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  • release date

    February 10, 2012 (USA)

  • language

    English

FilmOrbit reviews

Don’t be fooled by the star cast. Ryan Reynolds and Denzel Washington in a CIA thriller of betrayal and double-cross and murder and car chases across continents. Bah! Ryan Reynolds can try and try to g …

Don’t be fooled by the star cast. Ryan Reynolds and Denzel Washington in a CIA thriller of betrayal and double-cross and murder and car chases across continents. Bah! Ryan Reynolds can try and try to get out of his charming romantic hero mould but doesn’t. Not with this story. And Denzel Washington is perhaps going the Shah Rukh Khan way when he hams through really ridiculous 94 minutes of this silly drama.

SAFE HOUSE

Silly because you hope one of them dies so the movie can end. I could not believe I was waiting for Ryan Reynolds to take his shirt off just to break the stupid ‘action’ mode of this movie. Chase sequences that are so boring you begin to root for the bad guys chasing Denzel Washington in the street (we liked it when the hero vanishes in the Irish parade in The Fugitive, 1993, here a parade was just too random). We don’t care for the parkour like jumping from roof to roof in the poor district. We think the gun fight where all the CIA folk die is annoying. We don’t even flinch when the obviously rotten egg in the CIA turns out to be the rotten egg and shoots the good gal dead. We don’t care for the setting. It could have been Bombay for all the connect they make with the audience or Timbuctoo. And the end could not more welcome.

SAFE HOUSE

Why would you want to play with your money when they don’t care to offer you a good story? Keep your money in the safehouse. And wait for something better to come along.

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plot

  • Legendary spy Tobin Frost (Denzel Washington) has eluded capture for almost a decade. One of the best ops men that the CIA’s ever trained, the brilliant ex-intelligence officer has betrayed assets and sold military codes to enemies of the state since he turned. From aiding splinter cells to trading incendiary secrets to the highest bidder, the damage he’s done to the U.S. is immeasurable. Now, Frost is back on the grid with the most explosive intel he’s ever gotten his hands on. For the past year, Matt Weston (Ryan Reynolds) has been frustrated by his inactive, backwater post in Cape Town. A “housekeeper” who aspires to be a full-fledged case officer, the loyal company man has been waiting for an opportunity to prove himself. When the first and only occupant he’s had proves to be the most dangerous operative he will ever cross, Weston readies for duty. As soon as Frost is brought in for debriefing, mercenaries in brutal pursuit of Frost come and level Weston’s safe house. Barely escaping, the...

    Legendary spy Tobin Frost (Denzel Washington) has eluded capture for almost a decade. One of the best ops men that the CIA’s ever trained, the brilliant ex-intelligence officer has betrayed assets and sold military codes to enemies of the state since he turned. From aiding splinter cells to trading incendiary secrets to the highest bidder, the damage he’s done to the U.S. is immeasurable. Now, Frost is back on the grid with the most explosive intel he’s ever gotten his hands on. For the past year, Matt Weston (Ryan Reynolds) has been frustrated by his inactive, backwater post in Cape Town. A “housekeeper” who aspires to be a full-fledged case officer, the loyal company man has been waiting for an opportunity to prove himself. When the first and only occupant he’s had proves to be the most dangerous operative he will ever cross, Weston readies for duty. As soon as Frost is brought in for debriefing, mercenaries in brutal pursuit of Frost come and level Weston’s safe house. Barely escaping, the veteran spy and untested captor must discover whether their attackers were sent by terrorists or by someone on the inside. With only hours left to get Frost to the next safe house, Weston must figure out who he can trust before he and the world’s most skillful assassin are both eliminated.

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critic reviews

  • Joe Williams

    for St. Louis Post-dispatch

    The action is contained within a coherent dramatic structure and the puzzle-box paranoia of spy-agency protocol.…

  • Marc Savlov

    for Austin Chronicle

    Director Espinosa stages the endless action with a tremendous flair that recalls John Woo\'s grittier moments, and cinematographer…

  • Mike Scott

    for New Orleans Times-picayune

    A gritty spy thriller directed by relative newcomer Daniel Espinosa, and a film that -- despite the occasional misstep -- ends up …

  • Steven Rea

    for Philadelphia Inquirer

    Safe House rockets along, taking a familiar formula and making it work - hard.…

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