An overlong, far-fetched thriller that drowns in it's own preposterousness more and more as it goes along

Rating: 4/10 (15 August 2007)

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
Doug Carlin (Denzel Washington- sure I've heard that name somewhere before???) is a Federal Agent called in to investigate when a New Orleans cruise-liner goes up in flames and terrorist activity is suspected as the cause. He crosses paths with Agent Pryzwarra (Val Kilmer) who he starts to work with and slowly piece the case together. But when the charred body of a young woman who appears to have been killed before the explosion is found, he falls even deeper into the case. Then Pryzwarra introduces him to a new technology that causes a ripple in time and see dreadful events before they've even occurred. So now Carlin is faced not only with the possibility of investigating the crime but going back in time and stopping it ever happening.
In between making big 'event' movies and Oscar contenders, Denzel finds time to make pot-boiler thrillers like this and the (fairly) recent Out of Time. Not bad filler stuff, perhaps, but Deja Vu is a film that starts to drown so far in it's own ridiculousness that at over two hours it's a rather long slog to sit through.
It's a less flattering patch on Denzel's CV just as much as on director Tony Scott's. And yes, you probably do get the impression you've been here before with this kind of film. **