Not Safe for Work is a nice little thriller from Joe Johnston with aspirations of being just that. The only problem is, there are a couple scenes in this film that are pretty damn good which leads us to believe that with a little more time to develop the screenplay, this film could have actually been a great film. The story is simplistic, a man on the run from a hit-man throughout an office building sounds like it can be either Collateral-good or Straight to Video-bad. The answer does lean a bit more towards straight to video but shows the potential to be as good and as suspenseful as Collateral. The only issue here that really holds this film up from being great are the performances and the script. Max Minghella is decent enough in the film but he really isn't anything special. There's no flair to him, nothing that sets him apart from just another douche bag looking guy on screen. The one performance that could have been and SHOULD have been better was the hit-man. He wasn't quirky enough to work and wasn't ruthless enough to work. It was merely a sleep walking performance through a role that could have been really memorable. Instead, Not Safe for Work relies on cheap plot devices and booby traps to help progress it's standard screenplay. Every beat the film hits, you see it coming a mile away and it doesn't leave any room for any imagination of any sort. Joe Johnston has delivered decent movies in the past and Not Safe for Work is clearly nowhere near his best but it is far from his worst.
Review of Not Safe for Work
