Not bad. Nothing to write home about. At it's most interesting, it's essentially WIKILEAKS: THE MOVIE*.
Denzel is a former CIA traitor gone rogue, and he's got a secret file. When he ends up in a safe house in Johannesburg, isolated and run by young agent Ryan Reynolds by his lonesome, outside forces show up looking for him. Reynolds, who's been doing desk work for the longest time, tries to keep Denzel alive and bring him in, to show everyone what a big dick he has. Funny thing is, he's terrible at this.
I wish this were a comedy. It's totally straight-faced, but Denzel keeps fucking with Reynolds, and Reynolds' character is so naive and makes so many mistakes, that I thought it would be amusing if they switched genres a bit. Particularly because Reynolds is such a non-entity as a dramatic actor.
Denzel uses some of his old acting tricks, but otherwise, he's not playing some boogeyman or badass hero. He gives the character a lot of depth and nuance, and I was glad he could still bring it. Gets to do some action stuff too. At times, he looks, and moves, like Dr. Wesley T. Snipes. And the dude looks GREAT! Ruben "The Hit" Blades greets him as "The black Dorian Gray" in one scene, and he's totally right.
It's mercifully short, and the seams show where it looks like there were heavy reshoots. And a large portion of screentime is used to show the CIA headquarters, with Brendan Gleeson, Vera Farmiga and Sam Shepherd thanklessly dropping exposition. But the action is rough and varied, some fist-fights, lots of gunfights, some chases. It's contemporary shaky-cam, but it's not incomprehensible. There's also one really brutal fist-fight near the end between Reynolds and Joel Kinnaman from The Killing. Other faces that show up in this are Liam Cunningham, Robert Patrick, and the ominously-named badass Fares Fares from the original "Snabba Cash," also directed by Daniel Espinosa.
*As for WIKILEAKS
Spoilers for the ending (Click to show)
The secret file MacGuffin is essentially files like the ones Julian Assange and company leaked to the press, war criminal stuff, illegal intelligence, nothing super specific. Of course, this being a movie, there's a super ridiculous happy ending, and the "bad guys" get put away, with our handsome Reynolds-faced good guy getting the girl and getting away at the end. It's kind of bullshit.
