SAFE HOUSE

The traditional action movie is a much-maligned category of film. For the last decade filmmakers have been trying to find a way to combine modern, globalized society with the bullets and explosions of a previous era. Gone are John McClane and Indiana Jonese (except in nostalgic sequels); action has been handed off to the superheroes. The lone gunman or rogue CIA agent or heart-of-gold rough cop are forced to  resort to bigger set pieces (such as in the new Mission: Impossible) or louder noises and what we get are Jason Bourne and Daniel Craig’s James Bond. Usually both of those heroes handle the shaky camera and loud noises well, but they are unique. Safe House, the new thriller starring Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds is not unique. It is loud and full of shaking cameras.

Reynolds is Matt Weston, the bored “housekeeper” of a Cape Town CIA safe house. Washington is Tobin Frost, a long-lost rogue agent who escapes assassination by dodging into a US embassy. What follows is a long series of surprise gunshots, surprise car crashes, and surprise betrayals as everyone tries to kill Denzel Washington to get the MacGuffin he carries.

I’ll warn you right now that if you think you know how this movie ends you are probably right. This is director Daniel Espinosa’s first Hollywood feature and it looks like he and writer David Guggenheim watched all the major action films of the last decade as preperation. Some lame films are saved by being worthy of scorn and a riff track, but Safe House isn’t horrible enough for that; in general it is just not engaging.

With the December 31 Oscar deadline the studios release all their best material before the new year. The biggest box office earners are released in the summer blockbuster season, which kicks off at the start of May with a major SFX picture. This pattern has been in place since Star Wars in 1977, and Marvel’s The Avengers is continuing the tradition this year. This release schedule leaves a dead space between January and April that is filled with wide releases of Oscar nominees and the leftover pictures the studios didn’t have confidence in. Although there isn’t an article on the Oscars for me to go into further details, it should be clear which category Safe House is in. Don’t expect to see this at next year’s award ceremony.