“House Keeping”
Swift shot: I N T E N S I T Y – Intensity, Intensity, Intensity!
Ever have one of those “boring” jobs where you wish something would happen . . . anything, just to kill the monotony of your daily existence? Well, Matt Weston, of the Central Intelligence Agency has one of those jobs. He is a safe house keeper, meaning he provides an off the grid location for the Agency to put up friendly, and not so friendly, guests as the situation demands. He has been the sole proprietor at his safe house in Cape Town, South Africa for 12 months. Poor Matt hasn’t even had one guest stop on by. Think your job sucks? Director Daniel Espinoza does an excellent job in the opening sequence of developing the boredom so we can all relate, using a little Steve McQueen nod as well, right out of The Great Escape I should add. And, escape is exactly what Matt Weston is seeking . . . escape from this most uninteresting assignment, ever. Thing is, as the old adage goes, be careful what you wish for, especially when you work for the CIA, because excitement can come in many forms! And in “Safe House” it comes in the form of CIA spook, legend, boogeyman (insert other cliched titles here) Tobin Frost.
I heard NBC’s Matt Lauer said this one is “non-stop action”, and the hell if he wasn’t dead on! Other than the opening sequence where we feel for Matt (Reynolds) to have even one guest, something, anything significant happen, when the shit hits the fan, it really is non-stop, in your face close quarters battles, gunfights on the streets of South Africa, car chases, foot chases, explosions, snipers, knives, broken glass and whatever the hell can deliver violence.
Matt quickly learns he may, or may not, be on the wrong side of the equation when he first gets introduced to his house guest, Frost (Denzel). Frost literally re-wrote the book on psychological manipulation for the Agency (AKA mind-fucking), and now he is a victim of his own design. Frost has been a rogue agent for over nine years and specializes in selling secrets to the highest bidder, at this point he is not interested in being a patriot, he just wants his money and understands that eventually everyone betrays everyone. But Frost has one rule . . . he only kills professionals.
Not since “Training Day” have I been pinned to my seat just waiting for the next sequence to shock me. Some lady sitting next to me must have said “shit!” twenty times as things kept going blam, splat, or boom and caught her unaware each time. Much like real violence, it is brutal and comes seemingly out of nowhere, because that is when it is the most effective. I mean, how many idiots call out, “Hey, you!” before opening fire? The action sequences were incredibly well shot, crashes were believable, characters actually get dirty, beaten and bloody. Continuity in this film was tight! Overall it was a full-throttle spy thriller with plenty of bad guys, bullets and bravado.
So, why not five stars? Well, to reveal that might be to include a spoiler as I didn’t much care for how the whole thing finally played out in the end. Also, there should be a rule for modern cinema, we can tolerate bare-assed Ryan Reynolds if we get a likewise bare-assed beauty in Nora Arnezeder (come on, she is French, so we know she isn’t prudish). A glancing side boob shot is not gonna cut it, what happened to women’s lib? Where is the equality!?! Other than those two things though (pun intended), this movie has no flaws! See it at the theater if you can, and if you have a kick ass system at home, more power to you, because this will be fun wherever you watch it. I wish all “spy” movies were this good!
