Safe House: Critic Reviews

The movie, as if on an action time clock, punches in the standard set pieces: bloody fights, clattering shoot-outs, an escape through a packed soccer stadium. Some of this stuff is well-done, and some of it has been done a lot better.

"Safe House" is essentially and very effectively a rollicking smash-and-crash chase movie that happens to be surprisingly well acted.

There are so many muscly, gun-toting guys having bloody brawls, it looks like some online research has been carried out to see what niche audience might appreciate this film most.

Safe House is a bracing action thriller made all the more watchable because of its two lead performances.

As fun as the movie occasionally is, it can't make its own drama convincing, much less give Reynolds the nudge he needs toward Matt Damon-ville.

The ethical breaches and double-agent stuff have no sting. So many people are risking and giving their lives, and we barely care.

[A] scattered but not totally disagreeable CIA conspiracy thriller...

"Safe House" devolves into unexciting action scenes that feel left over from the "Bourne" flicks and are peopled with cloak-and-dagger stereotypes.

"Safe House" is a sturdy enough thriller, but one that consistently defaults to the less interesting of its two lead characters.

It's pretty good.

[Reynolds] still doesn't quite match up with Washington. And while that doesn't sink Safe House, it certainly makes it a little less of a ride than it might have been.

The film's super-saturated look and quick cutting are mere substitutes for any real sense of intrigue.

Even at its most frantic and mechanical, the movie relies on Washington to provide a visual anchor, some sociopathic calm amid the storm.

If Denzel Washington isn't the coolest dude out there, I don't know who is.

I won't deny that the movie hooked me with sheer brute energy and dragged me along with it most of the way.

"Safe House" is a safe bet if you're in the market for a conspiracy-driven action drama. There are times you wish it wasn't quite so safe, but it does deliver the bang for your bucks.

Too often Washington is made to simply sit and observe -- which is not a fatal mistake because he is such a good actor that even then he's worth watching.

This is a naive director with so little insight you wonder what comic books he's been reading.

A viciously energetic South Africa-set actioner that makes up in sweaty atmosphere and brute force what it lacks in surprise.

"Safe House" may strike you as a brilliant movie, provided you've seen fewer than, say, 10 spy thrillers. I've seen more than 10 spy thrillers.

Washington's Tobin is a pedantic cipher and Reynolds' Weston a dull Dudley Do-Right, and the resulting mix, apart from a few good chases, is bland enough to bottle for Gerber's.

A movie with a double-crossing intelligence plot that's so generic it's an irritating intrusion in a lively chase through the streets and shantytowns of Cape Town, South Africa.

It's plain most of the well-known players are on hand for purposes of refreshing their bank accounts.

Dramatically, the film hangs together well enough but the repetitive nature of the action and lack of stylistic shadings and nuance ultimately prove rather grinding.