino, Man On Fire, True Romance, or even Scott's earlier work like The Hunger and The Last Boy Scout. Deja vu might explain the all-too- familiar characters or the never-ending cycle of love interests that just has to lay its turf in every adventure film, action fans will have a decent time with it, thriller fans will love it, and Denzel fans will be making noise in the theater and aggravating the daylights out of the rest of the audience as usual.
Washington, who has played this very same down-to-earth yet abruptly raging cop as many times as Willis has played his tough cop, Eddie Murphy has played his wisecracking cop, and De Niro has played his cocky, boisterous tough guy. This is one of the hints that this is just another action movie, because the star playing the tiring staple role for millions of dollars is a key element in most. Who should've gotten more screen time was constantly inflating but never too routine or drudging Val Kilmer. In a film full of actors with not quite enough charm to carry their corn-stuffed formula roles, I would've much preferred him as the hero. With the exception of Jim Caviezel, taking a huge turn as the ruthless, murder-driven villain from famously playing the most kind and decent man in the world in The Thin Red Line and taking the next step to Jesus Christ in The Passion of the Christ, the rest of the cast is just, well, there.