Safe House

2/5

I'm getting a little tired of these "The best CIA agent we had, until he went rogue/until he betrayed us" movies. I mean, come on. We all know what's going to happen. Some young hot shot agent is going to be put into a situation to track them down, the rogue/traitor agent is going to have some big reveal that the CIA/other government agency isn't doing what they thought was being done, or was doing it in a less than credible way, and then the head honcho of said organization goes nuts, kills a bunch of characters and leaves our young hot shot to choose the side we know he's going to choose. That was the biggest problem with this movie. In these over written movies, there's always fun action, some new set piece or explosion that lets you have a little bit of fun. This didn't have anything fun. You see every stunt coming a billion miles away. And moreso, the stunts aren't that great or anything new. Even worse, they have the overly shaky camera in the car chases and shootouts to hide the effects that aren't that good. Ryan Reynolds is as boring and one dimensional as usual, and frankly I can't take him seriously when he has a gun in his hands. Throw in a useless female character there to serve no purpose except to have maybe a smidge of emotional tension, even though we know nothing about her and care for nothing about anyone. Denzel gives all of his lines without any emotion, without any drive to at all show any urgency in what he's doing, and plays a character that is really so forgettable that I feel like I'm obligated to hate him. This movie had a few fun car chases which saves it from being a complete waste of time, but even so it's not enough to save it from a tired story and tired action sequences. I'd suggest seeing Star Wars for the one bad-ass light saber battle at the end instead if you're looking for some campy action. But if you're looking for some great action, I think MI4 is still in theatres?