A little "been there, done that" in certain respects, but Safe House is furiously paced and features Denzel in badass mode. Ryan Reynolds is also pretty impressive in an entirely dramatic role. B

Review: http://www.worldofkj.com/article.php?i=624

A lot of fun from start to finish. Definitely nothing original, but the action scenes are good and Denzel and Reynolds are good together.

B+

By-the-numbers CIA thriller, but it's just so badass.

It has a strong start but then it completely falls apart. The story ends up being unoriginal and stupid and the action overdoes itself even though in the beginning it was handled quite well. The stadium scene was beyond stupid and the love interest story had absolutely no need being in the film. Washington and Reynolds give it what they can. *1/2

Why?

For one, being the person he is, you don't take a person like Frost to a place as crowded as the stadium. It is so easy for him to get away. Then there is the whole escape and the ridiculous shootout in a crowd of thousands of people that just made me roll my eyes.

Hmm. Didn't he have to go to the stadium to retrieve...I forget. The location of the next safe house? I know there was a reason. I s'pose he could have left Frost chained in the car, but perhaps he felt more comfortable having him in sight.

As for the second point, fair enough. This film is full of such moments. There's an amusing bit where one of the villains attaches a silencer to his gun...halfway through a car chase which has no doubt caused at least hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage, so he hardly needs a silencer anymore.

Yeah he had to get the GPS that had the location.

Its strengths are that the action scenes are pretty well executed and done with care

But it gets to be a bore after 3 full acts of the run and chase bit. It has a mouse but no cat. The plot particularly falls apart creativity wise in the last third.

Also, this thing has zero humor or cracking of a smile, something that just adds to it being a snooze by the end. Kind of the anti MI:4 in personality and energy.

I agree.

The end with all the primary characters getting taken out felt a bit like the Departed to me. It was still a good Denzel flick that was worth my time.

Hated the ending but up until that point, I enjoyed it. B- (7/10)

How did it make so much money??
https://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?p ... ehouse.htm

I think we could say the same about The Vow released in the same weekend. I think what had a big impact was the trailer with that great Kanye West song, it got me pumped to see it.

Wow I remember nothing about this movie. I'm sure Denzel is wounded at the end, and Reynolds and him made some jokes. It's a less serious Hitman's Bodyguard. I remember decent sex from it though because it was Velentine's weekend, or Presidents. They always overlap, so who knows.

Unstoppable is the only decent Denzel action flick of this decade. Safe House was awful.

That's an interesting argument. I don't think Denzel has been bad in any of his films this past decade. I mean he plays the sam character most of the time to different extents. It's just the script that fails sometimes. But Equalizer and even the Magnificent Seven were good enough.

M7 was dull, but Equalizer without a doubt is my most recent favorite.

I agree that Denzel mostly plays the same character which is why it is amazing to see the BO success he has had over the period of time.