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Friday 9 March 2012

Safe House Review 2012


Safe House stars an unlikely match-up as veteran actor Denzel Washington is paired up to hate Ryan Reynolds, which should be easy.

Matt (Reynolds) is a CIA rookie waiting for his time to shine. He spends his days "House keeping", the term used to control the inside of a "Safe House". Located in Cape Town, the base is used to monitor and navigate CIA intelligence and to hold the odd fugitive/criminal.

And then you have your criminal. Tobin Frost (Washington) is a former CIA specialist turned mass fugitive. Tobin is captured and arrested by his former drinking buddies as Matt gets his lucky break when he is given the objective of keeping Tobin on lock down once he arrives on a location unknown...
(the safe house)

A tense feel to the movie approaches when Tobin is delivered, heavily guarded and masked. (I might add he was delivered by none other than Robert Patrick? who is the T1000 in Terminator 2!) Things spiral out of control when the Safe house is attacked by a force of mercenaries who want the head of Tobin Frost. Matt is quickly put to the test, ride or die?

Matt stays true to his word in making Tobin his top priority which is to keep him alive. former agent, Tobin, is out to torment Matt, looking to test his skills and decisions. The fact that Matt is out to do his job and protect his client, Tobin can't help but think the out-come will be bad for them both, not matter the situation.

The cast also consists of Brendan Gleeson who works for the CIA also, and plays his part in guiding Matt through the right decisions. Our very own Brendan needs no introduction when it comes to acting, but Safe house did him no favours. Yes it was an obvious decision to have him put an American accent on, but it sounded silly to be frank. Maybe just my own perspective, but I found it really hard to get used to.

Vera Farminga, who you may know from The Departed and Source Code also features as a top dog in the CIA. 

Safe House was mediocre. What you see in the trailer is what you get, no more, no less. It started well, basic CIA stuff, but had a plot that could have been so good but it seemed ruined by coming off messy half way through with an unconvincing story line you seem to forget. Safe House consists of Ryan Reynolds getting beat up all the time, unnecessary gun fire and the odd car chase through the streets of Jamacia. On a positive note, you have typical Denzel acting, Training Day bad guy act,"I run shit here! King Kong ain't got shit on me!", the usual. (which is all good on his behalf)  The rest, well? failed.

Ryan Reynolds did try, and in fairness he had some cool scenes (Joke free which was surprising). Just the story line, and over all action was border line depressing.  The only reason one should see is if you are a Denzel Washington fan, which in my case, was the right excuse. Is it up there with his best? unfortunately not. But no matter the movie, his presence on the big screen can never be ignored.

So Lets think back, that day in the cinema, was it the trailer for Safe House that was appealing? or the song "No Church in the Wild"...

Feat Jay Z & Kanye West


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