Safe House Review

Justin and I saw Safe House on February 11, 2012. This movie was exciting, intense, and had a great plot. Tobin Frost played perfectly by Denzel Washington (in my opinion one of the best actors of all time) is public enemy #1 by the CIA and organizations such as M-I6. However, he is a rogue agent that knows something is up within these organizations designed to help keep the citizens of the world safe. We also explore the young career of Agent Matthew Weston (played amazingly well by Ryan Reynolds), who is called in when Frost is apprehended by other agents for suspicious activity and perhaps he may even be a terrorist threat. I have to point out that Ryan Reynolds showed how good he can be in this movie. He was absolutely amazing in this role and completely revamped himself after terrible outings in The Green Lantern and the horrid movie, The Change-Up. He has to guard him in the safe house that they put Frost in. However, following an attack on the house Weston has to transport him to another safe house. His mentor David Barlow, is played by Brendan Gleeson and I felt the casting was great in this instance as well. They really nailed all the casting choices. Vera Farmiga plays Catherine Linklater who believes that there is a traitor within the CIA. She suspects that Matthew is in cahoots with Tobin to bring about something that could be dangerous for everybody. What's interesting is through the violent exchanges that occur between Tobin and Matthew, there is a level of respect there and Frost is always giving Weston advice that he needs to be careful of who he trusts and how he can't ever have an honest relationship especially with a woman. Tobin has a secret file that will expose a big threat to the security of the world. Frost transports the file to Weston. Both men are also trying to fight their way through the men that attacked the safe house and the camera work used combined with the realistic fighting really helped make the action look good. Meanwhile, in the administrative portion of the movie, a traitor is revealed that I predicted early on, but when it actually happens it still works great because its believable. The ending scenario with Frost busting his way through the hospital where Weston is being held (after a showdown with another man he thought to be an ally) comes in shooting everyone and saving Weston, because Frost (even though he is seen as this fugitive who is a threat to national security) is really the one trying to help save national security. Washington is really on top of his game in this one and the dialogue scenes he has with Reynolds are excellent. Very top notch movie revealing that it was in fact the men that lead the organizations like the CIA, MI-6 etc. that contain high levels of corruption and are a dangerous threat. This all went back to that file that Frost had acquired at the beginning of the movie and passed on to Reynolds. Good action movie with good acting and a good plot make this worth the watch. I'll give it a 4/5. I was truly impressed and feel that Washington and Reynolds really had some of the best on screen chemistry I've seen in a while.