Hollywood espionage movies are not as intellectually stimulating as the British ones, and the past few years have seen a decline in the genre. It is a rather safe space to play around in, just like the romantic comedies that we see now and then - the climax is predictable, the underdog always wins, and corruption is always the villain, or, if the movie has a Tom Cruise or a Matt Damon, it becomes a franchise.
David Guggenheim, who wrote Safe House, must have known who was going to play the characters he etched out in his screenplay. "Denzel, Ryan, Vera and Brendan, eh?" he thou....