Safe House Review

Plot Summary:
Matt Weston (Ryan Reynolds) is a young CIA agent in charge of guarding notorious fugitive Tobin Frost (Denzel Washington) in a safe house in Cape Town, South Africa. When the safe house is attacked, they both find themselves on the run.

The Positives:
Safe House is one of those types of action films that Hollywood likes to release every so often. Saying that, the action scenes have to work. And they do here, they're not original or do not do anything new, but for typical action scenes they are edited very well and are cool to watch.

Another thing this film does well at is the performances of the two leads. Denzel Washington is great with all that he is given here, he easily gives a suspenseful, captivating performance that is intriguing to watch until the end. Ryan Reynolds also gives a good performance here, he plays an action hero very well. It's a typical Ryan Reynolds performance, a good one, but if he was given a stronger script, I know he would have given a better performance.

One thing I really enjoyed here is the South African cinematography. I liked how they shot on location and utilized all of the tourist attractions in the area very well. Certain places in South Africa also added certain moods to the action sequences that would have been completely different if shot in America.

The Negatives:
One huge issue I had with this film was the fact that several times throughout the film it tried to be something it's not rather than a standard action film. Towards the end it tries to be a psychological thriller with a huge twist. In my opinion, the twist felt awkward and unnecessary, I feel it could have done better without it. I feel also that the film tries to be artsy at points, based on the use of editing and cinematography in certain scenes. Again, the art elements feel unnecessary and at times, felt weird to watch.

Another big issue I had was with the script. Other than the two leads, the other characters aren't given a lot of screen time and enough time to develop, which makes these characters uninteresting and not worth caring about. The dialogue here also is extremely cliche and dull, which makes the slow scenes boring. The film also follows the standard action movie plot for the most part, although at times it tries to be different, it fails at that and really nothing new is offered here.

Conclusion:
Safe House has great performances from its two leads and cool action sequences, but it is somewhat wasted by a weak script and consistently trying to be something it isn't. As entertaining action movies go, it's worth a rental at best.

Rating: 6 out of 10