Trailer Hitch: Denzel Washington Does His Usual Tony Scott Thing in ‘Safe House’

Tim Grierson
·Editor

We really like Denzel Washington, but of late his film choices have seemed pretty safe: mid-level action-thrillers that are, more often than not, directed by Tony Scott. (They've done five movies together, with the most recent being "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3" and "Unstoppable.") His new movie isn't directed by Tony Scott, but when you look at the trailer for "Safe House," it sorta seems like it ought to be. We're sure "Safe House" will be a perfectly fine movie, but it just seems like the same old same old -- just with more Ryan Reynolds.

Trailer category: Action movie, "Who's trying to kill us?" specialty subdivision.
Major selling points: Denzel Washington looking tough and acting cool. Ryan Reynolds being all handsome and charismatic. Great use of "No Church in the Wild" off the "Watch the Throne" album. (Will they play that throughout the actual movie? We're down with that.)
What successful movies are they trying to remind us of? "Enemy of the State." The Bourne movies. "Salt." "3:10 to Yuma."
"Hey, (s)he's in this?" Vera Farmiga, who apparently didn't get enough of playing generic government officials after "Source Code." Brendan Gleeson. Robert Patrick.
Line of dialogue that's really what the whole movie is about: Washington says to Reynolds, "Remember Rule No. 1: You are responsible for your house guest. I'm your house guest. They're here for me, but they want me alive. You, they'll kill. Time's a-wastin'." (By the way, nobody delivers lines like that as well as Denzel Washington.)
Spoilage? Mild-to-Medium. Washington is a brilliant, lethal CIA operative who went rogue years ago. Now he's back and Reynolds' rookie CIA operative has to protect him so he can be brought to justice. But when their South African safe house gets attacked, they have to go on the run while Reynolds tries to figure out who's behind the assault. So we should expect a lot of cat-and-mouse power shifts between the two guys.
Enticement Percentage Increase: 29 percent. "Safe House" is the Hollywood debut of Swedish filmmaker Daniel Espinosa, and this looks like a solid February release. (It opens the same weekend as the 3D "Phantom Menace.") But the trailer doesn't do anything that surprises or thrills us. Mostly, it says, "Do you like Denzel Washington? This movie has Denzel Washington in it." And despite his tough year commercially, Ryan Reynolds is a guy we're still rooting for. But even on that front "Safe House" doesn't look all that special -- he's playing the predictably wet-behind-the-ears rookie who has to grow up. Kinda like Chris Pine in "Unstoppable," right? We know we'll see this movie, but, really, we feel like we already have, several times over.

'Safe House' Trailer; Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds Star In CIA Thriller [/film]