Blu-ray Review: Déjà vu
By
Jon Liu Video Format: 2.40:1/1080p
Audio Formats: English 5.1 Uncompressed PCM 48kHz/16-bit, English, French, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital
Starring: Denzel Washington, Paula Patton, Val Kilmer, Jim Caviezel
Directed by: Tony Scott
Release Date: April 24, 2007
General
Déjà vu is one of the more unique films I’ve seen to date. Denzel Washington plays Federal Agent Doug Carlin, a man investigating the bombing of a ferry in New Orleans. Carlin is called into a top-secret government lab, which houses a special machine that allows scientists to see four days into the past. As time passes presently, the time passing in the machine is exactly four days behind the present, eventually leading up to the ferry bombing. Carlin is chosen to aid this group, helping them find out who the perpetrator is by looking four days into the past.
I really liked this film. I got this one sight unseen and was thoroughly impressed with it. So impressed that I raved to friends and family and watched it two more times with a couple of them in the same week! The whole concept is very intriguing and the story is done very well.
Tech Specs
Video: I was very impressed from the get-go with this transfer. It’s a very clean transfer and also has a very good level of detail. Sharpness is spot on and color reproduction is great. Tony Scott has a very specific style of photography where the video you see is very contrasted with overblown whites and colors and crushed blacks. In a couple instances this hurts the detail in the color black, but for the most part black detail is very good still. Though, it is pretty contrasted in some scenes, I was still incredibly impressed and amazed by the overall picture quality.
Audio: The spatiality of the soundtrack in the uncompressed track is amazing. This movie’s sound won’t necessarily blow you away, but when it comes to ambient sound, I was very impressed with it. The ferry bombing and other action sequences are definitely good in their own respects, but the soundtrack is more based around ambient noises, reverb, and giving a good sense of openness in the sound stage. Along with the great sound stage, the LFE channel will definitely get a work out. From the very beginning, the opening music, produces a lot of deep notes. The best example of all of this is the opening sequence through the actual ferry explosion.
Extras
This disc has a compilation of featurettes, called “Surveillance Window” where you can watch some of the behind the scenes of the film. There are 10 individual featurettes. There’s also five deleted scenes and three extended scenes, all of which have optional commentary by the director, Tony Scott. Buena Vista has also added a Movie Showcase feature which allows you to watch several reference scenes to demo in your home theater.
Menus/Navigation
Déjà vu uses a flip menu that scrolls through the different selection options that appears in the bottom left corner. Overall, it’s pretty straight forward.
Overall Impressions
As you can tell by my thoughts so far, I really liked this movie. The story idea is interesting enough to recommend on its own, plus it’s very well executed to boot. A lot of times when I show people a movie clip, this is one of the first movies I pop in. The detail can be astounding. While there are bolder and brighter colored movies, this movie will surely impress.
Linear Mode
