subject: Watch Safe Movie Free Online [print this page] A second-rate cage fighter on the mixed martial arts circuit, Luke Wright lives a numbing life of routine beatings and chump change... until the day he blows a rigged fight. Wanting to make an example of him, the Russian Mafia murders his family and banishes him from his life forever, leaving Luke to wander the streets of New York destitute, haunted by guilt, and tormented by the knowledge that he will always be watched, and anyone he develops a relationship with will also be killed.But when he witnesses a frightened twelve-year-old Chinese girl, Mei, being pursued by the same gangsters who killed his wife, Luke impulsively jumps to action... and straight into the heart of a deadly high-stakes war. Mei, he discovers, is no ordinary girl, but an orphaned math prodigy forced to work for the Triads as a "counter." He discovers she holds in her memory a priceless numerical code that the Triads, the Russian mob and a corrupt faction of the NYPD will kill for.Realizing he's the only person Mei can trust, Luke tears a swath through the city's brutal underworld to save an innocent girl's life... and perhaps even redeem his own.
Focusing on the peculiarly Nineties concern of becoming allergic to everything, Safe is either an important warning or a miasma of mindless psycho-babble. Carol White (Julianne Moore) inhabits a huge house, in the San Fernando Valley, with her husband Greg (Xander Berkeley) and young son Rory (Chauncey Leopardi). The grime and crime of downtown LA are a world away, as far removed from the antiseptic cleanliness of the Valley as it's possible to be. Surrounded by domestic staff, Carol pretends to be a home-maker but spends most of her time in an endless circle of coffee-mornings and aerobics sessions. In the constant drive to redecorate a new couch is delivered, an item which turns out to be black rather than teal. Like a lurking, malicious smudge which refuses to disappear, the sofa offends Carol's sensibilities and just has to go. A trip into the city soon remedies the problem but, on the freeway home, Carol finds herself trapped behind a smoke-belching truck. Overcome by an intense coughing fit, Carol dives into a car-park and gradually recovers.
Carol's personal physician has trouble explaining the attack, finding her perfectly healthy. From his purely mechanistic viewpoint Carol is fine, thus he finds himself falling back on a prescription of pills and telling her what she wants to hear. The drugs have little effect though; Carol finds herself constantly tired, irritable and withdrawn. Greg is both worried and angry over this illness, which has come between them, particularly given its lack of symptoms and definite cause. After a regular exercise session, Carol finds her gaze drawn towards a flyer which proclaims "Do you smell fumes?". Since Carol is finding herself sensitive to the smallest impurity, ranging from the overpowering LA smog to subtle aftershave, she attends one of the meetings. Finding a group of like-minded sufferers, Carol starts wearing a mask and carrying an oxygen cylinder. Various tests are carried out to determine the extent of her allergies, giving Carol impetus to actually work at, and learn about, something useful.
The response of standard medicine, represented by Carol's doctor, is to refer her to a psychiatrist. Since there's nothing physically wrong the illness must be psychosomatic, apparently. However, after a life-threatening seizure in a dry-cleaning shop, Carol is rushed to hospital. While the tests still reveal nothing, Carol looks worse than ever, having trouble breathing even the air of the hospital. Eventually Carol decides that the only solution is to get "clean" - to remove her body of its toxic load by moving to a pristine environment. This involves leaving for New Mexico and the desert retreat of Wrenwood, with the support and incomprehension of her family. In this isolated commune Carol is heartily welcomed by the director Claire (Kate Stewart) and her assistant Susan (April Grace). An extended group of people affected by Environmental Illness, the focus is on healing by recognising internal pain and dealing with it. This new-age, semi-religious philosophy grates with Carol initially but after a while she feels right at home.Watch free movies online
In line with the film's overt agenda (that we are polluting the planet and now it's fighting back), Safe is far more concerned with the details of our environment than it is with the people living in it. The White's ostentatious house is a prime example; Carol is dwarfed by its structure, often appearing tucked away at the edge of the frame, and always insignificant. Around her the jam-packed freeways belch pollution, chemical sprays contaminate the air and the bleeps and whistles of modern-day life replace the dawn chorus. Hidden away in a financial bubble, Carol is cut off from reality even before she develops EI. The script, such that it is, leaves a great deal of room for interpretation; the blank pauses and self-aware statements could easily be satirical, yet this isn't the perceived tone of Safe. The acting is amazingly flat and inexpressive, the result of a performance by Moore which is either fantastic or abysmal. Altogether, the film never really seems to become focused on what it wants to say. Perhaps this is indicative of the the confusion rampant in our society (and our headlong rush towards the apocalypse) or maybe Safe is a pretentious, self-important and boring piece of cinema. I favour the latter.
I found it instructive that, when I told my soon-to-be-25-year-old son that I'd seen Safe House and that it reminded me of Three Days of the Condor, he replied, "That reference would be relevant if I knew what Three Days of the Condor was."(He also said, "...and if I knew what Safe House was," but that proves the wrong point. When I referred to it as the Ryan Reynolds-Denzel Washington film, he said, "Oh, that one.")Safe House actually has Tony Scott written all over it. It's even got Washington, who has been the go-to actor for Mr. Style-over-Substance for the past decade or or more.But this is faux Tony Scott, just as most real Tony Scott is faux Ridley. Like a real Tony Scott film, this movie has less on its mind than it thinks and more time to say it in. The result is a mildly tense thriller in the same vein as, um, Three Days of the Condor (a well-regarded 1975 thriller by Sydney Pollack about one man's discovery that the CIA just might be a teensy bit out of control).Instead of Robert Redford, however, director Daniel Espinosa has Ryan Reynolds, playing a low-level "housekeeper" for the CIA. Specifically, Reynolds' Matt Weston has spent the past year running the cover operation for and maintenance of a CIA safe house in Cape Town, South Africa. Another few months, his boss tells him, and he might be ready for a posting as a field operative.
