‘Safe House’ Makes Up For Its Lack of Originality with Non-Stop Violence
A taut, ultra-gritty and action-packed thriller that could remind some of Training Day and 3:10 to Yuma, Safe House is a satisfactory directorial effort from Daniel Espinosa. It certainly could have been much more with a bolder script but the film’s charismatic stars keep the generic proceedings moving along in a compelling manner.
Ryan Reynolds stars as Matt Weston, a junior CIA agent assigned to run a safe house in Johannesburg, South Africa. Weston is bored out of his mind by the lack of action but it isn’t long before legendary rogue CIA operative Tobin Frost (one cool name appropriate for a Denzel Washington character) is brought in to be held captive. But within moments of his arrival, the team who brought Frost in is slaughtered in a surprise attack. With the safe house compromised, Weston is forced to go on the run with Frost as his prisoner.
Safe House is at his best as a chase film and thankfully, the protagonists are running for their lives for most of the duration of the movie. The action sequences are intense, endless and best of all, plentiful beginning with the heart-pounding assault on the safe house and the ensuing car escape in the streets of Cape Town, or a mad pursuit atop the shantytown of the city. Sadly, Espinoza dampens the excitement of the bone-crunching action set-pieces with unnecessary, Tony Scott-like hyper-editing and dangerously heavy use of ‘shaky cam’. It’s extremely annoying to watch a fight scene and have no idea what’s going on and I wish Hollywood filmmakers would put a stop to that fad.
David Guggenheim’s script treads very familiar paths but it manages to keep the stakes high and keeps you guessing about all the different players’ allegiance to the very end. However when the action stops, everything seems to grind to a halt. We never get more than a superficial understanding of the motivations driving Washington’s anti-hero character and the small attempts to add depths to the protagonists, such as Weston’s relationship with a French medical student, are too generic and quite frankly, unneeded.
Nonetheless, a pair of strong performances from the two leads elevate this intense thriller above the sum of its generic parts. Even at age 57, Washington continues to be incredibly commanding and charismatic as he simultaneously tries to mentor, intimidate and escape from the young Weston. Reynolds is surprisingly solid as the outmatched green agent and his work here might almost wash out the stench emanating from his involvement in movies such as Green Lantern and The Change Up. Almost… The supporting cast includes Brendan Gleeson, Vera Farmiga and Sam Shepard but don’t expect much from them, they spend most of their time talking to each other in a basement room.
Intense and viscerally thrilling, Safe House manages to be a slightly above average spy thriller thanks to non-stop action and the star power of its two leads.
17 Comments
not a huge action movie fan but Danzel and Ryan put a spell on me so I went. Its a predictable story but the good sound effect and intense soundtrack made me nervous while watching it… and of course Ryan is the eye candy
Glad you liked this Sarah. Surprised you went to see this
A real gritty action movie the way I like it. Have I seen it before? Of course. And I’ve seen about thirty Superbowls, but I still liked the last one, and I look forward to the next one. Safe House didn’t change my life, but it’s a real good flick.
Yes Gibbs. Familiar but when done right, it still works!
It is a good old fashioned action thriller, but it let down by it trying so hard to mimic The Bourne films, thin, and predictable storyline.
Well, I was annoyed by the Bourne-type quick cutting and shaky cam. Hopefully, the new Bourne Legacy won’t be like that.
B- works for me. I think I may well enjoy it. Thanks Castor!
Hope you like it Scott. Looking forward to your take
Sounds like exactly what I was expecting and that’s not a bad thing for me. A bit of Denzel. Some decent action scenes. Ryan Reynolds being as quippy as ever. Yep. I’ll be going to see this when it’s finally out there.
Enjoy Jaina! Looking forward to your review. Don’t expect any wisecracking humor from Reynolds though, this is dead-serious through and through.
I’m glad I saw it in the cinema. Enjoyable. Not groundbreaking. Decent enough fare.
I wasn’t expecting much from this, but it actually sounds pretty decent. The local cheap theater is playing it right now, so maybe I’ll try to catch it before it leaves. Nice review, Castor!
Thanks Eric. Definitely worth a watch at the cheap theater I say!
I saw it yesterday and I enjoyed it. The only thing that I thought really sucked was the story. Everything else was fine. The camera work didn’t seem that bad too me, but maybe I’ve just gotten used to it lately.
Yea the story has been done a hundred times and a lot better. There is no real motivation behind Washington’s character so it makes the movie a bit hollow.
…this sounds really good. It is the sort of film that has been lacking of late. I hope the cast can pull it off me too.
Can’t really see how this is supposed to be any different than Training Day. Inept rookie comes up against over-confident vet. Nothing new here.
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