Safe House

-- www.Ramascreen.com -- Here we go again with Denzel mentoring a rookie by sharing some of his ground rules. SAFE HOUSE is very formulaic, it only makes you think like it's smart and if it weren't for the intense, unforgiving gunfights, one of the most exciting I've seen in cinema (Tombstone's gunfight still takes top honor) SAFE HOUSE probably wouldn't have much going to help me recommend it to you Training Day, Unstoppable, and now SAFE HOUSE, you'd pair up Denzel as a seasoned, experienced character with a rookie or a newbie who eventually steps up to the plate. Denzel is back as Mr. know it all, Mr. one step ahead of you, and he'd proudly preach it too whether or not you'd want to hear it. Ryan Reynolds plays the next Pine or the next Hawke, and just like those other guys, Reynolds' character is fully equipped with the knowledge and is highly skilled but now, situation has shifted to where it forces him to put his own skills to the test. The rookie is always motivated to prove himself worthy and the unlikely mentor, who's used to working alone and has all kinds of ethos, is always entertained by the idea of having a protégé. By the way, why can't Swedish director Daniel Espinosa find his own tone, his own style? Why does he have to make the film look as if it was helmed by Denzel's go-to director, Tony Scott?! It even has that A-D-D feel to it. I don't necessarily think David Guggenheim's script is all that clever, it's not terrible, but it's nowhere near impressive. Don't get me wrong, the concept is fantastic, a CIA house being breached and you don't know who's responsible and who else may be on it, the line between bad guys and good guys get blurred, those are necessary elements for a pulse pounding thriller. But those of us hardcore fans of thrillers, may it be political or whodunit crime, would easily notice that all that Guggenheim did was put all the CIA smart vocabularies and slang into Tobin Frost's lips (Denzel) and then have the CIA repeats the same thing in their own little playroom and then Guggenheim would throw a series of massive chaos in between. It doesn't take a genius to figure out the bad guy either because you'd always go with the one who seems to be the most supportive, the one who wants to see the protagonists find safety, just so that they may get to them in time and retrieve whatever it is that they withhold, so SAFE HOUSE is exciting but it's hardly smart and it's certainly nothing new. -- www.Ramascreen.com --

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Tobin Frost(Denzel Washington) a former CIA agent that went rouge, and is now on the run, turns himself in to CIA headquarters, to avoid being captured by terrorist. Matt Weston(Ryan Reynolds) join the others on his first assignment, but when headquarters are shot down by the people trying to capture Frost. Matt takes Frost out of there safely, and the two soon become hunted. But who can they trust, or can they trust each other, and will they get out this alive? I'm surprised by the bad reviews, this was a gritty real action movie, it never tries to be a simply guilty pleasure. Ryan Reynolds was great, never plays it real goofy, and so was Denzel Washington, I like how we where not sure what to of his character is he good or bad? Vera Farmiga, Brendan Gleason, and Sam Shepard are also great too.

First thing about watching "Safe House" in the theaters: do not, I repeat DO NOT, sit in the front half of the cinema; I would suggest sitting in the back row unless you want to get nauseated and dizzy. Why? The shaky cam is really bad on this movie. Even in the non-action scenes, the camera is never still and constantly moving. During action scenes the camera all over the place creating headache inducing jerkiness and bobbling that can only be described by comparing it to symptoms of deadly diseases. The constant camera movement in the non-action scenes is also so bad that during each and every conversation in the movie, it's slowly rocking side to side for absolutely no reason, giving sea-sickness. Add to the shaky cam that half the movie is a close up of a close up. The faces take up most of the screen and go beyond even the field of vision. On top of that, add the way too much frequent cuts. It's a real eyeball and brain buster. However, if you're one of these people who are immune to shaky cam, the next topic is of course Denzel. Denzel gives his greatest hits: the Denzel-against-the-world Denzel, the Training-Day Denzel and the drama Denzel. Denzel is supposed to be playing a character Tobin Frost, but it's like we are watching Denzel Washington do his thing rather than Tobin Frost. Safe House borrows heavily from the Bourne movies, not just the shaky cam but the large screened command centers at the Pentagon and the mannerisms of the staff there. Another Bournesque element is the fights between trained agents; however in this movie, they just seem to be of lower quality with slower labored movements and the scenes reduced to a frantic blur. The singular car chase scene despite being the highlight of the action sequences, is also unsatisfying. The real oddity of the movie is how philosophical it wants to be about lives of CIA "employees". The movie gives us these long sullen monologues on relationships, pasts and futures, innocent victims etc. These musings would probably have some gravity if any of the characters were more than half dimensional and possessed some sort of personality. What we end up in the movie are a bunch of really big talking heads, sprouting lots of hollow dialog and adding to that headache. Other minor things, the water-boarding scene that the trailer alludes to completely flubbed. It is as exciting as watching someone water their lawn. Speaking of product placements, "Safe House" has been commandeered as a product placement vehicle for a certain brand of car that only makes boxy SUVs. Each and every car in the movie is of this brand; I mean every government car, every bad guy car, all 3-4 cars jacked along the way is a boxy SUV. This way too silly and distractingly sticks out. In summary, Safe House would have been a mediocre but watchable movie without the shaky cam. With the shaky cam, it's just a big headache inducing mess. Devout Denzel followers might get something out of it but for most action fans, I would suggest waiting for the DVD version which it is more suited for.

I wanted to like this. I really did. I love Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds is good enough not to be type-casted while still holding onto his own style. Unfortunately, nothing works here. This movie is incredibly simple to summarize, due to it's simplicity. Ryan Reynolds plays a caretaker of a Safe House. He's a CIA agent trying to prove himself, and that chance comes when Tobin Frost (Denzel Washington, and the only character who's name I can even remember) is caught through some suspiciously specific circumstances comes his way. Sounds cool, right? It's not. Specifically? It's nothing we haven't seen. Corrupt government, predictable plot points and you'll figure out who the bad guy is halfway through the movie, which takes away some of it's sting. It predictably tried to make us think the woman-agent (I don't even know their names) was working against the office but it wasn't, because the movie pressed to much into her "hardass" attitude. It wasn't believable. The biggest disappointment was the whole plot point, the MOVIE'S TITLE, was barely utilized. I went in expecting a psychological thriller, maybe 60-75% of the movie taking place in the Safe House as Tobin Frost messes with the minds of everyone around him. That's what the trailers implied anyway. I got no such thing. Instead, the Safe House is broken into within minutes of Frost entering the building. There's a second safe house later in the movie and it, too, serves little point except the placeholder of the climax. All in all? I doubt we get 10 minutes worth of what is supposed to be the movie's title. Frankly, the movie should have been renamed. Let's not forget that Frost barely proves his reputation, which we get in a quick scene of exposition as it explains that he "rewrote interrogation protocol" or something. At most, he says about four mindscrewing lines to Reynolds' character, and not much happens with it. It just felt everything this movie was supposed to be was abandoned. That's what I didn't like. The fight scenes were fine, the actors were fine, even (some of the) writing was fine. But when I left I found it difficult to like this movie.