Deja Vu (2006)

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General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	Main Menu Audio & Animation Audio-Visual Commentary-Surveillance Window - Commentary + Featurettes Deleted Scenes
Rating
Year Of Production	2006
Running Time	121:16
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (60:00)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Tony Scott
Studio Distributor	Walt Disney Studios Home Ent.	Starring	Denzel Washington Paula Patton Val Kilmer James Caviezel Adam Goldberg Elden Henson Erika Alexander Bruce Greenwood Rich Hutchman Matt Craven Donna W. Scott Elle Fanning Brian Howe
Case	?
RPI	?	Music	Harry Gregson-Williams

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Polish Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Czech Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Hungarian Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English English for the Hearing Impaired Polish Czech Hungarian Greek Bulgarian Romanian Serbian Croatian Slovenian	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes
		Action In or After Credits	No

    The combination of Jerry Bruckheimer producing, Tony Scott directing and Denzil Washington starring sounds like a sure-fire hit. This movie did reasonable business at the box office but certainly didn't set the world on fire. It seems a bit unfortunate really, as it is quite a good film.

    The plot concerns an ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms) agent in New Orleans who gets the job of investigating a major terrorist bombing on a New Orleans ferry which kills over 500 people, including many active servicemen. His name is Doug Carlin (Denzil Washington). Strangely, a body with injuries that indicate it was involved in the bombing is found on the side of the river BEFORE the bombing occurred. The body is Claire Kuchever (Paula Patton) and Doug decides to use her case to approach solving the whole bombing. While investigating he is approached by Paul Pryzwarra (Val Kilmer) of the FBI to join a special task force which will use a different approach to uncover the truth. The task force has access to new technology which allows them to see into the past and watch the past as if it was happening live. The only restriction is that they can only see it once and always at exactly 4 days and 6 hours ago. They want Doug involved because of his reputation for being able to see a crime scene only once and yet immediately knowing what is out of place. As they watch the previous days leading up to the bombing they follow the life of Claire and Doug starts to fall for her, wanting to find a way to avoid her dying. How can he interact with the past to save her life?

    Interestingly, this film was due to start shooting in New Orleans shortly after Hurricane Katrina struck the city with devastating force. Accordingly, shooting was delayed for 3 months but you can certainly still see the devastation in some scenes of this film.

    This is an exciting action/thriller/science-fiction/romance which certainly entertains. The stunts and visual effects are excellent and the blowing up of the ferry was masterfully done using a real ferry rather than CGI. The acting is of good quality and the premise is certainly interesting. Jim Caviezel also does a good job as the terrorist. Unfortunately, not all facets of this production are quite as good. There is some fairly ordinary dialogue and the technical explanation of the time travelling/history repeating is not well explained and contains some logic holes. One particular sequence was a rather silly excuse for a car chase when Denzil dons the time travel helmet which allows him to see now and four and a half days ago at the same time. However, if you suspend disbelief and ignore some pieces of dialogue this is an entertaining and enjoyable film.

    A good but not great action/thriller/romance/science-fiction movie.

Video

    The video quality is very good with no major issues to report.

    The feature is presented in a 2.4:1 aspect ratio, 16x9 enhanced, which is the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was sharp and clear without being stunning. There was no evidence of low level noise. Shadow detail was very good.

    The colour was excellent, representing the landscape of New Orleans, the fireballs and other effects very well.

    There were no noticeable artefacts.

    There are subtitles in English, English for the Hearing Impaired and nine other European languages. They were clear and easy to read.

    The layer change occurs at 60:00 and was very obvious.
    

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is excellent.

    This DVD contains four audio options, an English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack encoded at 448 Kb/s, Polish Dolby Digital 2.0 surround soundtrack encoded at 192 Kb/s, a Czech Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack encoded at 384 Kb/s and the same in Hungarian.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand throughout and there was no problem with audio sync.

    The score by Harry-Gregson Williams is well suited to the material, adding appropriate tension and atmosphere.

    The surround speakers were used very well, especially for the explosions and chase scenes, along with the scene involving the particle accelerator.

    The subwoofer was given a big workout by this soundtrack with lots of use for music, explosions and tension sounds.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The menu included an intro, motion and music.

Surveillance Window (152:49)

    This is an interesting combination of commentary, featurettes and seamless branching. Basically, this includes the entire film, with over thirty minutes of featurettes included along the way. Unfortunately, the extra bits were not in clearly defined chapters so you have to watch the film to see them. However, considering that the commentary in between these extra featurettes is worth listening to this is not a major issue. The commentary is provided by Jerry Bruckheimer, Tony Scott and co-writer, Bill Marcilii. They do not seem to have recorded them together as Tony Scott makes some comments about how difficult the writers were. There were nine included featurettes focusing mostly on making-of technical details. Specifically, they were...

1. Blowing up the ferry and how that was achieved.
2. Doug Carlin's character, research and the technical advisors used.
3. Costumes & makeup specifically about making someone up to look dead
4. The design of the time lab
5. Technology used for visual effects during surveillance
6. Car chase stunts
7. Tony Scott's directorial approach and camera usage
8. Behind-the-scenes on stunts involving the actors
9. Stunts including the final ferry sequence

    A quality extra.

Extended Scenes (1:20)

    The title is a bit of a misnomer here as there is actually one one scene included which is an extended version of the aftermath of the ferry explosion which introduces the time travel helmet earlier in the film.

    The Region 1 release includes extra deleted and extended scenes plus the surveillance window includes one extra featurette about filming in New Orleans. Region 1 is the winner. Region 2 releases are the same as ours. It is also available on Blu-ray both here and in the US.

    The video quality is very good.

    The audio quality is excellent.

    One major extra plus a deleted scene.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall