Moustroll
Good movie but grossly overrated
Lightdeossk
Captivating movie !
Salubfoto
It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.
Paul Evans
The first series, which started Ecclestone and Patterson Joseph relied on the whole premise of a safe house, the need for it, the secrecy surrounding it, and the problems for all involved. A good story, well acted, but in parts a little slow and padded. I didn't particularly like the conclusion, it was a little far fetched, all in all it's very watchable with several moments of suspense. Series 1 6/10Series two relied more heavily on scares and suspense, in my opinion this was the better series, although the whole premise of it being aware house seems pointless, mobile phones, comings and goings, Free House might have been more apt. That quibble apart this did contain some great moments, those tents cranked up the moments of suspense, and the outstanding performance of Jason Watkins made it hugely watchable. Series 2 - 8/10Overall 7/10
dncorp
Quite obvious that Brits have a very low standard as to what a Safe House is. Perimeter Sensors, hardwired Motion Detection Video Surveillance Cameras with night vision internal and external to the Safe House, Bars on the windows releasable from the inside, interior steel shutters, steel doors and door frames painted and textured to look like wood, interior steel bolts for all doors, a large "Safe Room" with air filtration, Panic Buttons to call the Local Police, Loud Sirens, emergency radio communications with the antenna well away from the Safe House to prevent jamming, one foot diameter concrete posts to prevent vehicles (car bombs, truck bombs)from getting close to the Safe House, Water Reservoir located in the roof tied into a water sprinkler system with a poison detector, storage room with weeks worth of water, food, emergency medical equipment and weapons connected to "Safe Room" by airtight steel door, Electric Generator inside a air tight room exhaust goes outside either to the roof or high enough to prevent tampering a separate air intake hidden on the roof as a minimum. And an even lower standard as to who and how the Safe House is run. The persons running the Safe House would have already had experience as "Safe Housekeepers" like those that Run the CIA's Safe Houses, British MI Safe Houses.Before even going to the Safe House the "Guests" would surrender all their Cellphones, Smartphones, radios, and scanned to see if they have any kind of radio frequencies emitting from them or anything they have. The "Guests" would arrive in a Van without windows, they would wear hoods, the Van would be old and not have any computers that also have GPS or optional Tracking (most Vehicles after 2000 have Tracking even if not visible). So that even if they contacted the outside World they could not reveal were the Safe House is located. Before Guests arrive the Safe Housekeepers lock their Cellphones, Smartphones into a 100% grounded steel safe, and start using "Burner Phones" that had the GPS circuit cut. All Guests wear transponders that do not transmit on the same frequency and have limited range. The computer with internet access uses multiple proxy servers. "Guests" are tucked in at Night each room has their own bathroom, snacks and a mini refrigerator, the doors have sensors to alert the Safe Housekeepers if "Guests" have left their rooms, opened windows.
jarcheese2012
This is what I would regard as a typical ITV series - it starts intriguingly enough but ultimately disappoints. I have no beef with the actors who all played their parts as well as the ridiculous script allowed them to. I'm not going to give any spoilers in this review because there are no spoilers to give away because it's all so predictable. The actions of the characters are nonsensical, to say the least and the whole thing could have been over and done with in two episodes. In fact it looked like the writer had two incomplete stories and in his haste to get something on TV had fused them together in an attempt to make something passable. And don't get me started on the ending. Avoid this at all costs. It is without doubt the most boring, pointless and least suspenseful suspense thriller of the year, where most of the (in)action takes place in the most depressing B&B in Britain. It has no TV or internet, which would be a good thing for any guests staying there because they wouldn't have to watch rubbish like Safe House. If I could have given it no stars I would have.
jc-osms
This four part mini-series on ITV sought to combine two stories and bind them together in the persons of ex-cop Christopher Ecclestone and his old boss, still active police commander Paterson Joseph. Ecclestone was the policeman latterly assigned to chaperone the wife of a ruthless gangster, about to give incriminatory evidence against her husband, but in a constantly, in fact very much overplayed scene, he gets shot by a marksman accompanying her back from a shop they stop off at, from which prone position he witnesses her being shot to death in the dark, driving rain, by the same shooter. The second strand comes when boss Joseph encourages a by now physically if not psychologically recovered Ecclestone and his new wife to use their remote country hideaway as a safe house for a dysfunctional family of five, the apparent target of a psychopathic ex-con, who starts proceedings by attempting to kidnap the little boy when the family are attending a fun-fair at night.As usual with these many-part dramas, some characters and some situations do come and go somewhat and also as usual, the long arm of coincidence reaches deep and actually quite often within the narrative which whilst this might help add drama and tension more often beggared belief and damaged credibility. In particular the ways the not especially bright ex-con miraculously avoids discovery by the police and then unerringly tracks down the target family with just his mobile phone, took some swallowing.I also felt the joining of the two stories seemed somewhat strained and that taken separately, they may have worked better as two independent tales. Still, the two big climaxes worked well, the reveal of the plot twist was quite surprising and there was an enigmatic finish just to send you off to bed scratching your head over the exact relationship between Joseph and Ecclestone's wife (brother and sister, childhood sweethearts?).As for the acting, I wasn't particularly held by any of the major parts. Ecclestone and his wife seemed unsuited, generating no real belief to me anyway of a strong, loving relationship. Likewise, I had a hard time accepting Joseph as the senior cop over Ecclestone, while as for the dysfunctional family I found the actors playing their parts pretty dysfunctional too, especially the two snotty teenagers.However in its favour, the solitariness of the countryside was put to good use and there was sufficient tension, punctuated by dramatic action, to keep me watching over the four episodes.On the whole then, a commendable thriller, just a bit too cliché-bound and improbable to fully convince.
