Lights, Camera, Action! And action and more action. That’s all there seemed to be in the movie Safe House
The political thriller Safe House takes on the storyline of an ex CIA rogue agent, Tobin Frost played by Denzel Washington, who has sold his soul for money and power. His is aim is to get back at the CIA and is willing to do anything to achieve this. The seemingly soft Ryan Reynolds plays the role of Matt Weston who takes on the role of a hard hitting covert operate. Seen as a mere rookie in the CIA trying to prove his worth, he gets delegated the job of babysitting a Safe House, in Cape Town South Africa, which hasn’t been used for over a year. He waits for his big break and boy oh boy does he get it. Weston has been given the task of interrogating Tobin Frost after he turns himself in to the CIA.
Denzel Washington once again does what he does best, blows people away with his effortless acting. He seems to embrace his roles in movies with superb ease, whether he plays the role of a political hero in Malcolm X, or Steve Biko in Cry Freedom. In this movie, he plays an ex CIA agent bad boy. The task of co-starring next to Denzel would always be a huge task. Ryan Reynolds, however, is brave enough to take it on and is not overshadowed. Despite his natural baby-face and his rather soft boy clothes he is seen wearing in the movie, he does well to convince the audience of his role.
The movie is definitely not for the faint-hearted with short stops before more action and shootings take place. The cinematography is acutely suited for hard hitting action, shootings and blood splats. If you enjoy movies such as the Matrix, Bourne Identity and so forth this would suit your mood for a night out. However, Safe House seems to lack the X Factor aspect which those movies had.
Whilst the movie had good acting and action scenes, it seemed to miss the core element of any great movie: a good storyline. The intelligence factor seemed to be lacking. The movie was overcrowded every 30 seconds by violence. The movie seems to be aimed at an audience ready to enjoy fast paced action over a captivating storyline.
The truth seems to be an underlying theme in all the action taking place. The recurrence of the never-say-die attitude and one man Army’s is becoming predictable in action movies. Safe House seems to have fallen into this trap. While there were the occasional twists, the movie could hardly live up to the movie Bourne Identity, which has set benchmark for action movies in the past years.
While there were the occasional oohs and aahs in the audience, the performance was not anything close to get an overwhelming applause from the audience.This movie is recommended if you are an action junkie. If not, then the movie Safe House would rather be an unsafe haven for you.
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