Review of Safe House (2012) by Adam S — 02 Jan 2013

"Safe House" is an entertaining and inoffensive thriller that has no real features that make it too notable among the crop.

Obviously, this film benefits from the screen charisma of it's stars, Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds, as well as the added bonus of some stellar supporting actors including Harry Potter's Brendan Gleeson, Terminator's Robert Patrick and Game of Thrones' Liam Cunningham.

But the writing in this film was lazy. I got an incredible sense of deja vu whenever Reynolds' character grappled with an unnamed bad guy, attempting to avoid being stabbed by a knife/shard of glass/other sharp object.

Similarly, the sound editing was horrid, in my opinion. The action scenes were loud, followed by entire conversations that seemed to be conducted via either whispering or muttering, meaning you couldn't easily follow the story without mucking about with the remote control.

On the other hand, some of the chase scenes were well done, and there's nothing wrong with the film. Just nothing exceptional.