Safe House (2012)

So with Safe House we return to my old friend Ryan Reynolds. I grew to hate Ryan Reynolds as I watched The Green Lantern, the film that taught me that whilst it can be good to watch a film free of the weight of reviews... sometimes reviews can stop you from wasting 2 hours of your life and stop you wanting to claw your eyes out. He lacks charisma and quite frankly was the perfect fit for the massive flop that was the Green Lantern. That being said, Denzel Washington is in this film... and he's good... so this film must have some worth right? Well.. kind of but not really. What we have is a fairly predictable film, which tells you everything you need to know in the trailer, and leaves little plot open for you to think about it, because everything is painted in 8 foot high letters with arrows in case you missed the point.

So what's the story? Well Denzel plays Tobin Frost, ex CIA, the best they had, who turned rogue and began selling state secrets to the highest bidder. He's been unobtainable for years, and suddenly he crops back up on the radar when he walks into an American Consulate while being pursued by highly trained gunmen. The information he has now is game changing, and those who want it will stop at nothing to get at it. So he is transferred to a safe house for questioning, the safe house where rookie Matt Weston (Reynolds) is housed, desperate to prove himself to the bosses. When the house is raided the two then go on the run and begin working together. So has Weston turned, or was Frost actually not all that bad after all... Guess...

The action is fairly well played out, I particularly liked the rooftop chase in the shanty town, but other than that there is nothing very impressive about this film. The story is formulaic, Denzel Washington is good enough, but he doesn't really seem to be trying all that much, this is just another action blockbuster paycheque for those involved. It won't offend you, and it will be diverting for a couple of hours. Just do yourself a favour and watch a better action film, something like Die Hard... Brains and Brawn.