Deja Vu

Have you ever had the feeling that you've seen something before?

Like when you're in a cinema and it all starts looking sickeningly familiar. Tony Scott's new movie starts with a hectic mix of shots of people having a good time but the discordant editing or whatever made me say to myself, "Any minute now, there will be an explosion or a similar disaster." I waited another full minute of meaningless collage. If this was TV I'd need that explosion about now to stop me changing channels. And then, sure enough, Whooooomph! Big explosion. Deja vu!

Denzel Washington is a law enforcement officer (Doug) who cannily discovers, after the explosion, a woman burned to death. Except that closer examination reveals to him that she died beforehand, so her death is probably a clue to who the terrorists are. He joins an elite force with the technology to see four days into the past. They give him an unbelievable explanation as to how this is done, and eventually a 'real' explanation (which is not done very convincingly either). Doug, being the sad, sensitive type, has fallen in love with the dead woman and offers to be flung back in time to save her - just so he can prevent the devastation of course.

About this time you will be getting Deja yoohoos along the lines of "I think I've seen this before - was it in Terminator 2 or The Prestige?" At least by this point the explosions-per-minute ratio has ratcheted up a bit, so you may grudgingly feel you're getting your money's worth. But when you realise the two best scenes were in the trailer, it's easier to accept you've been had and just spend the rest of the movie waiting for them to appear.

On the plus side, the action does eventually kick in, making it at least better than a bad episode of CSI, and a car chase conducted simultaneously in two time frames stretches the brain momentarily. Against this is a sci-fi element that will be clumsy and unconvincing to the most credulous of sci-fi fans and just a bit too daft for those who hate such things. I was touched by the fact that it was made in post-Katrina New Orleans, but they probably needed the tax breaks just to break even.

Deja Vu is neither pleasantly mind-numbing entertainment nor intellectually stimulating sci-fi, but is a tolerable action movie with a sweet enough twist. Some of the sets are cleverly constructed and the plot is a bit different to the average cops and robbers movie. Ironically, it is not likely to be a film you will remember.