Safe House
Universal Pictures | Release Date: February 10, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
52
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
11
Mixed:
23
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsFeb 10, 2012
The action is contained within a coherent dramatic structure and the puzzle-box paranoia of spy-agency protocol. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovFeb 9, 2012
Director Espinosa stages the endless action with a tremendous flair that recalls John Woo's grittier moments, and cinematographer Oliver Wood, who shot Woo's finest Hollywood moment, "Face/Off," gives the whole violent show a downright brackish look that borders on the sublime. Read full review
75
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottFeb 10, 2012
A gritty spy thriller directed by relative newcomer Daniel Espinosa, and a film that -- despite the occasional misstep -- ends up being a taut, suspense-filled ride. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaFeb 9, 2012
Safe House rockets along, taking a familiar formula and making it work - hard. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranFeb 9, 2012
Though Safe House may be too violent and nihilistic for everyone's taste, it does have several crackerjack action sequences. Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla DargisFeb 9, 2012
Essentially and very effectively a rollicking smash-and-crash chase movie that happens to be surprisingly well acted. Read full review
67
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallFeb 13, 2012
Movies don't come any brawnier than Safe House, and all that chaotic mayhem eventually beats the plot to a pulp. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanFeb 8, 2012
Compared with a superior potboiler like "Salt," which messed with your brain in entertainingly far-fetched ways, Safe House is action-movie porridge gussied up into a less-clever-than-it-seems mystery. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia PuigFeb 9, 2012
Safe House has two powerful performances at its core, a hectic plot, a huge body count and a mild sense of déjà vu amid the pulse-quickening tension. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineGlenn Heath Jr.Feb 9, 2012
It'd be unwise to dismiss Safe House as merely a clone of Tony Scott's manically inclined vision. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsFeb 9, 2012
Director Espinosa shoots virtually everything in tight but wobbly close-up, and the human and vehicular combat often brakes right at the edge of visual incoherence. Just as often the brakes give out completely. Read full review
60
EmpireKim NewmanFeb 20, 2012
Tolerably exciting spycraft, but stuck with a see-through plot. Washington and Reynolds are watchable, but not exactly stretched by these roles. Read full review
60
Boxoffice MagazineKate ErblandFeb 9, 2012
Safe House isn't the most original of plots - it feels like a loose amalgamation of ten other spy flicks - but director Espinosa infuses his production with some bold choices, both in terms of technics and twists. Read full review
60
TimeRichard CorlissFeb 9, 2012
It's a decent February movie that smartly extends Washington's God-on-the-run character. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzFeb 8, 2012
Too often Washington is made to simply sit and observe -- which is not a fatal mistake because he is such a good actor that even then he's worth watching. Worse, though, at times he's gone altogether. That's not the only flaw in the fairly straightforward thriller, but it's the biggest. Read full review
60
Village VoiceKarina LongworthFeb 8, 2012
[A] scattered but not totally disagreeable CIA conspiracy thriller. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianM. E. RussellFeb 9, 2012
There are several things to enjoy here. The use of motel service-industry code words by the safe-house staff is dryly funny. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubNathan RabinFeb 8, 2012
Safe House does altogether too good a job establishing Washington as a seemingly unbeatable adversary: He brings so much gravity to his role that Reynolds seems hopelessly overmatched. Read full review
50
The New YorkerDavid DenbyFeb 27, 2012
Moderately enjoyable, in its exhausting way. [5 March 2012, p. 87]
50
New York PostKyle SmithFeb 10, 2012
Safe House may strike you as a brilliant movie, provided you've seen fewer than, say, 10 spy thrillers. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter TraversFeb 10, 2012
Worse, Safe House asks us to believe that Ryan Reynolds can outclass Denzel Washington in the art of being a hard-ass. Not on this planet, baby. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyFeb 9, 2012
A movie with a double-crossing intelligence plot that's so generic it's an irritating intrusion in a lively chase through the streets and shantytowns of Cape Town, South Africa. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJohn AndersonFeb 9, 2012
Safe House is a sturdy enough thriller, but one that consistently defaults to the less interesting of its two lead characters. Read full review
50
Washington PostJohn DeForeFeb 9, 2012
Swedish director Daniel Espinosa isn't as adept at chase scenes as "Bourne" director Paul Greengrass: We sometimes lose track of who's supposed to be where and which direction the bullets are flying. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisFeb 9, 2012
I'm not getting the most of his (Washington) charisma or enough of that million-dollar dental work. I'm not getting the joy, and I miss that. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderBen SachsFeb 9, 2012
Espinosa never conveys any sort of perspective on the material, as Scott does through his obsessive attention to production detail; the stylization feels empty, distracting from whatever simple pleasures the routine plot (involving double agents and stolen microchips) might have delivered. Read full review
50
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanFeb 9, 2012
Crash. Kick. Stab. Punch. Talk (briefly). Smash. Chase. Screech. Shoot. Mumble. That's the wearying pattern of Safe House. Had "think" been an action verb, the movie might have risen above the knee-jerk excitement of the second-tier, "Bourne"-style spy thriller. But it never does. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliFeb 8, 2012
The pacing is uneven, the frenetic action is rarely suspenseful, the dialogue is neither witty nor intelligent, and the anticlimactic endgame drags out to an improbable conclusion. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyFeb 8, 2012
Terse and understated, this is a spy vs. spy tale designed to minimize talk and maximize action, not at all a bad thing in movies but over-worked to near-exhaustion here. Read full review
50
VarietyJustin ChangFeb 8, 2012
In contrast with the fragmented kineticism of Paul Greengrass' "Bourne" movies, there's no existential dimension to the shattered-glass aesthetic here; it's just raw, chaotic action, inelegantly shot and staged but no less unnerving for it. Read full review
40
NPRIan BuckwalterFeb 15, 2012
It was only a matter of time before someone made a Tony Scott movie without Tony Scott. Read full review
40
Time OutKeith UhlichFeb 9, 2012
Good actors like Vera Farmiga and Brendan Gleeson show up to bust balls and bark expository dialogue with check-in-the-bank-yet? proficiency. Add in a couple of dully pro forma narrative twists to keep you awake in between shots of distractingly exotic South African scenery, and you've got a first-quarter Hollywood release par excellence. Meaning not. Read full review
40
MovielineStephanie ZacharekFeb 9, 2012
Safe House is a twisted claw of a movie, a picture so visually ugly that, to borrow a line from Moms Mabley, it hurt my feelings. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierFeb 9, 2012
Safe House devolves into unexciting action scenes that feel left over from the "Bourne" flicks and are peopled with cloak-and-dagger stereotypes. Read full review
25
ObserverRex ReedFeb 14, 2012
All of which makes me sad about Denzel Washington's disillusioning participation. I forgive him if the money was irresistible enough to pay off a mortgage or put his kids through Harvard, but Safe House is total junk, and he is one of the producers. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleFeb 9, 2012
Safe House is an idea for a movie. It's a few blustery gestures in the direction of a story, with five good actors doing their best, trying to hold up the barest frame of an idea, while investing the surrounding emptiness with all the truth they can muster. Read full review
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