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Safe House stars Washington and Reynolds are let down by a thin script and choppily edited action sequences.
All Critics (187) | Top Critics (36) | Fresh (99) | Rotten (88) | DVD (2)
The film's super-saturated look and quick cutting are mere substitutes for any real sense of intrigue.
There are so many muscly, gun-toting guys having bloody brawls, it looks like some online research has been carried out to see what niche audience might appreciate this film most.
While director Espinosa hones in on the ambiguous battle between Weston's idealism and Frost's cynicism, British cinematographer Oliver Wood - who filmed the last two Bourne movies - shoots the hell out of everything.
This is a naive director with so little insight you wonder what comic books he's been reading.
Nothing really new here, but the cast is first-rate.
"Safe House" has just enough bone density to emit some satisfying cracks and pops whenever the action gets going.
While blood spills messily, the conspiracy is unwrapped neatly and nothing is left to chance.
This is a film filled with lines like, "Everyone betrays everyone." But the banality of those words almost disappears when Denzel Washington utters them.
Spends most of its 117-minute running time much like its central characters -- tearing madly around, making a lot of noise and not really getting very far.
[It's] undeniably engaging and extremely well acted.
Reynolds is great, too, but the film truly belongs to Washington as the gruff, clever bad guy you'll end up rooting for.
[Daniel] Espinosa thrillingly weaves impossible situation into impossible situation, maneuvering his players like a chess game on steroids to an ending that should be satisfying to all. He's a master and we're sure to hear more from him.
Decent if typical Hollywood action thriller with by now obligatory rah-rah underpinnings. By the numbers. Picked out the surprise twist ending bad guy in under 2 minutes. The cast simply needs to show up and be charming, and this much they manage. There's no real teeth here though.
Super Reviewer
Eh. S'okay.
A decent action/thriller with a few twists. You know you are always going to get a good performance out of Washington. Maybe it could have done with a bit more action, it did seem to slow down quite a bit in parts. Overall though a good entertaining film if not anything new or groundbreaking.
Bourne is black... I mean back. No wait, this is the wrong review. All jokes aside, it delivers high octane action enough to please action junkies alike. And with a premise that's somewhat interesting, "Safe House" is (wait for it...) a SAFE BET. LOL, GET IT? Sorry, now really all jokes aside, you're not going to spot anything new. You're gonna get the shaky cam and the breathless editing; you're gonna get the gritty fisticuff action; you're gonna get the conspiracies and whatnot. So don't come here thinking that this is gonna be something exceeding the likes of the Bourne series. However, it emulates the Bourne series excellently with a surprisingly dynamic relationship between Tobin Frost (Denzel Washington) and Matt Weston (Ryan Reynolds). So it's an above-average, enjoyable action thriller but a forgettable one.
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