Safe House

Ryan Reynolds plays Matt Weston a young CIA agent who is in charge of a “Safe House” in Cape Town, South Africa. This is a secret facility where guests are held for various reasons. His beautiful girlfriend is clueless and thinks he's just a regular working stiff from the stories he relays of his time at his job. Weston is ready to move on from his static position to become a field agent. His boss tells him his time will come. Which may be sooner than he thinks when his house gets a guest.

Director Daniel Espinosa and writer David Guggenheim have presented a tight non stop action yarn about rogue CIA agent Tobin Frost (Denzel Washington) who puts the agency on high alert when he walks into a consulate in Cape Town. The analysts at Langley are at a loss as to why since Frost has been selling agency secrets to the highest bidder and so why would he suddenly turn himself in. The safe house is activated as Weston gets ready for the “guest”. Daniel Kiefer (Robert Patrick) is sent in with his team to interrogate him. The water boarding is interrupted when a gang of mercenaries suddenly attack the safe house. Weston is left alone with Frost whose calm demeanor reminds him that he is responsible for the safety of his guest. From then on, the two men are on the run. Weston to hopefully finding another safe house to bring in Frost, and Frost to find a way to escape. Frost tells Weston that he shouldn't trust his handlers. There are several scenarios that will go down, first they will thank him for his good job and take control themselves or if things go south, they will disavow him and let him take the fall. He also advises that his line of work having a girlfriend is not possible and puts their lives in danger. Weston who graduated from the top of his class in trade craft knows these fact instinctively, but doesn't want to admit it. When Frost escapes, those scenarios are looking more likely so Weston decides instead of coming in from the cold he will bring in Frost on his own.

CIA analyst Catherine Linklater (Vera Farmiga) and Weston's boss David Barlow (Brendan Gleeson) are sent by Director Harlan Whitford (Sam Shepard) to go to Cape Town to get on site intel and to run damage control. They find out that Frost has some information that he was going to sell that could damage all the intelligence agencies around the world. From the opening sequence of the movie to the very end it's non stop heart pounding action. The story in itself is serviceable and somewhat predictable and unbelievable, but the choreography keeps it moving so you don't think about the plot holes. Denzel has gotten that stoic alpha male role down to a science. Reynold is just as efficient as Frost's possible replacement. The action sequences are well shot without retching your stomach reflexes with the multiple quick cutting as per norm. This is a fun mindless thriller to work out the winter doldrums.
(Review by reesa)