by Rob Morris
Feb 10, 2012

This is one story, out of many, that I absolutely cannot associate anything in my life with.  So I have nothing for my intro.

 

Let’s dive right in, shall we?

 

Matt Weston (Ryan Reynolds) is a young C.I.A. agent stationed in Cape Town, South Africa.  His one job there is being a safe house “housekeeper.” Call it “housesitting on steroids” to take care of the CIA’s need to stash criminals in hidden spots from time to time.

 

Sounds exciting, right?  Not even.  Day in and day out, Matt sits and sits and sits and... waits.

 

Then one day, a last minute “check-in” arrives.

 

Tobin Frost (Denzel Washington) was one of, if not THE, best intelligence officers working for the C.I.A.  Nearly a decade earlier he jumped off the C.I.A. wagon and decided to make his own money by selling classified materials to the highest bidders.  Since then, he’s been under surveillance, shot at, chased, photographed, set up, etc.  Needless to say, he’s a very wanted man.

 

In the middle of a $50,000,000 (yes, fifty million dollar) trade,  he starts to get cornered by some bad people that want what he’s selling to cover their own fannies, so he decides to walk right into the American Consulate and turn himself in.  They can’t keep Tobin there, so they take him to the safe house.

 

Matt’s job just got a little bit more interesting.  In the middle of Tobin’s interrogation, the safe house is breached, all the “special” agents are killed, and the survivors are Matt and Tobin.

 

Rule Number 1 about being a safe house housekeeper: always, ALWAYS, keep your eyes on your guest.  Oh great.  Tobin is constantly running and Matt is chasing.  It’s a classic Tom & Jerry episode.

 

Will Tobin finally get away from Matt?  Will the $50,000,000 be traded?

 

There is no such thing as a bad movie starring Denzel Washington.  Even in Much Ado About Nothing, he was still the best actor in it (Sorry Keanu).  Denzel makes movies golden.

 

If he wasn’t in Safe House, the movie wouldn’t be the same.  The way he shoots mischievous glances and how even being bad, he can still teach someone life lessons is just incredible.  If I was a dude trying to become an actor, I would take notes from him.