Film Review: Safe House

Certificate: 15 (strong violence throughout and some language)
Directed By: Daniel Espinosa
Cast: Denzel Washington, Ryan Reynolds, Vera Farmiga, Brendan Gleeson, Sam Shepard, Robert Patrick, Liam Cunningham, Joel Kinnaman, Nora Arnezeder
Budget: $85 million
Runtime: 115 minutes
Trailer: Watch

When rogue CIA agent Tobin Frost (Washington) turns himself into the US consulate in Cape Town, South Africa to escape some clandestine assassins, he is taken to a safe house manned by rookie agent Matt Weston (Reynolds) for interrogation. When the safe house is hit by the hoodlums, Weston escapes with Frost and vows to bring him in. However, things become complicated when Weston finds out the reason for Frost's double-dealing, forcing him to question where his own loyalties lie.

This is a 'safe' movie, not too daring yet not too brilliant either. Safe House benefits from its simplistic structure where it saves on the talking in order to maximise the action. This serves to mask many of the film's weaknesses, namely its predictability. The film's major twist for example can be spotted about half way in when it becomes apparent that some sort of CIA malfeasance is at work. As it always is in films of this type. It is fair to say that Bourne really did do a number on how modern day spy flicks are supposed to be. Almost every spy effort of note since, even Bond's reboot, has been influenced and reengineered for the post-Bourne era. Rogue agents on the run from unknown elements, car chases through built up areas, shady government organisations all seem to be prerequisite for the modern spy thriller these days. Even Safe House's cinematographer, Oliver Wood, is the same man who shot the last two Bourne films, and it shows.

Safe House does admittedly try to touch upon some intriguing notions of its own. The ideological battle between Weston's idealism and Tobin's cynicism does have potential. Likewise, Tobin is supposedly a master manipulator but while he's certainly coolheaded and switched on, he never really displays these acclaimed talents. He's a slippery man well versed in the ways of spydom no doubt, but other than his experience his 'preternatural' abilities extend about as far as getting Weston to question whether the CIA is up to no good, as if that's some Earth-shattering revelation. Well no shit Sherlock. As such, Safe House unfortunately never follows through with its promises to work your grey matter.

Indeed, Washington glides through Safe House effortlessly. In fact, maybe too effortlessly as he almost seems to wing the role on charm alone. This is in contrast to hardworking Reynolds, who's evidently acting his little guts out. One might think that this would make for a great buddy up but there's something a bit odd with their interactions. One's clearly into it, the other you can't tell if he gives two shits. If we are to take the premise that Tobin's character is a master of head-fucks, this is certainly one which he succeeds in pulling. Gleeson is adequate, but perhaps most disappointing is how Farmiga has again been shunted to a minor role like in Source Code. The woman is clearly a talented actress and it just seems a waste of her abilities. Although it is nice to see Joel Kinnaman pop in, a man who seems to be getting his face into a lot these days.

In a sense this is slightly disappointing in that the best spy films are invariably quite cerebral. This is not. As Bourne clones go though, Safe House is pretty average; better than Salt, worse than Hanna. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it can be a boring one. Decent watch albeit predictable action fest.

Film Review: Green Lantern

A dying purple alien crash lands on Earth, his powerful ring recruiting test pilot Hal Jordan (Reynolds) to become a member of the Green Lantern Corps - a group of green intergalactic space cops. When the planet faces imminent destruction at the hands of a cosmic cloud named Parallax fuelled by the power of fear, Hal must first learn some harsh life lessons before he can save the universe.

Green Lantern is a boringly familiar origins tale of a callow, cocky young delinquent with daddy issues who is bestowed an inordinate amount of power but must first learn that with great power comes great responsibility before he can defeat the baddy at the end. Bla bla bla, nothing new here then. Hector Hammond (Sarsgaard) provides our obligatory mirror nemesis, infused with the power of fear which morphs him into Parallax's minion on Earth. However, Hector seems more of a sparing partner than a genuine threat, scarcely eliciting inspiration like a good antagonist should. This is instead left to Parallax himself, a giant amorphous CGI cloud resembling a squid which is bent on eating the universe. And yet for such a planet ending menace, which also eliminates scores of more experienced Green Lantern Corps members with ease, rookie Hal's prompt dispatch of it within five-minutes right at the end just shows how much of an afterthought the bad guys were. This is perhaps what's most disappointing, that the parts which should be exciting in a super hero movie feel rushed.

Instead we're invited to watch Hal schlepping around with super powers, the action expendable so we can witness his jejune antics in the name of character development. However, even this doesn't translate very well. Rather than showing progression from a man child suffering hypengyophobia to upstanding cosmic saviour via rooted character exploration we merely experience a sudden personality shift. And yet this whole film is so self-indulgent in Reynold's 'character' that the supporting cast don't even register, dipping in and out at will. Hal's love interest, Carol (Lively), for example is there to alternate between castigating and fawning over Hal when the mood suits. Mark Strong's Sinestro, honcho of the Corps, is perhaps the most interesting character but is likewise reasonably inconsequential. It's not so much that the actors are necessarily bad, but rather their roles suffer at the hands of a tepid script.

Like Marvel's renovation of its second-tier stars (Iron Man, Thor), Green Lantern follows in similar vain as the first of DC's reboots. But let's be honest for a second here, DC characters have never been as awesome as their Marvel counterparts. Christopher Nolan's Batman re-imagining however changed all that by giving the Dark Knight a gritty realism with a super cool sheen. If DC are feeling left out by the barrage of Marvel facelifts then perhaps they would have been better off using the same tone precedented by Nolan's Batman which might have achieved a similar 'eureka' here. Unfortunately though Green Lantern abjectly displays a comparable aesthetic and comportment to Iron Man and Spiderman, sacrificing ponderable philosophies present in the Dark Knight for a glitzier, altogether cartoonier affair. It remains interesting to see whether the Superman reboot will be more Batman or more Lantern, but with Nolan rumoured to be producing on the Man of Steel it looks like DC might get back on track. Certainly then it doesn't seem DC are gearing up to a Justice League movie in the same way Marvel have created a uniform universe in preparation for The Avengers. For now at least Green Lantern looks set to be starting its own franchise, with allusions at the end of the film for a return of a more sinister Sinestro.

All said and done however, I actually enjoyed Green Lantern more than the majority of critics would have you believe. While the above sounds like a complete chastisement of the film, it does have its perks. The CGI effects are lovely and the ring's power to bring forth "anything you can imagine" is used to good effect with some pretty originative creations. The main problem is that the origins story is usually so difficult to nail, but this is not half as terrible as some far worse efforts in recent years (step up, Ghost Rider, Elektra and Daredevil, your time has come). Yes, it's deeply flawed, more often boring than not, but there are definite flashes of brilliance in places. However, Marvel have it pegged, setting the bar with much more satisfying origins stories in the form of Iron Man, Thor and Captain America. I look to Green Lantern's sequel with curiosity.