It's difficult to describe how I feel about Safe House. It has its good points, but ultimately it has too many flaws to be a must-see. The biggest one being the story itself.
The film doesn't exactly have an original story. A CIA agent goes rogue. A younger, more impressionable agent has to protect him and take him in. Questions get raised over who's the real bad guy: the rogue agent or the CIA themselves.
It's a plot that has been done before, and that would be forgivable if it wasn't for Safe House's clumsy way of re-telling it.
First, the camera drove me mad. It was jumping around all over the place during action sequences particularly, making it hard to know what was going on. This was a real shame because there is no reason for it to be like that. Simply having a more stable camera would have improved this film greatly.
The script was also below-par - just adding to Safe House's problem of barely being able to tell a story. I found the film hard to follow for the most part, luckily there were times that I was able to catch up and get some enjoyment out of the story - but this just didn't happen often enough.
But it wasn't all bad. Ryan Reynolds and Denzel Washington both deliver strong performances and play off each other well. It's annoying to think they could have done better with an improved script.
The supporting cast are also OK and secure acting as one of the films strong points.
Unfortunately, not many other strong points come to mind. The story is unoriginal and clumsily told - this is made even worse by the thin script and jumpy camera. The performances of Reynolds and Washington seem to be one of the only redeeming features - meaning Safe House is one for action movie nuts alone.
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