MOVIE SMACKDOWN: Deja Vu (2006) -vs- Terminator II: Judgment Day (1991)

The Smackdown. We've put a couple of major star vechicles in the ring together, both of them about traveling back in time to change the future, both directed by major directors with reputations for getting the action up there on the screen.

"Using this thing to check out Pamela Anderson was a GREAT idea..."
The Challenger. That would be the Denzel Washington starrer, DEJA VU, which posits that with all those nifty satellites we have scanning the globe that there's a way to use them to "triangulate" and snoop on anybody we want ... only not in the present but four days and a few hours in the past. Okay, that's a stretch, but if you can get past it, the rest of the movie just charges ahead at full energy so that the whole thing still works.


"With Kid Rock gone, maybe she's ready for a real half-man!"
The Defending Champion. Remember how blown away you were when you first saw TERMINATOR II: JUDGMENT DAY? Granted, it's Arnold back as the Terminator, only he's playing a good robot in this one, and there's an even badder, improved model that's out to kill the boy who will grow up to save humanity. All of this is a stretch, too, but what fun! Seeing Robert Patrick re-assemble himself out of a pool of liquid metal, well, that had the theater I saw it in screaming.

The Scorecard. Both Tony Scott and James Cameron delivered big, intriguing films that are just plain fun to watch. Denzel is a better actor than Arnold. But the hooey-factor seems to be a little more in your face in DEJA-VU because in TERMINATOR II we just get the idea and move on. Also, DEJA-VU asks you to think about the thriller-mystery aspect of the plot which only shines a light on the logic holes while TERMINATOR II makes it all about the action. One robot wants to kill the kid; and the other wants to save him. Simple.

The Decision. I liked DEJA VU as a great Thanksgiving weekend afternoon diversion. But fifteen years from now, we won't be thinking of it anymore. TERMINATOR II: JUDGMENT DAY is a film for the ages that people will see multiple times, and talk about in film classes. This decision then goes to the rock-em, sock-em robots from the future...