These attempts don’t really work, and when things slow down for a moment, the pace flags. These interactions try to carry “Safe House” through the few moments of the film when no shoots a gun, jumps from rooftop to rooftop, or punches someone in the face. At times you almost think that Washington was picking on Reynolds on set and they filmed it and stuck it the movie. You can’t help but notice Reynolds is out of his depth playing opposite Washington. Frost is a master psychological manipulator, and pokes, prods, mocks, and pries at Weston, sewing seeds of doubt, and piece by piece dismantling the young agent’s sense of self, duty, and his very system of belief. He’s calm, cool, and tough to rattle he’s been here countless times before, and his glib gallows humor needles at Weston’s constant state of panic. Washington’s Frost is surprisingly funny for an ultra-serious spy. You totally believe that he has no idea what the hell he’s doing, a fact emphasized by his “Leave it to Beaver” leftover wardrobe and baby face. Reynolds does a passable job playing out of his depth. So there’s that to deal with, which only throws Weston and Frost from one hot-button situation to another to another. This is a CIA movie, and if CIA movies have taught us one thing it is that there is always, always a leak in the CIA. The rest of the movie is a twisted series of Weston and Frost running, fighting, eluding their pursuers, and Weston lying to his girlfriend (Nora Arnezeder) and coping with Frost’s constant escape attempts. Turns out a gang of anonymous thugs has a different idea, and before anyone learns anything from Frost all hell breaks loose. When ex-CIA spook, and notorious turncoat, Tobin Frost (Denzel Washington)-Tobin Frost is a solid spy name, I must say-pops up and turns himself in, he is interrogated at Weston’s safe house. Weston yearns for action, for an opportunity to prove himself, and boy howdy does he ever get his chance. He spends most of his day checking in with his superiors at HQ and bouncing a tennis ball off the bare walls. His duties consist exclusively of babysitting an agency safe house in Cape Town, South Africa, a safe house that hasn’t been used, by anyone, in the 12 months Weston has been there. Matt Weston (Reynolds) is the low man on the CIA totem pole. In the end, isn’t that what you really want out of an action film?įor those of you who’ve seen the previews and have questions about Ryan Reynolds playing a badass covert operative, don’t worry, he’s not. Though it isn’t anything you haven’t seen before, “Safe House” is lightning-fast, and full of shootouts, brutal fistfights, and chase scenes. And director Daniel Espinosa’s “Safe House” is a solid, if by the numbers, knock off. This isn’t meant to be a knock against the film, especially since the “Bourne” films are some of the best kick-ass action movies in recent times, this is a simple statement of fact. Stylistically, thematically, and visually, “Safe House” is definitely getting an invite to the “Bourne” family reunion. It’s difficult to take about “Safe House” without evoking the legacy of the “Bourne” movies, the influence is that obvious.
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