Admirable film.

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Is a Good Film of action, but is generic and don't have original thing.

Denzel Washington plays a rogue CIA agent hotly pursued by enemy agents who hands himself into the US. embassy in Cape Town as a way of escape from them. He is then taken to a "safe house" where he is to be interrogated but things go awry when the house is attacked by other agents wanting him. A young inexperienced CIA agent (Ryan Reynolds) must then try to take control and get the rogue agent to another safe house.This is the kind of film in which the audience doesn't know the good guys from the bad, including the CIA agents. There are double crosses and tons of explosive action, with plenty of hand held camera fast edit action scenes from director Daniel Espinosa (there's a certain edgy power here, though too much of it can get on my nerves after a while). There is also a harrowing waterboarding scene.Washington's character, while considered a traitor to the U.S., is also regarded as a legend within intel circles, having been successfully on the run and eluding all attempts to capture him for a decade as he spills out secrets on various intelligence agencies for the money. Washington plays him as a cool professional, virtually unruffled by all around him, even during an interrogation in which illegal methods are employed against him.In a film in which so many characters are scummy or potentially scummy, I found myself rooting for Washington. Rogue agent or not, he is one cool customer, and I had to admire his style. Of course, Washington is a powerful screen presence. Any time he's on screen it's all but impossible to take your eyes off him.Ryan Reynolds, as the somewhat naive CIA agent dealing with him, is adequate, no more. The rest of the cast, including Sam Shepherd as the head of the CIA, is quite good.

Safe House is cut from the same cloth as many a spy movie, but this horse doesn't have quite as much pisss and vinegar as other ones in the stable, notably the Bourne trilogy. It's more of a slow burn, peppered with a few purposeful action sequences and quite a lot of time spent with Denzel Washington's world weary spook Tobin Frost, a veteran operative who has gone severely rogue after escaping the grasp of a nasty CIA interrogator (Robert Patrick). He's soon in the hands of rookie agent Matt Weston (Ryan Reynolds) who has been left to guard an agency safe house in Europe, now overrun with shadowy special ops dudes out to snuff Frost. The two of them are forced on the run together, and attempt to smoke out those behind the chaos, who turn out to be a little closer to home than they thought (don't they always, in these types of movies?). Weston is young, naive and idealistic, Frost is bitter, jaded and ready to burn the agency down around him for what his career has made him do. They're a formulaic pair made believable by the two actors, both putting in admirable work. Brendan Gleeson is great as Westons's dodgy handler, Vera Farmiga shows moral conflict in those perfect blue eyes as another paper pusher in Langley, and Sam Shepherd smarms it up as the CIA top dog. It was nice to see Ruben Blades as well, who doesn't work nearly enough, and watch for a sly cameo from Liam Cunningham as an ex MI6 agent. It's not the greatest or the most memorable film, but it does the trick well enough, has a satisfying R rated edge to its violence and benefits from Washington being nice and rough around the edges. There's a downbeat quality to it to, as Weston watches the futility inherent in the life of a spy unfold in Frost's actions, which are leading nowhere but a self inflicted dead for a cause that's bigger than both of them, but ultimately leaves them in the dust. Solid, if just above average stuff.

Tobin Frost (Washington) has been transferred to a safe house after turning himself in to the American Embassy in South Africa. The CIA agent in charge of the safe house is rookie Matt Weston (Reynolds). However, not long after Frost is brought to the safe house, it is compromised by a gang of mercenaries who are trying to kill Frost. Weston manages to escape with his prisoner, however not only does this rookie have the responsibility of dealing with one of the CIA's most wanted rogue agents, he has the added task of trying to evade the mercenaries who want Frost dead. What was supposed to be a routine "interrogation" at the safe house has now turned into a deadly game of cat-and-mouse.While not the best movie of this type, Safe House is still a pretty decent, fast paced action thriller that is well played out with both Reynolds and Washington delivering good performances. Washington brings a nice sort of menace - but nothing evil - to the character of Frost and we know how well he plays those parts because he's done it before in Training Day.The story is well written that keeps you watching, even if it does tend to get a wee bit slow in places. I know that films can't have a good story AND be non-stop action at the same time, but there's just something that it lacks to make it that much better.There are a few wee twists and turns, and I guess the main one is pretty predictable, but even with this it's still a well-structured plot and as the movie goes on, you actually start to wonder who the "bad guys" of the film really are as well.All in all, Safe House is a good movie to watch, like I say, and if you enjoy good action thrillers then you won't go far wrong with this one.