Deja Vu

IMDB

Netflix

Being in possession of a physics degree will make a movie look intriguing. The name of the film and the mention of blackouts by the science guy in the previews makes it obvious that large amounts of electricity will be used to meddle with the time-space continuum, with an emphasis on the time part. That’s right kids – a time travel film! With Denzel Washington, no less!

The cast actually has some other folks of mention too, including Val Kilmer (the Ice Man has returned, but looking a little more – um – solid). Adam Goldberg is there playing the science geek (you may remember him from A Beautiful Mind playing another geek, or maybe even The Hebrew Hammer as well, the Hammer). James Caviezel (most notably playing Jesus lately) also shows up towards the end. The people behind the camera warrant mention too – Tony Scott directed (he also did Top Gun and Enemy of the State, which is interesting because the camera work of Enemy of the State is similar, and Val Kilmer was a high billing actor in Top Gun as well). Jerry Bruckheimer was the producer – it is interesting that he pulled himself away from television to do some film work again. This film is also of note, because it is the first one filmed in New Orleans since the tragedy of Katrina.

So with big name talent and the attraction of messing with time, how can things go wrong? The idea of the film is that a ferry explodes in New Orleans, and ATF agent Doug Carlin (Washington) is investigating the scene. As the investigation proceeds, FBI agent Andrew Pryzwarra (Kilmer) approaches Doug and asks him to join his special team, which has some new equipment that is able to do some very special surveillance on the scene. Investigation of a lady who was found dead at the scene leads Doug to finding out more about the ferry explosion. The more that Doug learns about the mysterious lady and the project that he has joined, the more drastic his measures become.

I think that the story deserves credit for being fairly original, if a little predictable at times. There are the usual subpar explanations of the science behind things done to explain things to Doug (and hence the audience, how convenient). The limitations of the hardware that the team is using are explained to be one thing when first shown, and later on seem to have capabilities expanded purely as a plot device. I know that it is just a story but it does kill the suspension of disbelief a little. As does the magic HumVee that is driven around – I feel that it was included to add some action to things, but the plausibility of it is a little lacking in my opinion. One minute they are claiming that their technology can take out half of the United States in a blackout, and the next they have a portable version, first in a car and then in a backpack. The ending of the film is also a little too convenient. If and when you see the film, you will see what I mean. It wraps things up too nicely for my liking.

The strangest inconsistency is at a time where Doug is supposedly in a hurry to go somewhere, and stops at somebody’s house to clean up. Once inside the house, the sense of urgency is completely lost. The people in the house don’t look in a hurry at all – totally at odds to what they looked a few minutes ago on film. Either something changed after they filmed the scene, or somebody did not remind the people on camera how urgently they should be acting. It actually really blew the feeling of urgency that I had as an audience, which was dissappointing.

 Despite these nits the film is actually quite well done. The production is excellent – the atmosphere of post Katrina New Orleans is captured nicely, they show the city in sunshine and in rain, in night and day – which makes for some nice variety. There is even a scene that involves a SWAT raid on a house in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans, which cemented the locale in a very solid way. The style of the shooting is very well done, but not so elaborate that you lose a sense of what is going on. There is very little in the way of chase scenes or gun fights – this is much more of a suspense film than an action one.

All in all, for all of my complaining about some of the story elements, this was a very good film. The acting was great, and the story is very intriguing, making you interested in what will happen next. I think that you can enjoy this whether time travel is interesting to you or not.

Firewall

IMDB

Netflix

Recently, I got me one of them fancy HD-DVD drives for my Xbox 360. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Netflix is already renting HD-DVDs, and that they have set things up so that when you tell them that you have a HD-DVD drive, they automatically change the DVDs in your queue to HD-DVD (if at all available). And from that point on, you just pick films, and it automatically gets the highest resolution format that you own for that film.

When I made this discovery, I upped my netflix subscription and looked for some high definition films to watch. One of them was Firewall, which I remember coming to the theatres but skipped. Ironically, the reason that I wanted to see the film and the reason that I skipped it in the theatre is the same reason – Harrison Ford.

It is not that I think that he is a bad actor by any means. His resume is something to behold (the Star Wars and Indiana Jones trilogies alone make him one of the greatest stars of all time). The problem is that he seems to pick lemons to star in for no apparent reason. And by lemon I don’t mean flops, I mean the kind of stuff that you don’t feel like driving all the way to the theatre to watch. For example:

• Air Force One – I watched this with a friend of mine, and he still talks about how bad he thought it was. I thought that there was potential, but there were too many cliches in this for it to be truly good.
• Six Days Seven Nights – A bit of a snoozefest for me. I don’t remember much about it, which implies that it was not that engrossing or that I gave up watching it.
• Hollywood Homocide – Anybody who watched this knows what I mean. It feels like somebody made a pitch, somehow got the stars and the money, and then wrote out a script in a hurry to match. And I won’t blame this on Josh Hartnett, because Lucky Number Slevin was a great flick.

I don’t think that Harrison Ford is particularly to blame for the above. He always makes as good lemonade as he can given a subpar script. But after he appears in a certain number of these kinds of films, it hurts his reputation for me. Maybe the problem is that he changed agents around the time of The Devil’s Own or so, and now is appearing in stuff that is not big enough for him. He has a lot of presence on the screen, and blockbusters like Star Wars and Indiana Jones suit that.

Another factor in this film’s favor is Paul Bettany. I first noticed him in A Knight’s Tale, and he was very engaging in that. His next film was A Beautiful Mind, which was an awesome thing to behold, and his character in that film was quite unforgettable. With Wimbledon and The Da Vinci Code he is starting to really come into his own as a big star, and it is very much deserved. Some other cast of mention:

• Robert Patrick of Terminator fame, playing Jack’s new boss.
• Mary Lynn Rajskub of 24 fame, playing Jack’s assistant.
• Robert Forster of Jackie Brown fame, playing Jack’s friend.

The premise of the story is simple enough. Jack Stanfield (Ford), a security guy at a Seattle bank, is blackmailed by Bill Cox (Bettany) into helping to steal money from his bank. If he does not cooperate, his family will be killed by Cox. The film is basically about the struggle between the two as Jack tries to escape from Bill’s clutches without having his family harmed, and without actually robbing the money.

The production of the film is very good, and captures the Seattle atmosphere well (I live in the area, so I can state this with some level of authority). The rainy days and dark nights are there, and Jack’s house looks like the kind of thing a rich bloke in the area would own. There is not much more to comment on in terms of the production values. There is no period or fantastical element to simulate, as this is mostly a character drama. The bank is captured fairly realistically, and although I am not a unix guy or router dude, the technobabble was passable to me. They didn’t even use Movie OS when they showed computers, which impressed me to no end and lended a bit of authenticity to things.

Rather than the production values, which normally have a huge impact on my enjoyment of a film, Firewall depends on the story and the suspense involved with figuring out how the protagonist will get out of the trap that the antagonist has laid for him. It manages to pull this off quite well - there are some unexpected twists and turns to the plot that make it less predictable. The acting is very well done. Bettany plays the cold calculating thief very convincingly, and Ford plays the angry protective father/husband very well too. He has always been his best playing a man under fire in his life, which is probably why they cast him for this.

Overall, a pleasant surprise of a film. Definitely recommended for suspense lovers.