Safe House –

If you were to combine the Jason Bourne movies with the film Training Day the end result would probably something very similar to the new movie Safe House.  Safe House has a lot in common with most modern CIA action films, even the way that the action was shot reminded me off the two Paul Greengrass directed Bourne movies (Supremacy and Ultimatum), though thankfully director Daniel Espinosa keeps his shaky cam from being overused or distracting.  What really makes this film work is the interaction between Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds, with strong supporting roles played by Brendan Gleeson, and Vera Farmiga as CIA higher-ups.

Ryan Reynolds plays Matt Weston a safe house operator in Cape Town South Africa.  He yearns for a transfer to Paris to follow his girlfriend, and to get a more exciting post.  At work he mostly sits around alone playing catch by himself.  When along come Tobin Frost (Denzel Washington) a rogue CIA operative who is wanted for selling state secrets.  After purchasing a top secret file from a MI6 agent Frost is forced to turn himself in to the US consulate so that he can avoid being captured by a mysterious team of operatives that are close to capturing him.  Shortly after arriving at the safe house with a CIA interrogation team, the crap hits the fan as the safe house comes under attack, and predictably it is up to Matt to get Frost to safety.

The movie moves along at a good pace that keeps you engaged in the story, and it has plenty of exciting action scenes to help keep you entertained.  I only really had one problem with Safe House and that was that the movie was a bit too predictable.  If you have seen any modern CIA thrillers you will most likely  be able to figure out what is going on; who the mysterious bad guys are, who is helping them chase Frost, and how the movie will end.  However in the end I was still able to enjoy Safe House as it wasn’t a movie that was built around the twists and plot turns, so figuring things out did not really diminish my ability to enjoy the movie.

Stay tuned for more movie reviews at Bleed Geek: Movies including a review for the upcoming action film Act of Valor.

3.5 popcorn buckets