If you are unaware, Ryan Reynolds is one of those actors I will see anything if he’s in it. I didn’t make it to the theater on this one, but it did interest me. You gotta love Denzel, too, who is always great, whether or not the movie itself is. Add in Vera Farmiga and Brendan Gleeson, and that makes this a hard movie to pass up. The film is about an ex-CIA operative named Tobin Frost (Denzel Washington) who years ago defected and began selling government secrets to other countries. He’s doing some work in Cape Town, South Africa when he’s forced into the U.S. Consolate’s and, thus, a protected safe house. The guy who runs said safe house is a lowly official who hasn’t seen much action named Matt Weston (Ryan Reynolds). But when the safe house is attacked, Weston must escape with Frost and try to make it to a new location, all while fighting against Frost. And the CIA, including Linklater (Vera Farmiga) and Barlow (Brendan Gleeson), can’t figure out if Weston is with them or has defected with Frost, as well.

On the surface, this is your average thriller with a layer of psychological cat-and-mouse to go with it. And… that’s pretty much all it is. No more, no less. The film is nothing new, nothing special. In fact, it’s quite incredibly predictable. I knew the “bad guy twist” literally seconds after the character was introduced. You know exactly how it’s going to end. You know all the little twists and turns the movie makes miles before it makes them. But that being said… it’s still entertaining.

I think a lot of that has to do with the performances. It’s rare that I dislike Ryan Reynolds, and it’s damn near impossible to hate Denzel. Both stay true here. I liked both of them in the movie, and their chemistry wasn’t too bad. The best moments are when they’re just talking and Denzel is doing the mind game stuff. Unfortunately that’s not a huge chunk of the movie. But there are some good chase sequences in between.

There’s really nothing deeper to delve into here. Besides the predictability, there’s nothing to really dislike about this. I just came out of  it feeling like… it is what it is. I’m not sure it was supposed to be anything more, and I’m OK with that. I’ll probably forget most of it in the near future, but I was entertained enough on the ride.

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