Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The acting in this movie is really good.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Would some one please tell DOP Mr.Oliver Wood his camera work spoils the entire movies (Bourne series )? Though Safe House reminds Bourne sometimes, it is Denzel Washington who steals the show with good supporting by Ryan Reynolds. Kudos to the entire team ( except Director of Photography ) giving an outstanding action movie. Ravi charles.

This movie is very much predictable from the title to the poster, but the mix it had of emotions,crime,thriller and action was quite unique and entertaining. Ryan Played the role to perfection. Washington just played that same quite guy who can do some crazy action in every movie.

You'd have to be that new to think there's any originality in Daniel Espinosa's Safe House, a movie that is so painted-by-the-numbers they even got Sam Shepard to play the CIA deputy-director.You'd think he would have had enough of playing a dirty-cop/executive crap-weasel in 1992's Thunderheart.Anyway, Safe House is the sort of spy movie where, if you actually have seen a spy movie, you can peg the bad guys before they're done speaking their first lines. Also, if you've ever heard of Wikileaks or Anonymous, or Watergate or the Pentagon Papers (should I continue?), you know the movie before it starts. Well, almost.I was impressed by Ryan Reynolds' physicality. He actually did seem to be in pain after being punched, gouged, slapped, tickled, and stabbed by a shard of glass. Since I am straight, I don't think of him as dreamy, just possibly something more than another vacant Hollywood prettyboy. But, I digress. I taped Safe House a year ago off of one of the Fox movie channels. I got around to seeing it today. If I pretend not to have seen another spy movie in my almost 60 years, I guess the flick is okay. But, I digress.I have chores to do, ones that I put off for a couple hours. I could use some of Reynolds' physicality helping me rake up the pine needles around the house.Now that would be dreamy.

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.