Denzel Washington is the Godfather of the Black American actors of today. There is not an argument that Denzel is on the pinnacle of the list along with Freeman, Whitaker, Murphy & Smith. Something obvious in all Denzel movies is that he likes being the underdog who fights for a cause or the normal average citizen who saves the day. The story of Tobin Frost (Denzel) is no different. A CIA agent who goes rouge for no particular reason turns up at the US consulate in Cape Town South Africa and gives himself up to the law. It has been 9 years since Frost went dark and has been allegedly accused of trading high risk government secrets with organizations with destructive agendas. Wanted in 4 continents Frost is an agent who is the best at what he does and is slippery as an eel.
Denzel who plays the calm, tactful and observant Frost is escorted to a safe house in a nearby location by an extraction team of the CIA. The Safe house is a secretive bunker maintained by the US Government and is used as a detention facility to hold wanted criminals around the world until they can be legally escorted to the states. The safe house is been looked after by a CIA agent Matt Weston (Ryan Reynolds). Weston who leads a double life in Cape Town does so in order to protect his girlfriend from unwanted exposure into the matter of the CIA. The Dirt hits the fan when the Safe house is infiltrated by a group of armed men who are after Tobin Frost as well. The sole survivor Weston (obviously) has to now protect Frost until he can hand him back to law all by himself.
SAFEHOUSE whilst better than GREEN LANTERN is much worse than UNSTOPPABLE. Predictable at every turn SAFEHOUSE isn’t the least bit mysterious as the genre specifies it to be. Ryan Reynolds plays a great Weston and it seems like the man is moving on forward from the disaster that is GREEN LANTERN.
Unfortunately for Reynolds SAFEHOUSE will not be the movie that will sling shot him back into the major leagues of Hollywood following his dive in GREEN LANTERN. Much of this blame lies on the predictable and monotonous tone in the screenplay. David Gugenheims script does not have the niche that requires landing the motion picture alongside with movies such as TRAINING DAY or THE RECRUIT. Instead SAFEHOUSE will hover amongst movies such as HENRYS CRIME & THE TOURIST.
Daniel Espinosa isn’t a popular name amongst the movie making gurus. However I for one do not judge a book by its cover. Rupert Sanders amazed me with his debut in re-inventing the tale of Snow white, similarly Daniel Espinosa certainly does have his strengths. His action sequences and car chases are gnarly and thrilling. They remained intense right through out and it felt undeniably real. Espinosas work into exploring his cast is where there is potential room for improvement. To put all his money on the 2 stars alone is not wise on a screenplay that isn’t as powerful as HEAT.
Things I liked about this movie; attributes you may enjoy as well.
- Starring Denzel Washington & Ryan Reynolds.
- Set in the beautiful city of Cape Town and some of the aerial shots are breathtaking.
- The Range Rovers used by the CIA.
- The Make up during the more violent scenes.
- Denzel and Ryan’s acting is very interesting to watch and is the only saving grace in its 115 minutes
- No action movie has been released that is worthy of espionage royalty for 2012; therefore this can play to be interesting and does come close to MAN ON A LEDGE.
Thumbs down on the following
- The plot parody; rouge agent who actually can be a nice guy and the bad guy is always the most obvious person.
- The script is limited to Denzel and Ryan. If more prominence was given to the actors to grow and explore in the plot maybe the screenplay would have had more clarity.
- The waste of talent in terms of Vera Farmiga and especially a great actor as Brendan Gleeson.
- What ticked me off the most is when Ryan falls out a window it does sound of glass shatter; it’s an EXPLOSION!
Heads up to our readers, don’t be fooled by the Trailer and have high expectations also do not under estimate it. It may impress you. To this critic it is nothing more than an average day at the movies.
TITLE: SAFEHOUSE
DIRECTED BY: DANIEL ESPINOSA
STARRING: DENZEL WASHINGTON, RYAN REYNOLDS,VERA FARMIGA &BRENDON GLEESON
RATED: R
RATING: 5.5/10
115 MINUTES