Review: Deja Vu

UK release date: 15th December

Denzel Washington reteams with his Crimson Tide and Man on Fire director Tony Scott for this sci-fi thriller about manipulating the past to save lives in the future.

Washington plays Doug Carlin, a New Orleans federal agent investigating a huge bombing, who is given access to a top-secret government “time window” that lets him see into the past. He then tries to solve the crime, and also prevent it from ever happening.

The screenplay provides some provocative commentary on surveillance, home-grown terrorism and the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive strikes, but Scott is far more interested in crash, bang, wallop pyrotechnics — in particular, a freeway car chase that occurs simultaneously in both the past and the present.

This is a gloriously dumb thriller that occasionally teases with some serious themes, but doesn’t quite follow them through.

Radio Times rating:

***

UK cinema certificate 12A
Running time 126mins

Review by Jamie Russell

Review: Children of Men

UK Release: 22nd September 2006

England, 2027: this green and pleasant land is now a dirty dystopia in which humanity has become infertile and its childless society is crumbling as refugees and terrorists fight the fascist powers that be. Submerged in this chaos is alcoholic former activist-turned-bureaucrat Theo Faron (Clive Owen), who watches from the sidelines until a surprise visit from an ex-lover (Julianne Moore) offers an unlikely glimmer of hope.

Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón (Y Tu Mamá También) here delivers a truly startling take on PD James’s downbeat novel, reworking its apocalyptic theme through the cracked prism of the post-9/11 era. Owen is excellent and there’s a glorious turn from Michael Caine as an ageing, pot-smoking ex-political cartoonist.

But it’s Cuarón’s film: his hand-held camerawork aping news broadcasts as it records nerve-shredding action set pieces in tense, unbroken shots. True, the proceedings are occasionally marred by a surfeit of plot exposition, yet the stark triumph of Children of Men lies in how its visceral vérité style brings the realities of a War on Terror fought in distant lands crashing back onto British soil.

Radio Times rating:

****

UK cinema certificate 15
Running time 109mins

Review by Jamie Russell