LoveFilm? Three new DVDs arrived today. Disc 5 of 24 Season 1; some Jet Li movie called Warlords, no idea if it’s good or not; and, umm, uh, The Smurfs. Yeah. The Smurfs. Fuck you.
Amazon? Still reading David Copperfield. About three hundred pages to go.
*****
A lot of movies got released this weekend, but not
really that many interesting ones. Rampart is probably the cream of the crop,
but I’m seeing that on Monday, maybe. So for the sake of going to the cinema
and feeding my habit, I arrived to watch Safe House. It’s the perfect example
of a movie I had absolutely no expectations for, especially with the pretty
ordinary trailer.
Here’s the story: Matt Weston (Ryan Reynolds) is a young CIA agent; his job is to look after a safe house and, right now, his ‘guest’ is notorious fugitive and former CIA agent Tobin Frost (Denzel Washington). But when the safe house is attacked, Weston ends up on the run with Frost. A lot of people want Frost dead, and it’s up to the inexperienced Weston to make sure Frost stays alive.
Okay, so here’s the biggest problem with this
film. It’s bloody predictable. Too, too predictable. In fact, if you pay close
enough attention to the trailer, you’ll know exactly what happens. I mean, it’s
an action thriller, so there are twists along the way, but you could see them
coming from a mile away. It’s very much a textbook action thriller, with
everything moving along the typical way, and what you expect to happen,
happening.
That being said, I actually enjoyed it, and that surprised me. I was looking forward to being very disappointed, and I wasn’t. Yes, I wish it was more unpredictable, but writer David Guggenheim stuck pretty rigidly to a formula that does work very well.
The highlight of the film, as always it seems, was
Denzel Washington. He plays that typical Denzel character, though, which is
starting to get very old. You know the one – he’s a badass, a kickass, he’s
suave and always has a wisecrack to make. He’s so fucking good at it though,
you can’t help liking it. He’s like that here, and we’re always drawn to him.
Ryan Reynolds was quite good too; I’m not really a fan, but he’s good in this. The
chemistry between the two reminds me of Ethan Hawke and Denzel in Training Day;
the films are quite similar, in some ways. There are other, really good actors
in the movie too, who I think aren’t really used well. Brendan Gleeson, Vera
Farmiga, Robert Patrick – none of them are really given a proper time to shine.
Action-wise, the film is good. You get the usual
guns and chases, all fast-paced and directed competently. But what I really
enjoyed about the movie was the fight scenes. There are a couple of pretty
brutal fistfights, all very fun to experience. Reynolds showed he can handle
the tough action, after the debacle that was The Green Lantern.
I think you could do a lot worse than seeing Safe House. Take away the predictability, and the fact that we’ve seen the Denzel Washington character so many times before, and you’re left with a good old-fashioned action thriller. This won’t win any Oscars, but it’s great if you fancy some popcorn and don’t wanna think too much.
*****
I wrote this with a hangover, so it took ages! But I got there in the end, and I think it wasn’t too bad. Playing right now is the Mark Ronson version of ‘Oh My God’, the one with Lily Allen. Underrated cover, in my humble opinion. I have a Twitter!!! Follow me on it - @writeofcentre – and I’ll get you sweeties.
I’m gonna go back to complaining about my headache
and vowing never to drink again in my life. You behave now.
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