4 Stars Out of 5 Stars
New action-thriller Safe House enthralls audiences from beginning to end. The story follows Junior CIA agent and safe house keeper Matt Weston (Ryan Reynolds), who has been in charge of manning Cape Town, South Africa’s safe house for the past year. In that time he has received a whopping zero houseguests. Of course, in a turn of events, Weston gets his first houseguest months after sitting and waiting in a small apartment. His houseguest is none other than the traitorous turncoat Tobin Frost (Denzel Washington).
Frost is brought into the safe house by a team who is ordered to reveal Frost’s traitorous secrets no matter the means, even if it involves torture. However, the safe house is infiltrated and the entire team of guards is slaughtered. Weston flees with Frost and is informed he still needs to keep Frost in captivity until his boss can find another safe house for them to go to. The rest of the movie ensues with Frost’s wily attempts to escape, Weston’s pronounced progression in maturity and the truth behind Frost’s espionage.
This action-thriller is filled with intense fight scenes involving Frost’s amazing gun man skills. Safe House transports the viewer from car chases, to hand-to-hand combat scenes, to insane gunfights.
The way Safe House is filmed was particularly interesting to me. It demonstrated new camera angles from interesting points of view that I hadn’t yet witnessed from other action films. Also, there was a certain graininess to the film that fit with the gritty intensity of the plot. Normally I wouldn’t have enjoyed such grain, because I prefer to see a crisp, clean shot, but for this movie it worked.
The acting of Washington is, as always, superb. His role as an extremely intelligent and tough rogue fit perfectly with his acting capabilities. On the other hand, Reynolds fits the bill perfectly for the burning passion required for the character of Weston.
This movie seemed really long, but kept me interested the entire time. The audience and I laughed, gasped and applauded at all the scenes with enthusiasm. Safe House has now made my list of top 10 action movies. I would definitely recommend this movie to those who love a great action-thriller.
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