Several weeks ago I wrote an article regarding the similarities between the Safe House poster and one for The Bourne Ultimatum. This similarity now makes much more sense as Safe House is essentially a cheaper, less enthralling and exciting rip-off of the Bourne series, featuring stock character and lazy writing that can only rarely muster entertaining or inventive action sequences.

CIA agent Matt Weston (Ryan Reynolds) is at the bottom of the CIA totem pole, stationed in a safe house in Cape Town that rarely gets use, while dating a doctor named Ana (Nora Arnezeder). Weston’s quiet inhabitancy of the safe house is turned upside-down when Tobin Frost (Denzel Washington), one of the most wanted men in the world and a former CIA agent himself, is brought into the safe house after entering the local American embassy while evading a group of mercenaries chasing him. Weston is immediately warned by the higher-ups back at Langley, played by Brendan Gleeson (In Bruges), Vera Fermiga (Up in the Air), and Sam Shepard (The Notebook), of just how dangerous Frost truly is.

Frost is heavily guarded in the safe house, and led by a cruel interrogator (Robert Patrick), they attempt to get information out of him. But before they can get any information, the safe house is compromised by the team of mercenaries attempting to capture Frost, who is carrying valuable and sensitive information. A violent shootout ensues, and Weston narrowly escapes death by taking Frost out of the house and into a car where the violence continues in the form of a massive car chase. Now Frost and Weston are on the run from these groups of mercenaries, as Weston must worry about keeping tabs on Frost, the deadly group pursuing him, as well as consider the possibility the CIA has ulterior motives for him and Frost.

These action sequences are filmed with a very frenetic style by relative newcomer Daniel Espinoza, and the chase and fight sequences can often be quite brutal, however it is a very superficial type of kinetic energy and grittiness. These types of sequences need a strong narrative or originality as a driving force in order to feel truly exciting, and Safe House is a completely uninspired film on every narrative level. It is completely derivative in nature, from the story that feels so unoriginal that at this writer could see where the story was going within the first ten minutes of the film, to adding in a pointless and unfulfilled love interest that distracts more than drives the film.

There is clearly acting talent here, as the film boasts a pretty impressive cast. Denzel Washington as Tobin Frost has moments of true menace, but apart from Washington the talent goes completely wasted — not that there are any bad performances — as the film fails to deliver any standout roles, but instead wastes its supporting talent by filling the film with stock characters and dialogue.

Safe House looks and feels like a Bourne-rip off without the energy, plot or creativity which made that franchise so successful. It is a surface level action film, which attempts to mask its lack of an original or interesting script by amping up the action and camera movement. Not even the promise of seeing Denzel Washington as a villain can save this hopeless, uninspired film.

Grade: D+

Rated: R (for strong violence throughout and some language.)

Safe House opens nationwide February 10th.