Movie Review: Not Safe for Work (2014)

The movie stars Max Minghella, JJ Feild, Molly Hagan, Eloise Mumford and Christian Clemenson.

My wife and I decided to watch a movie together after putting the kids to bed last night. And, as we usually do, we looked for a good thriller to watch. After considering several options, we ended up picking this movie which, for the most part at least, turned out to be an OK film.

I think the thing I liked most about this movie was the location. Normally, I would think an office building would be a bit boring as far as thrillers go simply because there are just too many places to hide and too many ways to escape. However, in this case, I liked how the movie used the building's extreme security. The hero, Thomas (Minghella) was stuck in a relatively confined space as a result of that security. But, at the same time, he also could use the various locking doors to his advantage. This kept things interesting.

I also liked the killer's (Feild) no-nonsense approach. He was there to do a job and, even though he did kill people who weren't his targets, he also seemed to at least make an effort to avoid the collateral damage before pulling the trigger. This humanized him and gave him a little more depth than most other killers in this movie genre.

Another thing that surprised me about this movie was the ending. I've seen way too many films lately that were a bit weak in that category. However, this movie managed to have a decent twist and, even though some things were left up to the viewer's imagination, it was better than I was expecting it to be.

My only real complaint about this movie was some aspects of it were a bit predictable. This is especially true of Thomas' boss, Alan Emmerich (Clemenson). It was really too difficult to figure out the truth about that character, which pretty much ruined the "surprise" twist about him and made it easy to figure out what the killer's primary objective was.

That being said, I should also mention, even after figuring out Emmerich's role, he was still unpredictable enough to keep the movie interesting, mostly because it was unclear how far he would go to keep his secret and whether or not he would ultimately help Thomas or hurt him. So, even though he was somewhat predictable, it wasn't to the point it ruined the movie.

This turned out to be a halfway decent thriller with a good surprise twist at the end. I would definitely recommend it if you're looking for something different to watch.

My Grade: B