(EW.com) -- There are few better ways for an actor to show off his chops than by playing the clever trickster in a thriller (think of Daniel Craig's 007 at the poker table, or Matt Damon's Bourne leading his CIA overseers through the looking glass). In the opening scenes of "Safe House," you can tell what a good time Denzel Washington is having as Tobin Frost, an American spy in Cape Town, South Africa, who is five steps ahead of everyone else. His look is pure sleight of hand: In glasses, gray scarf, and overcoat, with an earring, a serious goatee, and his gray-flecked hair teased out, Washington resembles a hipster Malcolm X -- a great look for him, even if it feels like a costume.
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"Safe House" as if on an action time clock, punches in the standard set pieces
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Basically, the movie is a fizzless Bourne episode crossed with "Training Day,"
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The director shoots in highly saturated colors, edits everything into a frenzy
Mostly, he schools @placeholder, his guard-turned-pursuer, in what it means to lie.