Safe House

Ryan Reynolds stars as Matt Weston - a low level CIA agent assigned to run a safe house in South Africa, and he is bored by the lack of action (you would think the action he is seeing with a sexy French medical student would make up for it, or be enough action for any one man, but I digress).

Of course, all of that is about to change as the agency brings in a legendary rogue former agent, Tobin Frost (Denzel Washington), who has some top secret material that everyone wants to get their hands on, and one of the most awesome character names in movies today.

As you probably figured out, Matt has to keep Tobin under arrest and in his control as everyone attacks the safe house.

Is the young agent up to the task?

Is Tobin a good guy or a bad guy?

What does the rogue agent have that everyone wants?

You're going to love seeing Reynolds and Washington teamed together, I just wish the script gave them more to do.

Safe House is a good thriller with plenty action and lots of stuff going BOOM, but there is an opportunity to deliver more, and the opportunity is missed because we don't get enough details about what Frost is trying to accomplish, what secret files he has in his possession and his ultimate plan.

Maybe writer David Guggenheim and director Daniel Espinosa are trying too hard to keep the mystery going or surprise us with the ending, but it leads to a movie that drags in the middle, even when we go from car chase to car chase to fight scene to fight scene (and with the kind of camera work that makes it impossible to see what is happening on the screen).

Luckily, Reynolds is great as the green, inexperienced agent, and Denzel wins us over with that rascally charming smile and hilarious, attitude-filled responses. I wish we got to see more of that chemistry between them, because it is so enjoyable to see the mind game developing between the two.

Washington keeps us guessing about his intentions as he alternately tries to shake the kid's confidence, and provides the kind of teaching every CIA agent would crave, and the way he carries himself reminds us Tobin knows he is one cool customer, and Denzel is one of the coolest actors on the planet.

We didn't need the love story with the French medical student tossed into the mix, but Safe House has enough juice to keep you excited.

Safe House is rated R for strong violence throughout and some language