Product Details

• Actors: Patrick Stewart, Kimberly Williams, Hector Elizondo, Joy Kilpatrick, Craig Shoemaker
• Directors: Eric Steven Stahl
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Showtime Ent.
• VHS Release Date: July 18, 2000
• Run Time: 112 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00004TJJQ
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #351,486 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

This unusual film begins deceptively, seeming to be yet another high-tech spy flick laden with futuristic weaponry, computers running top-secret software (with the requisite flashy graphics), and the talented actor Patrick Stewart slumming at the center of a nonsensical mishmash. Stewart's presence itself is something of a tip-off, but when his character is soon glimpsed hanging upside down from an exercise device, watching a wall of security cam monitors while quoting H.L. Mencken, it's apparent that this isn't just another action film with an outsized firearms budget. In fact, nothing much seems to be what it appears. Mace Sowell, Stewart's character, claims to be a retired intelligence agent, but his daughter, who doesn't believe a word of it, trots him around to a succession of skeptical shrinks. And while his daughter interviews potential caretakers for her apparently deranged father, Sowell is viewed through the patio doors of his lavish house taking rather acrobatic target practice in the back yard. There is the plot of a thriller in all of this, but make no mistake about it, the most entertaining aspect of this quirky film is watching Stewart have a wonderful time playing an endearing curmudgeon who might be the craziest man alive, or perhaps a totally rational man who really does know some secrets that put himself and others in danger. --Robert J. McNamara

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Paranoia in the Hollywood Hills with Captain Picard, February 28, 2001

By 

Joseph Haschka (Glendale, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Safe House [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I pulled SAFE HOUSE, a made-for-cable thriller, off the video rack solely because it stars Patrick Stewart. I mean, how bad could it be? In reality, it was much, much better than expected.

Stewart plays Mace Sowell, a reclusive widower living in the Hollywood Hills inside a house packed with more security systems and personal weaponry - pistols hidden in every room - than were ever aboard the Starship Enterprise. Mace claims to be a retired deep-cover agent for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), a fact that has put him in mortal danger for a reason he leaves unspecified. He's also obsessively disturbed by the political progress of a certain presidential candidate, who's apparently on his way to winning the Oval Office by a landslide. His fears are given little credence by his daughter, her husband, or the psychiatrist retained by the former to treat her Old Man's apparent delusions. The daughter has also just hired Andi, a perky young college graduate, to be Mace's live-in cook and housekeeper. Kimberly Wiliams plays Andi, short for Andrea, whose character displays a delicate beauty and charming appeal somewhat reminiscent of Audrey Hepburn.

It's been made perfectly clear to Andi that she's not Mace's employee to fire, so the cardinal delight of the film's first third is watching the curmudgeonly Sowell (with a capital "C") engage in a battle of wits with Andi for turf rights as she gamely carries out her assignment. Luckily, Andi is made of tough stuff. She cleanly fields the verbal and psychological abuse that Mace throws at her, and sometimes manages to give back as good as she gets. Eventually, they reach a working compromise and a certain friendship, at about which time Mace begins to display the symptoms of advancing Alzheimer's Disease, thus further hindering his ability to "stay sharp" and repel any assault made on his home or person.

From the beginning, any watcher of SAFE HOUSE will assume the truth of the adage that even paranoids have enemies. So, when will Mace's doomsday materialize? Even Andi begins to wonder as Sowell's convictions begin to draw her in. Stewart gives a performance that is alternately dramatic, witty, and poignant. Williams is positively beguiling. During the scene when she is first alone with Mace and struggling to establish a verbal rapport, her facial expressions as she deals with his silent recalcitrance are priceless. Although some things go unexplained, as to how the neighbors or the LAPD would tolerate Mace's live-fire pistol practice in his back yard, I enjoyed this film very much.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Is it a serious comedy or a comic action flick?, December 30, 2001

By 

JD Schaefer (San Rafael, Ca USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Safe House [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I recommend this movie for the craft that went into it. I also recommend it for the story and its unexpected sensitivity.

For the first half I thought it was very funny but took itsef too seriously. When Patrick Stewart, disguised (so as to be incognito while away from his home) as a construction worker, asked his shrink if he thought the shrink felt Stewart liked leaving his house dressed as one of the Village People, I thought I'd fall over laughing. Then it got quite serious and I started enjoying it on a totally different level.

Patrick Stewart claims, without any supporting evidence, to be a retired government spy who has fatal information regarding a current presidential hopeful. Fatal to Stewart and fatal to the candidate's future.

A housekeeper is hired by Stewart's daughter to avoid having him committed. After various humorous interviews, a sprightly young woman is hired and the war of nerves begins. The plot is complicated as Stewart realizes he is sucumbing to Alzheimer's. I particularly enjoyed where he tries to memorize the standard quizzes asked by shrinks so the level of disease advancement wouldn't be so apparent during his regular shrink visits.

The acting by all is superb. Stewart continues to show why he isn't a one-trick pony.

Yes there are a few unexplained occurrences but the movie is quirky enough to not be bothered by these little things. The ending is well done and one doesn't need those silly little text messages to explain what the director forgot to or how to put in the movie.

This is a fun movie, enjoy it!

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quality Entertainment from Showtime. No, Seriously., January 16, 2004

By 

Brent A. Anthonisen "Johnny Sideburns" (Alpharetta, GA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Safe House (DVD)

With the long-running James Bond franchise now disintegrating into simple body-counts-and-explosions action fare, it really is good to see a proper espionage thriller that was filmed in the same vein as the classic Sean Connery (or even early Roger Moore) Bond protrayals.

This one has a twist; our protagonist is British and equipped with charm by the truckload...but he's also quite possibly crazier than a ...rat.

The beauty of this movie is that from the very beginning you're aware that there is definitely SOMETHING going on...you're just not sure what. The plot moves on through the eyes of someone who might not necessarily be seeing reality as clearly as he should; is this man, merely eccentric? Is he completely insane? Or is he...well, who and what he says he is?

Patrick Stewart is just fantastic. He's definitely not one to spend his time traveling from one Star Trek convention to another now that his time serving the small screen franchise of Gene Roddenberry's "generational" vision is done. His propensity for bombast and overacting that he brought to "A Christmas Carol" isn't found here; he does a fantastic job relaying the problems experienced by a man for whom the borders or reality seem to be in various stages of dissipation. You don't know whether to laugh or cry at times.

And the supporting cast plays off of him brilliantly. It's obviously Stewart's show, but the interaction with characters whose attitudes range from enabling to pessimistic to completely disbelieving (and questionably sinister) makes for an intense viewing experience. How far will things go? How far will Stewart's character go? What is real and what is fabrication? It's a terrific ride, a truly engaging thriller that Cubby Broccoli (or Alfred Hitchcock) himself would have been proud to direct.