Safe House (2012)

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  TheMovieDiorama

  7 / 10

  Safe House is a well acted action thriller. I mean if you are going to bring in Ryan Reynolds, Denzel Washington, Brendan Gleeson and Vera Farmiga...you're pretty much halfway to making a good film. Yet somehow this still fell short from being great. We follow Washington who plays a dangerous renegade with important information. On the run from mercenaries that raided a safe house, Reynolds attempts to prove himself by bringing him in. Full of espionage, double crossing and a damn convoluted plot in an attempt to make it engaging. But in actual fact, it's just generic. If you've watched this, then you'll probably remember nothing about the story. Seriously, give it a shot. Acting though was spot on. Washington and Reynolds made for an uneasy chemistry and the two work well together. Kind of like a master and his apprentice, except this master is on the opposite side of the law to his apprentice. Farmiga, criminally underrated by the way, was underused. Her character was pretty much pointless which infuriates me every time I watch this. Gleeson was good, but again was underused until the final act. The action scenes were great, the first act is definitely the most lively. A car crash, a raided safe house and a car chase in Cape Town. It was exhilarating and Daniel Espinosa filmed it rather well. Sound mixing was noteworthy, the gun shots were loud and piercing which always gets me pumped when watching an action flick. The locations were varied, from the streets of Cape Town to a football stadium filled with hooligans playing vuvuzelas (do you remember them? Flipping awful things). Just nothing felt fresh. It's a "been there done that" scenario too scared to try something new in case the film doesn't make back its budget. If the plot was engaging, this would've been a great surprise but sadly it's just good. Entirely watchable and well crafted, but nothing outstanding.

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