Denzel Washington's Safe House Has Been Topping Netflix Charts, But Is It Worth A Watch?

Denzel Washington is an A-list Hollywood actor who has an extravagant amount of B-list thrillers on his resume. While you might argue that movies like "The Equalizer" and "2 Guns" aren't the best use of his formidable talents, he still brings plenty of quality to even the most generic potboiler. He never phones it in, even though his energy levels sometimes fluctuate. One of my favorite Washington performances is in "Out of Time," where he's sweaty and wired as a Florida cop who keeps tripping over his bad decisions. At the other end of the scale, he is positively sedentary in "Unstoppable," spending most of the movie sitting down.

Somewhere in the middle, you have the cunning and watchful Tobin Frost in "Safe House," a routine "The Bourne Identity" knock-off from 2012 about a rogue spy who teams up with a greenhorn CIA agent (Ryan Reynolds) when his cover is blown. With the long shadow of the "Bourne" movies and a hefty pinch of Tony Scott thrown in for good measure, you know exactly what to expect.

Hyperactive camerawork that won't sit still, even during a dialogue scene? Check. Good actors without much to do apart from folding their arms and receiving faxes in CIA headquarters? Check. Brutal hand-to-hand combat with an assortment of specially-trained goons and a few decent car chases? Yes, that too. And of course, there's the obligatory scene where our protagonist logs on to a computer and the bad guys almost track his location... but he logs off just in time.

That old concept for a movie still floats a lot of boats and the familiarity of "Safe House" is certainly part of the appeal, reflected earlier in June 2023 when it hit some international Netflix Top 10s. But is it any good, and is it worth your time?

"Safe House" opens in Cape Town, South Africa, where rookie CIA agent Matt Weston (Ryan Reynolds) is twiddling his thumbs while house-sitting a rarely-visited covert location. He's itching to prove himself out in the field and move somewhere more picturesque, like Paris with his girlfriend Ana (Nora Amazeder). His boss David Barlow (Brendan Gleason) tells him to sit tight and wait for his chance.

That opportunity comes along in the form of Denzel Washington. Dapper rogue asset Tobin Frost (Washington) is in town, about to cut a deal for some top-secret and very damaging files with a former member of MI6, Alec Wade (Liam Cunningham). Someone doesn't want the deal to go ahead, and Frost only just has time to inject the data package into his butt before a gang of mercenaries burst in to kill him.

Frost evades his pursuers and makes it to the safety of the U.S. Consulate, where he hands himself in. This is big news for the folks back at the CIA Headquarters in Langley — Frost went renegade 11 years earlier and they had been trying to trace him ever since. The next stop for him is Weston's safe house, held in the custody of some shadowy agents led by a grizzled Robert Patrick. We know they're shadowy straight away because they skip regular interrogation methods and go straight for waterboarding.

The mercs besiege the safe house and Weston manages to escape with his high-value "guest" after everyone else is wiped out. Weston is determined to bring his prized asset in to show his worth, while Frost tries to manipulate the young agent, saying it is only a matter of time before he is betrayed by the agency. But who wants Frost dead so badly and can they stay alive long enough to find out?

"Safe House" is one of those by-the-numbers action thrillers that do exactly what you expect, although you've probably seen this stuff done far better before and since. It was still a hit in 2012, pulling in $208 million worldwide from an $85 million budget. That was a decent return, but it languished well behind the big franchise money-makers, like "The Avengers," "The Dark Knight Rises," and "The Hunger Games." It felt a bit old-fashioned at the time, released in the same year as the fourth entry of the "Bourne" franchise.

Director Daniel Espinosa deserves some kudos for committing to the resolutely old-school nature of the film, especially with some crunchy car chases that recall John Frankenheimer's no-nonsense "Ronin." The hand-to-hand combat doesn't fare so well, clearly aspiring to "Bourne" levels of intensity but lacking the same precision and rhythm in the fight scenes.

The main weakness is the thinly-plotted screenplay which gives an impressive cast very little to do for two hours. The promise of the central duo is squandered by barely giving Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds any memorable dialogue scenes together, and they generate zero chemistry. Washington makes the most of a stock character while Reynolds, playing a straight thriller role without a flicker of his quippy persona we know well today, looks ill-at-ease next to an actor of Washington's caliber.

Familiarity leads to coziness and "Safe House" has all the hallmarks of a comfort film, which is why it feels very at home on Netflix. On paper at least, it's one of those movies you need after a hard day when all you want is to kick back in front of the TV with beer and pizza and not think too much. Unfortunately, Espinosa forgets to make it any fun.