Safe House (Blu-ray Review)

2 Jun, 2012 By: John Latchem

---

Street 6/5/12
Universal
Action
Box Office $126.18 million
$29.98 DVD, $34.98 Blu-ray
Rated ‘R’ for strong violence throughout and some language.
Stars Denzel Washington, Ryan Reynolds, Vera Farmiga, Brendan Gleeson, Sam Shepard, Ruben Blades, Nora Arnezeder, Robert Patrick.

Here’s an interesting story about breaking into Hollywood. David Guggenheim’s spec script had been rejected by the studios. It ended up on a website for unproduced scripts, where it ranked among the top unmade screenplays posted there before finally being optioned and attached to director Daniel Espinosa.

The result is an effective action-thriller that keeps the audience guessing.

Deception and misdirection are key to the story. It opens with Matt (Ryan Reynolds) discussing future plans with his girlfriend, who is unaware that he works for the CIA manning a safe house in Cape Town, South Africa, which can get really boring when no one needs to use it for months at a time.

Then, some excitement. The CIA has captured a rogue agent named Tobin Frost (Denzel Washington), the kind of cool cat whose name inspires anxiety in those who hear it. Frost is brought to the safe house for interrogation, but his handlers are killed when the compound is attacked by mercenaries who want a data file that Frost has. But what’s on the file, and what does Frost want to do with it?

So Matt grabs Frost and high-tails it out of town, forced to deal not only with Frost and potential enemies within the CIA, but also with his own inexperience.

The Blu-ray includes a full range of behind-the-scenes materials that cover the screenwriting process, set design and fight choreography.

Bookmark it: