Movie Review - Safe House

Movie Title

Safe House

Year
2012
Genre

Police, Action, Thriller

Story
Tobin Frost (Denzel Washington) - a living legend amongst the espionage community, who had been branded a traitor by the CIA and had managed to elude capture for years. suddenly surrenders himself at the Cape Town US Consulate.


Viewers are privy to the fact that Frost has obtained a top-secret file with dirt on some very powerful people within the espionage community making him #1 Enemy of the world's major intelligence agencies.


Eagerly trying to get some field experience, Matt Weston (Ryan Reynolds), a rookie CIA agent assigned to the very same Cape Town "Safe House" where Frost is headed, awaits his chance to have his first "House Guest", read CIA captive, the the armed escorts and interrogators.


Within a couple of hours, the Safe House is breached by a group of armed-to-the-teeth killers. Everyone in the Safe House gets brutally taken out, leaving Matt no choice but to get the House Guest away from the kill zone. They then race against time to find out who's behind these killings and why before they end up dead!

Acting

Denzel (such a cool name) & Reynolds turn in pretty good performances. While some complain that the movie didn't really make full use of the acting skills of other great actors like Vera Farmiga (last seen in Source Code with Jake Gylenhall) & Brendan Gleeson (last seen as Prof Mad­Eye Moody in Harry Potter - Goblet of Fire) BUT, I disagree! Good actors know what they contribute to a movie and when not to steal the limelight from others. And this IS a movie about the 2 main men - Denzel & Ryan!

Overall

The slightly grainy camera-work adds a gritty element of realism into the whole viewing experience. Meanwhile, the pace of the show never lets up from the get go. Viewers are drawn in from the very beginning! 

This movie also introduces (well, to me at least) big screen's new version of Megan Fox (Read Hottie!) in Nora Arnezeder who play's Weston's love interest. She's easy on the eyes and perhaps may annoy fewer people than Megan Fox.

I must say that the fight scenes are pretty brutal and realistic! Kudos to the fight choreographers and the actors themselves for pulling off the scenes so convincingly! The fights don't look choreographed and are messy, making them extremely realistic. Even the car chase scenes were done pretty well.


Although I won't say this is a must watch but there isn't any recent action flick this good recently. I can see myself watching this again.


Rating: 7/10