You only have to look back over Denzel's credits to see that its hard to find a 'dud' movie the guys been in. Time after time, Mr Washington continues to amaze from early outings in Malcolm X and the Pelican Brief to Philadelphia, Crimson Tide, The Siege & The Bone Collector. Then there was the Oscar win with Training Day and more recent performances in Pelham 123, Book of Eli and Unstoppable have all been fantastic.Knowing he provides this level of quality, surely everyone goes into a Denzel movie extremely expectant of seeing something awesome, and Safe House is no exception.
Denzel stars as rogue CIA agent Tobin Frost, forced into an American Embassy when he's cornered, carrying a laundry list of American and British corrupt government agents. Intent of selling the list for a tidy profit to the highest bidder and after being on the run for 9 years for selling out his counties secrets, Frost is deemed on of the CIA's greatest enemies and an agent to be feared among his peers.
On the flip site, Ryan Reynold plays a disgruntled Safe House operator. Month after month manning a deserted safe house with no contact or idea of the big wide world around him. That is until Frost is moved under CIA protection for interrogation to his humble abode but its not long before the goons arrive to capture Frost and its left to relatively inexperienced Reynold to keep Tobin and himself alive, deliver him back the CIA and secure the laundry list. So an action movie then? Definitely. It pretty much launches into the fray immediately and the pairing of Reynold and Washington is brilliant. Its gritty, loud, fast and action packed with Washington proving at almost 60 years old he has what it takes to keep up with the much younger Reynolds, although its fair to say that when you compare him to the Alonzo Harris character from Training Day (which is unbelievably already 11 years old) his senior years are starting to gradually show through.
What I loved about this movie was it kept up with the hype. The trailer is set to a heavy bass line and Denzel proves once again he has what it takes to captivate an audience, as the hero or enemy. As for Reynolds, well this was probably my favourite movie he has been in so far and a welcome break after the disappointing Green Lantern. Other performances from Brendan Gleeson and Vera Farmiga as the CIA insiders matched with Terminator 2's Robert Patrick as the CIA extraction Team Leader are played down in comparison to our main leads but all important. To round it all off of course there's a twist - nothing says great thriller than a CIA mole and the culprit this time out should be relatively simple to work out but for those interested, no spoilers here!
So, once again Denzel has impressed but more than that, he's made Ryan Reynolds watchable again which cant be a bad thing.
