Despite another engaging performance by Denzel Washington, ‘Safe House’ cannot be rescued. Washington is easily one of the top actors around, and generally every movie in which he appears is worth seeing. But this one is rough, and it is not his fault. The entire plot of the film is nearly explained in the title. Washington is brought to one safe house, it gets compromised, so he gets moved to another and all hell breaks loose. Basically, it is ’16 Blocks.’
I cannot impart to you how violently loud this movie is. I spent half the movie ducking behind my seat. Earth-shattering gun fights occur about every thirty seconds. Oh, and everyone gets shot. There must have been a dozen scenes where a guy is just sitting around talking and WHAMMY, his head gets blown off. The fight scenes are incomprehensible. They are too fast, and the camera shakes the entire duration. I had no idea who won the fights until the subsequent scenes where I could see who was alive.
Another problem besides the speed of the fight scenes is the frequency. This much action is actually exhausting, and makes the movie drag on endlessly. I wanted to know more about Washington’s character. I wanted to learn more about co-star Ryan Reynolds’ character. Instead, I got two hours of karate chops and bullets ripping apart skulls and cars smashing into each other. By the way, Reynolds is an alright guy I guess but does not belong on the same screen as Washington.
Frankly, I expected a very good movie, and cannot believe the writers did not feature Washington more in this film. He has mastered the ability to convey calm and assurance during intense dialogue scenes, but it just looks silly when he is making faces while people are getting shot in the head. Did I mention how many people get shot in the head in this film?
‘Safe House’ is now playing at Regal Gallery Place in Chinatown. The crowd reaction to this movie might have been the most interesting thing about it. Every time someone got shot at point blank range, the audience erupted in laughter. At first, I had no idea what the hell was going on and figured they were all laughing at me. But no, apparently executions are hilarious. Who knew? Also, there must have been two dozen emergency room doctors sitting in the audience given the number of cell phone conversations taking place during the movie.
I just don’t get this movie and why Denzel Washington would do it. Zero character development, and fight scenes so loud I thought I cracked a heart valve. Simply put, he is better than this. I don’t really have much else to say about this film, except that I think it may have given me post-traumatic stress disorder. If you are a Denzel fan, check out ‘American Gangster’ or ‘Philadelphia’ or ‘Training Day.’ I would avoid ‘Safe House.’
Even the previews sucked. There is some movie coming out called ‘Act of Valor’ which, according to the trailer, features active duty military personnel. Really, no actors? That should be fantastic, and time well spent for active duty personnel. They also showed the trailer for ‘Battleship’, a film that I guess is based on the game. Can’t wait to see the ‘Connect Four’ movie next summer. I’m going to publish some Oscar previews in the coming week, so stay tuned.
