It's always a blast to see Denzel Washington play the bad guy. He proved that most of all with his Oscar-winning performance in "Training Day." In "Safe House," he plays a slightly less-terrifying villain - a CIA spy turned traitor looking to sell sensitive state secrets to the highest bidder.

But wait! He's being attacked by highly-trained operatives, and the safe house supervised by Boy Scout Ryan Reynolds has been compromised. Somebody within the CIA really wants him dead. And maybe, just maybe, this supposed bad guy has a few redeeming qualities.

That's the big problem with "Safe House." The movie desperately needs a scenery-chewing performance to help it stand out from the dozen other spy thrillers you've seen before. Instead, Washington sits quietly on the sidelines for long stretches, and his apparent villainy is played in ominous glares and coy remarks.

Washington plays Tobin Frost, a longtime traitor who has turned himself in to the U.S. Consulate in Cape Town, South Africa, after a slew of assassins pursue him after a secretive information exchange. The CIA sends him to a safe house manned by newbie agent Matt Westin (Reynolds) where Frost is to be interrogated. Things go wrong, bullets fly and before long Westin is plowing through the streets of Cape Town in an effort to keep Frost alive long enough for him to be somebody else's problem.

Director Daniel Espinosa, working from a by-the-numbers script by David Guggenheim, tries to keep the movie barreling along with nonstop shootouts and car chases. He films everything in that frantic "Bourne Identity" style that hasn't really worked outside of the "Bourne" franchise. The supporting players, including Brendan Gleeson, Vera Farmiga and Sam Shepard, don't have much to work with outside of typical spy cliches.

Reynolds is fine and Washington always puts in an admirable effort. Sadly, "Safe House" delivers surface-only thrills, the kind easily forgotten on the way home from the theater.

Such forgettable execution makes it easy to dream about the movie "Safe House" could have been. The kind of movie where Washington can up the showmanship - be it on whatever side of the law.

Washington continues to be one of the most (if not THE most) bankable actors at the box office. It would be nice to see him break out of these middle-of-the-road thrillers he's been making the past few years.

In other words, give me something different or, at least like in "Training Day," something where King Kong has nothing on him.

Grade: C+

Tyler Wilson can be reached at [email protected].