Déjà Vu

"Hasn't New Orleans been through enough?" said Glenn Whipp in the Los Angeles Daily News. On top of everything else, the city surely doesn't deserve to host a flop like this one. Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, and directed by Tony Scott (Ridley's less talented little brother), Déjà Vu begins with the bombing of a ferry in the Crescent City. Federal Agent Denzel Washington comes to investigate, and falls in love with one of the victims at the crime scene. Luckily for him, a secret team of gear-heads has fashioned a time machine, through which Denzel can travel to save the ferry and his girlfriend. It sounds idiotic, but believe it or not, the script is "unusually intelligent and challenging for a big-budget Hollywood thriller," said William Arnold in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. One of the resident geeks, played to jittery perfection by Adam Goldberg, explains his time machine in surprisingly vivid terms. It turns out that the film's plot is based upon string theory, a pop science concept that posits multiple dimensions of reality. The trendy premise doesn't make this movie any different from other action movies, said Christopher Kelly in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "Déjà vu indeed: We've seen it all before." The requisite car chase and love story are impossible to care about. Even Denzel looks "bored out of his skull."

Rating: PG-13

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up