Now Playing: Safe House

Who can resist these guys??

Playing at: Sunridge Spectrum Cineplex
2555-32nd Street NE
Calgary
AB, T1Y 7J6

Driving Time: 25 - 30 minutes from the Strathmore border

Costs:

General (14-64) $12.99

Child (3-13) $8.99

Senior (65+) $8.99

I've been waiting to see Safe House since the first trailers started to appear.  I'm a huge Denzel fan, and pretty fond of Ryan Reynolds as well.  My husband was happy that the must-see movie on my radar was something it looked like he'd enjoy as well, and when I had a rotten Monday, it seemed like the right cure for my mood, prompting us to head into the city for a bit of distraction and action-movie mayhem.  There's very little better for crankiness, in my opinion, than some mindless entertainment that doesn't make you think too much.  Explosions, car chases, adrenaline-pumping, and cute guys.  Sounds perfect, right?

The movie starts with a nice build-up and a bit of character development before jumping right into the action.  I like that in a movie.  While I think some people (read: some guys!) like the shooting and fighting from the get-go, I need to get emotionally invested in a character to care who wins in the end.  It's easy to get behind Ryan Reynolds' character.  He has the typical nice-guy face, and it suits him well in this role of a lower-rung CIA operative, charged with maintaining a safe house; an apartment, in this case, in South Africa, where detainees can be brought for interrogation and/or torture.

Denzel, on the other hand, is a likeable bad guy; a rogue former agent who now sells secrets to foreign powers, but who seems to have a great inner compass for right and wrong and a strong sense of who to trust.  He was in a bad spot; forced into an embassy by a series of heart-pounding events, and subsequently escorted to the safe house where the team of CIA agents hoped to peel his secrets out of him via a bit of waterboarding and intimidation.  When the safe house is breached, and a narrow escape is made, the real ride begins.

There's plenty of excitement in this film, with car chases and shootouts and chases along rooftops and some seriously anxiety-producing fight scenes.  Just when you think you're going to get a moment of calm, something else utterly shocking and terrifying seems to pop up.  The plot line is a little thin, but only because they had to make room for all of those action scenes.  You can't expect Shakespeare in this kind of a movie.  However, the depth of the character development is really nice, including the way the relationships between characters is developed, exploited, and showcased through to the very end.  You won't go away feeling like you just saw a lot of crash-bang and nothing of substance with this one.  It has enough to it that it will satisfy those action-seeking guys as well as the plot-loving women out there.

I'm rating this with a strong four stars, because the effects and acting are both very very good, but there could have been a bit more done in terms of developing some of the subplots that were interesting, but not fully explored.  Definitely a good night out!