“Personal observation from the past week or so: Ryan Reynolds is a big favorite of mine. No secret, evidenced by the multiple pictures on my wall. Yet whenever I was thinking of Safe House, I was referring to it in my head as “”the new Denzel movie”” not the new “”Ryan Reynolds”” movie. I guess ultimately it’s just a testament to Mr Washington’s star power over Mr Reynolds. I just found it kinda odd.
I also find it interesting how the weekend before Singles Awareness day there’s two major new releases: the sappy tear jerker romantic movie and the gritty action movie with a total of 2 women in the cast. Should not surprise any of you which my choice was (sorry, Channing Tatum). Stranger still was that it was the only new movie this week I was interested in (sorry, Josh Hutchinson). Anyways…
The film was kind of a disappointment. While the one sentance pitch for the movie wasn’t too bad, the actual plot details were all either predictable or confusing. No middle ground. There were a lot of moments where I was really losing interest, either because I didnt know that there was anywhere for the story to progress or I knew exactly what that next progression would be. I actually spent a good majority of the movie playing a game of “”Try and spot Ryan Reynolds’ wrist tattoo (a favorite game since spotting it in Buried which was the inspiration for the design of my wrist ink). For the record, kinda lost that game since he was usually in long sleeve shirts and was wearing a giant watch.
The action was kinda disappointing as well. I’ve said this a few times lately, but at this point I’ve seen so many action movies (which I love, dont get me wrong) but in order to really wow me, you hafta do something truly unique. This one didnt. It did have the more real gritty vibe that I much prefer over the fake over the top Blockbuster-y feel, but that really only takes you so far. If the plot’s weak, then you gotta up the ante with your action, and if that’s weak too, well \m/ you’re kinda sunk.
I do love seeing Denzel channeling his bad side, but it’s no longer the stretch for him that it once was. When he did that in Training Day, it blew everyone’s minds. Now its practically expected. And poor Ryan Reynolds, as much as I adore him, just hasn’t had much luck picking his flicks lately. No, this wasn’t the disaster of Green Lantern, but that boy is so much better than this. Le sigh. But hey, it’s an excuse to link to add one morepicture
Safe House – \m/ \m/