Safe House Movie Review

Safe House

Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Denzel Washington, Brendan Gleeson, Vera Farmiga, Robert Patrick.

Director: Daniel Espinosa

In action thriller Safe House, Reynolds plays CIA low level agent Matt Weston, who's been based at a South African safe house for over a year and never seen any action.

Desperate to move on and join his girlfriend who's being transferred to France, Weston is waiting for his time to come - despite secretly longing to see some serious CIA kick ass action.

And he gets that wish one day when ex CIA agent and general all round intelligence trader, Tobin Frost (a grizelled Denzel Washington) walks into an American embassy to avoid being killed by a group hunting him.

Unaware of his motives, CIA bosses Catherine Linklater (Farmiga) and David Barlow (Gleeson), transfer Frost to Weston's safe house with instructions to guard him - and wait for the powers that be to turn up and find out exactly what Frost wants.

However,when the safe house is breached and all the agents bar Weston and Frost killed, it's upto this rookie wannabe to safe guard Frost and get him to safety....

But, as ever, not everything is what it seems and soon Weston is out of his depth and fighting for his life.

Safe House is an unusual film - on the one hand, it's got car chases and plenty of (very loud) gun fights and measured chase sequences - but on the other, it's got some pretty impressive performances.

Primarily from a never anything less than edgy and calm Washington as the agent who's playing all sides but never prepared to show his hand and to a lesser degree, Reynolds, who manages to pull together a role of uncertainty, fear and blustering bravado - as well as show he can act when he needs to. Unfortunately, while Gleeson gets a little time to shine as well, Farmiga is a little underused and overshadowed in this - which is a real shame.

Safe House is a thrilling, adrenaline pumping film but it's also restrained at times with director Espinosa opting for realism rather than explosions and body parts flying all over the place. The shoot outs are short, violent and gritty - and the hand to hand fights (particularly with Weston) are desperate, realistic and painful.

It's this touch which makes the occasionally predictable film so watchable (how many times can the bad guys be the people you suspect they are) - plus with a South African setting - slums, streets and stadium - for the lion's share of the action, it looks a little different.

Throw in the odd couple pairing of Washington and Reynolds and Safe House is a bit of a crackling and sizzling cat-and-mouse but occasionally formulaic ride which will tick all the action boxes but not leave you feeling like your brain's leaking out of your nose due to too much of a lack of stimulation.

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