Everybody loves Denzel. Including me. I was under the impression that he was incapable of being in a bad film until I found Queen and Country for sale at a closing Blockbuster. But, by and large, his movies are great. Does today's movie measure up? In Safe House he plays a rogue CIA spy who sells secrets. Ryan Reynolds is a greenhorn who is new to the spook game and has been in charge of a safe house in South Africa. I will refrain from giving up much of the plot, though it seems to not break much ground as far as the spy genre goes. One thing I find interesting is though there is a scene of torture, it appears as though it is simply standard operating procedure; a deep contrast to the moral outrage shown by Denzel's character in The Siege. Whereas The Siege seemed to be prophetic in things to come, perhaps Safe House can be seen as a commentary on current events among spy agencies. Disappointingly, the short-comings of the story are somewhat matched by Reynolds' cliche dialogue. However, the action scenes are the best thing that this film has going for it, and are quite good. In sum, Safe House is nothing really to write home about but is something to write on your blog about. Denzel fans will probably enjoy it but not find it up to standard with his best films.
SPOILERS:
Most likely, the biggest problem that I had with Safe House is the fact that Denzel's character gets offed because of a nonchalant oversight. It ruins the image he portrays of being a highly dangerous spook who has survived for so long because of his attention to details. It could be my disappointment with this inconsistency that does the most damage in my evaluation.
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