Deja Vu

On the first Mardi Gras following Hurricane Katrina, as the city of New Orleans struggles to rebuild, a terrorist detonates a massive car bomb on a ferry, killing hundreds of reveling passengers. An ATF agent (Denzel Washington) participating in the investigation identifies a connection between the bombing and a beautiful woman (Paula Patton) found murdered the same day.  Soon he is working with a federal agent (Val Kilmer) and his team who have at their disposal a high tech satellite system which allows them to reconstruct, at any singular point, the events four and a half days in the past. It becomes clear though, that this is a much more powerful tool and that it may just be possible to alter the past, save the girl, and prevent the massacre on the ferry. Tony Scott's "Deja Vu" doesn't bear close scrutiny. In fact, it actually bears no scrutiny, and is frankly downright preposterous. However, it is a fun movie, and when disbelief is allowed to be suspended, it even has a few clever tricks up its sleeve. For longtime Scott collaborator, Washington delivers one of his finest performances and it is to both his credit, as well as Patton's, that they are able to invest such weight in their charcters' tenuous and surprisingly heartfelt relationship. When Tony Scott sadly and shockingly took his own life last month, I felt a lot of the obituaries were over the top in their praising of his work. Watching "Deja Vu", and thinking of some of his other films I've liked ("Unstoppable", "Crimson Tide", "Man on Fire"), I realized how much he excelled at his craft, and considering who remains in the arena, how deeply his loss will be felt.

Unstoppable

From "The General" to "The Lady Vanishes", "Silver Streak" to "Murder on the Orient Express", and "Runaway Train" (the best of the lot) to "Transsiberian" I have always been a sucker for films dealing with trains and Unstoppable is a film that seems to know its trains. It tells the story of a 1/2 mile steamer that gets set on the loose due to "bad luck and human error." After several failed rescue attempts, the prevention of the trains derailment lies in the hands of a young conductor and an engineer on the verge of retirement. I liked how the film used a lot of train jargon that was hard to follow, and only cued us in on the basic need to know. I loved the how the setting of the film, based on a true story, was rural Pennsylvania and we get to watch the locomotive zoom through the foothills of the Appalachians. I am also fond of the cast as well: Denzel being Denzel (a compliment, not an insult) playing the old engineer, Chris Pine of the recent Star Trek, the lovely Rosario Dawson in command at the control center. I also think this is a major success for Tony Scott, an action director whose films often suffer from over-the-top and unnecessary visuals as well as stupid supporting characters. Here all his characters click, and the real star is the train itself and his camera beautifully and crisply captures it as it races towards impending doom.