Safe House — A Movie By Numbers

I may have mentioned in the past that I’m not keen on thinking about ‘who-dunnit’ in a movie or trying to ‘second-guess’ what’s-what from the start. I like to be surprised by a movie, I like it to reveal itself as we go through together.

So it was with a deep and heavy sigh that after just a few minute of Safe House being on I had sussed out who the double-agent was (it doesn’t help he usually always plays that role), what was going on and what would go down.

From then on in this movie was simply a dot-to-dot or a paint-by-numbers, whichever way you want to look at it, you can see what’s coming a mile off.

Denzil Washington plays a rogue CIA agent who is accused of dodgy dealing to anyone who’ll pay. Ryan Reynolds plays a safe house keeper who is bored and hasn’t seen much action and, oh look, is thrust into it when they choose his safe house for Denzil to be put in.

From here on in the death toll rises as the minutes passes, Reynolds shows his anguish at having to do anything remotely actioney, which given the movie starts with him wanting to do more action is either a play on ‘be careful what you wish for’ or I’m missing his acting style.

Denzil is good, he plays Denzil, it’s not a role that is challenging him. Don’t expect to see any of the action though as Director Daniel Espinosa attempts to follow the Paul Greengrass way of directing with handy-cam action galore which means you miss every-fucking-thing that’s happening…calm blue ocean, calm blue ocean.

This way of directing, and some of the setup and the end, does give the movie a slight feel of Bourne but it’s not as good so is a comparison you probably don’t want to think about.

A special shout out has to go to the ‘bad guys’ in the movie, who literally don’t say a word. They probably have as much screen time as Washington and yet literally don’t say a word…*sigh*

All in all I fail to see how it made it to the cinema when it’s about as good as most straight to DVD movies knocking around. How a stellar cast can help huh!

PURCHASE:

You can buy Safe House on DVD here: Safe House (DVD)

You can buy Safe House on Blu-Ray + Digital Copy here: Safe House (Blu-Ray + Digital Copy)

Originally published at OC Movie Reviews.