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Here we go again with Denzel mentoring a rookie by sharing some of his ground rules. SAFE HOUSE is very formulaic, it only makes you think like it's smart and if it weren't for the intense, unforgiving gunfights, one of the most exciting I've seen in cinema (Tombstone's gunfight still takes top honor) SAFE HOUSE probably wouldn't have much going to help me recommend it to you
Training Day, Unstoppable, and now SAFE HOUSE, you'd pair up Denzel as a seasoned, experienced character with a rookie or a newbie who eventually steps up to the plate. Denzel is back as Mr. know it all, Mr. one step ahead of you, and he'd proudly preach it too whether or not you'd want to hear it. Ryan Reynolds plays the next Pine or the next Hawke, and just like those other guys, Reynolds' character is fully equipped with the knowledge and is highly skilled but now, situation has shifted to where it forces him to put his own skills to the test. The rookie is always motivated to prove himself worthy and the unlikely mentor, who's used to working alone and has all kinds of ethos, is always entertained by the idea of having a protégé. By the way, why can't Swedish director Daniel Espinosa find his own tone, his own style? Why does he have to make the film look as if it was helmed by Denzel's go-to director, Tony Scott?! It even has that A-D-D feel to it.
I don't necessarily think David Guggenheim's script is all that clever, it's not terrible, but it's nowhere near impressive. Don't get me wrong, the concept is fantastic, a CIA house being breached and you don't know who's responsible and who else may be on it, the line between bad guys and good guys get blurred, those are necessary elements for a pulse pounding thriller. But those of us hardcore fans of thrillers, may it be political or whodunit crime, would easily notice that all that Guggenheim did was put all the CIA smart vocabularies and slang into Tobin Frost's lips (Denzel) and then have the CIA repeats the same thing in their own little playroom and then Guggenheim would throw a series of massive chaos in between. It doesn't take a genius to figure out the bad guy either because you'd always go with the one who seems to be the most supportive, the one who wants to see the protagonists find safety, just so that they may get to them in time and retrieve whatever it is that they withhold, so SAFE HOUSE is exciting but it's hardly smart and it's certainly nothing new.
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