Safe House

Directed by Daniel Espinosa, and stars Denzel Washington, Ryan Reynolds, Verm Farmiga, and Brendan Gleeson.

The movie is about a CIA agent, Matt Weston (played by Ryan Reynolds), who is tasked to look after a rogue operative, Tobin Frost (played by Denzel Washington), in a safe house located in Cape Town. But when the safe house is attacked, both are on the run and the CIA agent’s burden of keeping himself safe and at the same time making sure the prisoner remains a prisoner, became even heavier.

Of course, the safe house is not actually safe, or else there wouldn’t have been a story. But, after watching this, I though that Safe House is not exactly the title that I would go for when only 3% of the scenes took place in an actual safe house. I would have gone for Rogue, or something.

I liked how Washington played his character. I was sometimes left unsure if he was just toying with Weston whenever he talks to him. Frost is, in fact, an expert when it comes to manipulation and mind games. So, in a way, Washington gave justice to his character.

But I find that the it gets less interesting after the whole debacle in the stadium where Frost was able to escape Weston. Plus, I would have loved it if the dialogues lasted more than 30 seconds. Every minute is a new action scene, and at some point it really gets very tiring to watch.

If you’re into action movies, this movie did not hold back. But if you’re the kind who likes a good storyline, then you might probably shake your head with this one. It had a lot of potential, just overshadowed by some of the unnecessary action scenes.