A notorious CIA turncoat, Tobin Frost (Denzel Washington) re-emerges as a hunted man in Southerly Africa. He turns himself into your American Embassy, and is taken to a safe house operated by simply junior CIA agent Matt Weston (Ryan Reynolds). Within moments of the arrival, the team guarding Frost is slaughtered in a surprise attack, and Weston is compelled to flee with Ice as his prisoner, with the directive to help keep him alive for 16 hours, at which time he will probably be extracted from a different safe house. But can Weston retain the wiley Frost, who has an agenda of her own?
SAFE HOUSE has the many ingredients for a cracker-jack thriller. It has the trendy premise, a promising new director at the helm (Daniel Espinosa- director on the Swedish hit EASY MONEY), and two big stars inside the lead roles. Sure enough, the end result is often a slick ride, with enough entertainment value for making it well worth the expense of admission- but I couldn’t help but feel the film was strangely inert occasionally.
Maybe this has related to the fact that, in a way, SAFE HOUSE is too familiar. Firstly, it’s very reminiscent of TRAINING DAY, with Washington playing yet another veteran anti-hero, teamed with a commendable younger guy- who gets taken on the ride of his existence, although instead of the gang wars of Southerly Central L. A, we get the cloak along with dagger espionage tactics in the CIA- with most involving South Africa being become a war zone for our two leads. It also owes a heck of your lot to 3: 10 TO YUMA (the remake and the original) with the fact that the hero has to supply his unwilling, but charismatic captive for the authorities, while being hunted by way of vast opposition.
Where SAFE HOUSE really goes wrong is the two-hander aspect, with Denzel Washington definitely making mincemeat of Johnson Reynolds on-screen. Early on, we see Reynolds bouncing a baseball against any wall, which I suppose was supposed to make us view him as Steve McQueen-ish amount, but that type regarding vibe really doesn’t accommodate Reynolds, who’s maybe too “nice” to the role. Someone tougher, and perhaps older plus more threatening was needed with the part. I don’t buy the whole “babe-in-the-woods” act that we’re meant to swallow here, as the guy is in fact a CIA agent that’s owning a safe house in To the south Africa. Certainly he should be a bit more formidable? Someone like Mark Wahlberg (or an outside-the-box casting thought like Oscar Issac or maybe Liev Schreiber) really was needed here, and while Reynolds acquits himself nicely from the action scenes (of which there are plenty) every time your focus is shifted clear of Denzel and on for you to Reynolds, the film grinds to your halt- and I point out this as someone exactly who truly likes Reynolds for actor. It’s just miscasting.
Otherwise though, SAFE HOUSE is a good enough film, although it’s predictable seeing that heck. After a while, the twists get greater than a little goofy (if one where you can take a shot at any time a character is applied for by a surprise off-screen gunshot by someone who’s at the moment being revealed as some sort of traitor,
