Safe House [Movie Review]

[Post published by Liviu, on Liviu's [Personal] Blog]


These days I have watched Safe House [official site; en.wikipedia; IMDB], therefore I plan to review it for you. (Ok, I have watched many other movies since the last review, but didn't take the time to review them for you. Shame on me!)

Action and/or thriller?

We get quite a lot of action, yes. I'd call it the "classic style" (as in "this is the way it happens in real life where all the laws of Physics apply") of action:

• people running around,
• people fighting & shooting at each other (i.e. combat scenes),
• fast scenes, but not extremely fast etc.

, therefore we do not get:

• cool special effects,
• scenes shot from high above comprising the agitation of a city combined with the movie action etc. - It would have been interesting to get that type of images with respect to Jo'burg [en.wikipedia, 'cause you haven't heard this slang word before, have you?] - I mean, if they took the trouble to film it there, why not show how cool the city is? Also, some action scenes would have been more interesting if shot this way... but they might have felt less real though.

I suspect the thriller side of the movie kept the action to the real world level. In my opinion everything shown in the movie is perfectly possible in real life. It is all doable, especially in the case of a trained professional.

We do get a smart thriller, with a couple of twists, but not too many. You always sense the action & details & story are well thought of, thoroughly analyzed for consistence & coherence etc.

So, we get a smart thriller packed in a very real-life feeling of action.

Story line?

Espionage mixed with corruption & private interests, CIA etc. the usual.
However, we're lucky Ryan Reynolds is here to save the day! Also, Denzel is not such a bad guy after all, but not a good guy either...

Actors?

Denzel Washington - well, you know him, he does his job well.

Ryan Reynolds - pretty cool. He keeps getting better and better at acting. Does a fine part here.

Vera Farmiga - a nice/pretty (but not sexy) appearance from now and then. She gets shot towards the end, but you won't miss her.

Conclusions

Is it worth the time & money? Yes! Go see it, you'll enjoy it!