Rogue agent Tobin Frost (Denzel Washington) has been off the grid for the past ten years and he’s been on the CIA’S most wanted list for the last decade.
CIA agent, Matt Weston (Ryan Reynolds) has been posted to a remote, empty Safe House in Capetown, South Africa for over a year. He’s job is to make sure the Safe House is always ready for ‘visitors’. Weston is bored and longs for action.
When, out of the blue, Tobin turns himself in, he’s transported to Weston’s Safe House and the novice operative gets his wish…and then some…
Mercenaries attack the house, killing practically everyone in sight. Everyone except… Matt and Tobin, who manage to escape and go on the run.
Matt is determined to protect Tobin at all costs and ‘bring him in’. Tobin, however, has other ideas and what happens next is…
unfortunately, what you’ve seen hundreds of times up on the screen….
We have numerous car chases, explosive gun battles (are there any other kind?), stunts galore, lots of action and a few twists, that you can see coming, a mile away.
The best part of ‘Safe House’ are the quiet scenes between Denzel and Ryan. The two actors have great chemistry. Denzel’s character is intense, at times scary, but in the end…sympathic. Ryan conveys his usual charismatic self and you can’t help but like him.
The supporting cast includes Sam Shepherd as a CIA big shot, Vera Farmiga and Brendan Gleeson as CIA operatives and Ruben Blades as a forger. Ruben and Washington also have a couple of nice scenes together that reveal more about the Frost character.
The director, Daniel Espinosa has shot the film in a ‘cinema verte’ style and has chosen to speed up the action, so at times…it’s hard to tell who’s kicking whose butt.
If you want to see a movie, that is filled with car crashes, action, violence but has really nice performances from Denzel and Reynolds, then ‘Safe House’ is the film to see.
The ‘Two Jews On Film’ are actually almost in agreement. Check out our video to see our bagel rating…and to see our…kung fu moves.
‘Safe House’ opens in theatres, Friday, February 10, 2012.
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.