Safe House is one of those movies that looks great from its previews, but falls short on almost everything. That is not o say it is bad, because it's not, but it just isn't good, either. The movie's plot is simplicity itself. Ryan Reynolds plays a mid-level CIA guy who runs an agency safe house in Capetown, South Africa. It is a boring assignment for him, not having seen anyone for a year. In that time, he has made a life in Capetown, having a girlfriend and ball. One day, an agent named Frost, played by Denzel Washington surrenders himself to the US Consulate after being chased by some mean bad guys. Frost has been a rogue agent for several years, and he is going to be transferred to DC. He is taken to the safe house run by Reynolds. The bad guys show up, kill everybody, and Reynolds and Washington go on the run. The rest of the film is one long chase scene. As the movie unfolds, we find out that there are corrupt guys in the CIA trying to bring in the guys and degenerates into a series of cheesy cliches that are part and parcel of this type of film.
Reynolds is actually the best part of this film. His performance actually works and is quite sympathetic. I really liked his character. He has just he right amount of toughness and vulnerability to come off realistically. Denzel is getting o the point where all he needs to do is phone in the role. You have seen this character in Man On Fire, Training Day, The Book of Eli, and American Gangster, only better. Denzel has pretty much got the quiet, tough guy down pat. He has his signature tics, as I like to call them. DeNiro, Pacino, Malkovich all have them. Denzel has his, too. The problem with these tics is that they make the movie predictable and sometimes, even dull. The problem with this film, primarily, is that it is chock full of every single espionage ciche there is. After five minutes, you know who the bad guys are, what they will do, and who will die. It's too bad, too, because this movie had potential. Besides Reynolds' performance, the direction is quite good by Daniel Espinosa. He appears to be a clone of Tony Scott, with the colorful and stylistic direction, which makes it beautiful to watch. Between Reynolds and the direction, this raises a dumb film to at least a mildly entertaining one. So if you want to pass a couple hours, you may want to check it out, but it is not particularly good.
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