The needle of the déj vu meter is pegged deep into the red zone in “Safe House.” Just think of it as “Bourne To Run.”
See if any of this sounds familiar: In a high-tech, video screen-clogged control room deep in the bowels of Langley, Va., the CIA is tracking a runaway rogue super agent whose spy skills are off the charts. Orchestrating the hunt is a tough-as-nails female espionage exec played by – wait a minute, that’s not Joan Allen. That’s Vera Farmiga. Her boss is a rangy agency higher-up. Scott Glenn? Nope, Sam Shepard. (Brothers in leathery looks, those two.)
Remember Matt Damon’s incredible unarmed combat scenes in the “Bourne” movies, where he flattens adversaries right and left? Ryan Reynolds’ character, Matt Weston, serves up a knockout variation on that theme, with hands cuffed behind his back no less.
Armies of heavily armed killers are tracking the quarry, shooting up the landscape with wild abandon. There is, naturally, a terrific car chase, full of flying bullets, screeching tires and crumpling fenders.
Familiar, all of it. Overly so. And what’s weird about all this is that Universal, the studio distributing “Safe House,” has an official “Bourne” sequel, “The Bourne Legacy,” starring Jeremy Renner, coming out later this year. Seems like they’re stepping all over their prized franchise with the so-similar “Safe House.”
What “Safe House” has and the “Bournes” don’t is Denzel Washington, and that’s a significant difference indeed. He’s silky smooth as superspy Tobin Frost (whose name, one can’t help but notice, has the same syllabic structure as Jason Bourne).
With those armies of killers hot on his heels, Frost coolly tries to come in out of the cold in Cape Town, turning himself in to the CIA there, which squirrels him away in a safe house run by Weston, an untested operative. Quicker than you can say “unsafe house!” the bad guys bust in and send the pair fleeing for their lives.
On the run together, Washington’s Frost deftly plants doubts in greenhorn Weston’s mind about whether the CIA is worthy of the younger man’s loyalty. With a calm demeanor and an enigmatic Mona Lisa smile, he undermines his minder. He’s always thinking three steps ahead of the kid.
In the midst of the predictable mayhem and unoriginal plotting of “Safe House,” Washington is fun to watch as he outsmarts everyone again and again. ‘Safe House’
H H 1/2 I I
Cast: Denzel Washington, Ryan Reynolds, Vera Farmiga, Brendan Gleeson, Sam Shepard
Director: Daniel Espinosa
Running time: 1:55
Rating: R; strong violence, language
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