Reviews

The Deer Hunter is just plain magnificent! I believe it's gotta be one of the best war movies out there! The acting by DeNiro is absolutely top-notch and perhaps unrivaled to this day in any picture I have ever seen! (my personal opinion of course). Christopher Walken's performance was voted in Premiere Magazine's top 100 performances of all time as No. 88 and it certainly deserves it's high ranking. Meryl Streep does a truly fine job too playing the naive and simple suburban girl in love with Nick (Walken's character).

The style of the movie is very calm except for when war & it's consequences play out! The scenes depicting Micheal (DeNiro's character) & Nick's experiences in the war are very disturbing, yet they are so very powerful, and have (as Quentin Tarantino put it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0u4POopKo0) some of the best cinematic shots ever to be seen in movie history!!! I couldn't agree more with QT! Plain and absolutely fantastic direction, script and photography make this movie a 10/10. A true war classic to be remembered, depicting the horrors & ugly sides to wars and soldier's often naive, yet patriotic, initial view towards them.

'Deja vu' has more class to itself as to use its title word 'Deja vu' in the entire movie, especially at the very end, where you'd realize just why it was called 'Deja vu' AND NOT by anyone's words, by the shear MAGNIFICANCE of Denzel Washington's tremendous solid acting.

'Deja vu' can be classified as a Sci-Fi/Action movie, yet it's a Thriller like no other. Right when you'd think you've figured out where the movie is leading, it shows you, you're wrong. 'Deja vu' is a Thriller, while it contains significant messages of human dignity, value and of sacrifice & patriotism. Therefore, I'd say that 'Deja vu' has it all, including my rating of it as 9/10. Few movies work well across all these genres and that's what makes this awesome movie stand out.

The Sci-fi might seem at some points in the movie, too advanced for our times, but given the fresh ideas offered in that theme, it adds extra delight to the captivating events on screen.

It's really interesting & relevant to have a movie like this be produced after Hurricane Katrina occurred, in New Orleans, because of how this movie & the role of 'Doug Carlin' sacrifices himself & proves how sacrifice is an essence of patriotism. That's a lesson I believe Katrina proved to us too.

Denzel Washington, as always, takes this storyline where it should be lead & he carries a lot of it all by himself. Paula Patton does a really good job too playing the role of 'Claire Kuchever' & all the scenarios that she goes through. I was surprised at how sensible 'Adam Goldberg' appeared since I'd mostly seen him in only comedies before. Overall a good cast & excellent art direction for this movie, result in 128 minutes of a compelling thriller, with no faults to be mentioned at all at the end of it. From now on I'm thinking whenever I see an AWeSoME Movie, I'll be having myself a 'Deja Vu'! (A Deja Vu to this movie, if you know what I mean!)

It was just a terrible story set together with DeNiro's fairly good acting and a rather good performance by Dakota Fanning! (I guess you must see the contrast there!). It just wasn't what I had expected. Honestly I don't see how such psycho-dramatic horror movies can work. Unless they are really meaningful, I don't think such movies are worth the acting of the likes of DeNiro (Although it's him that's gotta make the decision, by no means me!).

I'll admit there was some slight content to this movie and plot, but I just hate to see movies about twisted people's vision. My question is always, whether these movies help us to understand anything really in our lives? I'll admit it's only my taste and many others might have other ideas. But I just didn't learn anything new by watching this movie and that's NOT what I'm looking for in a movie. Good directing and camera movements though. Overall, a 3 out of ten.

The main actors in this movie (DelToro and Spencer) were almost both at their best in this portrayal of intelligent crime carried out with confidence by its main actors. The film-taking of the picture is again most possibly the reason it finds itself at All-time's top Crime and Thriller hits. The suspense is well-kept though it does have the potential of turning out as more if only the story had more to-be-cheered-for intelligence and suspense. The suspense is meant to reach its peak in the last 30 minutes and even more in the last ten, but I felt it needed to also arise a sense of amusement and power rather more than what was filmed.

Nonetheless, I shall stress on the brilliance of the story-telling and draw a dividing line between that and the story itself. The story-telling truly is carried out perfectly and certainly does come second, if not next to All-Time Fantastic Movies, the likes of Godfather or Shawshank Redemption, etc., though in the 'Crime & Thriller' genre. The story again seemed to be too simplified at the end and the mystery was solved using little light-shedding which could be masterminded to have more of a sense of complication, as perhaps portrayed by the like of Sir Arthur Canon Doyle in his Sherlock Holmes series.

All in all, a recommendation for all "crime-genre" lovers and thriller-fans, though maybe a bit of a turn-down for suspense lovers.

I watched this movie on DVD. It will be enough for me to mention that there had been no other movie where I'd had to pause the play in mere awe at the magnificence of the storyline! At a point, It was as if I could see my jaw on the floor praising in thorough amusement the brilliance, relevance-to-our-daily-lives, deepness of message, sophistication, great portrayal, top-of-the-class creativity, marvelous acting/directing/screen writing all having come together in a movie, which called for a rating of 9 out of 10 and no less, certainly, undoubtedly.

Al-Pacino's acting is to no surprise as brilliant as ever, exuding confidence, proficiency and clarity as always. Keanu Reaves leaves a great master-play in his work, meeting up to the acting skills required in displaying a character of wisdom, success, love and perhaps, of vanity. Charize Theron too puts up a play of passion in its right.

But what amused me more than all were the great and fantastic script-lines thrown around. All very meaningful and interesting indeed. The whole movie got me stunned and fixed at the edge of my desk seat, but the favorite part for me has to come at the end, where the theme of the movie comes to words and finds a chance as of clarifying itself in one the most brilliant ways I as one have ever seen possible! Recommended for everybody willing to enjoin on a meaningful story and a blend of excellent plays... surely a 9/10.