Denzel Washington returns to the screen with yet another action movie, “Safe House.” This time around, he stars as Tobin Frost, an ex-CIA agent who has gone rogue and landed himself atop the most wanted list.

Frost allegedly sells deep dark secrets of agency members to the highest bidder, so he is a walking target in the eyes of most intelligence agents. During a trip to Cape Town, he meets with a source who gives him what could be enough information to bring down several prominent figures in the agency.

All of a sudden, Frost has a group of armed men hot on his trail. Although he is a wanted man, he is pushed into a corner and has no choice but to flee to the American consulate, essentially turning himself in.

Following his arrest and capture, Frost is then delivered to a safe house led by a young and relatively inexperienced CIA agent, Matt Weston (Ryan Reynolds). Weston is trying to work his way up the ranks and is willing to do just about anything if it means he will be promoted.

Once Frost is checked into the safe house, the men who delivered him begin an interrogation process that is largely based on torture. However, they barely scrape the surface before the safe house is under attack.

Nearly everyone in the building is killed and Frost subtly reminds Weston that it’s his job to keep him alive. The two men manage to escape by the skin of their teeth and things don’t get much better from there.

Although the stories are completely different, Frost really reminded me of another character that Washington played in 2010’s, “The Book of Eli.” Even though many aspects separate them, they both have that same aura about them.

Just about anyone who messed with either one of these guys ended up regretting their decision. For a guy who’s pushing 60, Washington’s definitely still got it.

I really didn’t know what to make of this movie after seeing the trailers. It looked like a pretty standard espionage-action movie. However, Washington is one of the biggest actors in Hollywood; if he signed on for this project, obviously he saw something promising in the script.

One of the best qualities of “Safe House” is the whole who-dunit aspect. The beginning of the movie really seemed to present this undertone that Frost is an awful person who has committed terrible crimes. The trailer made me feel that way too.

I believe that the director chose to make it that way so that as the story plays out, we slowly begin to wonder if things aren’t really as they seem and if maybe he’s not as bad as we once thought.

The action scenes in this movie were incredibly well done and creative. There is a fight scene near the end of the movie between Weston and another guy that really caps off an already above par effort.

There was another scene near the end that I found to be unbelievably cheesy. It’s what I’ll call the “bonding moment” between Frost and Weston. When you see it, you’ll know it.

I’m just not sure that two men like these guys are going to act like that. Of course, I’m not in the CIA, so maybe they’re all a little sappy at heart. But this just felt a little overdramatic.

I didn’t expect “Safe House” to be a ground-breaking movie, which is probably why I was pleasantly surprised when it was above average. I’m not sure I’d pay to see it again, but I didn’t feel ripped off after seeing it the first time.