Salt

Salt

/</gih3/>/giSalt review</h3>

Jason Bourne has a sex change

Aside from the bonkers plot, Salt is a competent thriller-though it needs a little seasoning.
Angelina  Jolie plays Evelyn Salt- a role that was meant for Tom Cruise, who  turned it down citing similarities to his Mission Impossible schtick-cue  gender change- Edwin is changed to Evelyn and Jolie steps up to the  plate and turns in a terrific performance.
Evelyn Salt is a CIA agent  accused of being a Russian sleeper spy a Russian defector. After an  implausible but deleriously entertaining escape from the CIA building,  Salt is on the run, desperate to rescue her kidnapped  husband(Inglourious Basterd's August Diehl) and clear her name.
Things  zips along at a frantic pace from here on in, as Salt leaps from car to  truck to van to motorbike, an array of stunts all performed by Jolie  herself. She excels in this film, comfortably embodying the traits of  the seemingly invincible all-action hero, a female Jason Bourne if you  will-but is she a hero?
There are more twists and turns in this film  than a u-bend. At first the film seems pretty straight forward- a flimsy  yet basic plot used as a good excuse for a run-of-the-mill action  flick.
But the tide turns, and soon it is revealed that things  aren't as they seem. There's more going on here, and if the film started  to lose the attention of the select few around the first quarter,  everyones full attention is suddenly focused fully on the events that  unfold.


The supporting cast's performances are pretty surplus to requirements. We have Liev Shreiber (Wolverine:Origins,The Omen)  playing Salt's increasingly exasperated boss Ted Winter, who has  nothing much to do but look amazed at Salt's ingenuity as she escapes  the authorities time and time again. And then there's Peabody, another  CIA agent played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, (2012, Children of Men) intent on cutting her down.
But  Salt is all Jolie. Any less talented actress would struggle with the  material. Evelyn Salt is a complex role to play-without revealing any  spoilers-and Mrs Pitt is note-perfect in her delivery. Director Philip  Noyce clearly got the best performance possible out of her- a far cry  from her phone-it-in performance as Lara Croft.
But at just 95  minutes long there's definitely a bit of sodium chloride missing.  Perhaps there's a load of deleted material on the cutting-room floor  somewhere. Either way, there needs to be more substance in the  inevitable sequel. That's right, the ending leaaves things wide open,  which what makes watching it a frustrating experience. Despite the  twists inherent in the plot there is really not enough to keep people  coming back for more, something the Bourne films did so well.
Overall  its a solid, if outlandish thriller, with enough action in it to hold  interest for the most part. But its merits can only be fully judged when  we see how things are wrapped up in the sequel, which needs to be  better.
If not i'll take a teqilla and lime with a pinch of Salt, please.

<big>☆☆☆☆☆☆☆7/10</big>

Recommendations: Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, 2009)

Film Review: SALT (2010)

RATING 6/10

BOTTOM LINE: Salt gets marks for being something unexpected and engaging for a Hollywood blockbuster, but it loses them on its over-the-top and preposterous handling of its premise, and a lack of any characters to sympathise with.

THE GOOD: Salt is an unusual film in that the previews gave a misguided impression as to what it was about. Going in, the film appeared to be about an innocent secret agent who was set up, but what made the film more interesting is that it turned out that secret agent was actually guilty of what they said she was. Evelyn Salt (Jolie) is a covert Russian spy, trained her entire life to be a sleeper agent in the CIA, waiting for her instructions to strike, which in this case is to assassinate the Russian president who is visiting America for a state funeral. The film is a riff on the “Bourne” movies, and like those movies, it delivers a number of sensational action set pieces, while simultaneously showing a seemingly unstoppable secret agent who knows every trick in the book to stay one step ahead of her pursuers. From this perspective, the film is quite different, and offers a unique perspective as opposed to the “Bourne” movies. You are lead to believe Salt will be the traditional hero, but this changes quickly in the second act when Salt is revealed to be the notorious sleeper agent she is suspected to be, which leads to a number of unusual and unexpected sequences. “Salt” is interesting to check out as it does deliver something different for a Hollywood action film.

THE BAD: Angelina Jolie is the go-to actress for a Hollywood action film, but she seems strangely subdued here, at least in terms of character if not action. She does the requisite amount of kicking butt, but somehow the motivations for her character are never satisfactorily delivered. It turns out that she is one of the bad guys, just not as bad as the other bad guys. This would be okay if the execution was spot on, but for the most part it is muddled and unclear, and only really comes together in the last five minutes of the film where it shamelessly turns in to a pitch for the sequel. As a result, it is very hard to follow Salt’s journey in this film because the story does not cover enough ground on the issue of why her story as a sleeper agent does not add up; there just isn’t enough mystery to make you cheer for her. Another factor working against the film is the preposterous handling of Salt’s backstory. The heavy-handed execution of it seems to highlight how silly the whole thing is, and given how crucial her training and her role as a sleeper agent in the CIA is to the story, the whole thing unravels in to an unbelievable mess. You would think that the CIA are run by a bunch of hopeless idiots if they allowed people like Salt to join their ranks. This silliness continues when more Russian sleeper agents are revealed, and that they are using each other against themselves, an element which was totally unnecessary given how complex all their interactions were to begin with. The film was a surprise in that it delivered a film of anti-heros, but it is a disappointment for not taking advantage of that premise, and instead delivered a hollow, and preposterous flunk of an action film.

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Todd Murphy <br />
http://www.allaboutmovies.net

Salt - **1/2

Review: Once upon a time I had particularly zero interest in seeing this movie. Then it started getting good reviews and I will admit the storyline is quite intriguing. A man walks in to a covert CIA office in New York and says he is a Russian spy. Things seem to be quite suspicious but they have no reason not to believe him and see if he can’t provide them some good info. He says a Russian spy is in America to kill the Russian president and as it turns out, that spy is Evelyn Salt (Angelina Jolie) who is the one interviewing him and works for the CIA. The other agents are not sure what to believe and have to tread lightly from there, which means she will be detained and questioned as a possible double agent.

This is where the movie takes off. Salt finds herself in many precarious situation in which she protests she is not who this Russian spy says she is and she is innocent. Her CIA friends want to believe her, but then, why did she run? Running always makes it hard to be believed (note to self, whenever somebody accuses me of something, do not run). Nevertheless, she runs and sets off to prove her innocence…or does she? I will stop there because to say anymore would spoil the rest of the movie.
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There are quite a few twists and turns to go with this plot and it will keep you guessing for a while as to what is really going on. The twists are not necessarily organic, they are put into the movie to be twists, but nonetheless, it provides for a fun movie with a lot of cat and mouse elements to it.

The movie provides no great revelations and isn’t spectacularly memorable; however it is enjoyable summer movie fare and if you’re looking for a diversion, then it’s worth your time.

A Decent Tale of Espionage & Thrills

It’s great to see Angelina Jolie back in action and I must say that I enjoyed the movie thoroughly. SALT in essence is a action-espionage flick and I found the plot to be pretty interesting & original. Jolie plays CIA agent Evelyn Salt who is accused of being a Russion deep cover agent and the movie follows her exploits as she races to save her husband. Liev Schreiber whom I’ve grown to like a lot is in this one too!

SALT has a nice mix of action and story; which was great especially as I caught it on a week night last week. Some of my friends said SALT wasn’t that good but I suppose that’s because of raised expectations. Catch this one with no expectations and I think you’d be pleasantly surprised.

I give SALT a 4 out of 5.

For reviews and more visit my blog at http://wengyuen.wordpress.com

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SALT

Tom Cruise passed on the role of Salt due to the fact that it was way too similar to his character in the Mission Impossible movies.  He was right (though this film is a little better than the one he chose to star in, Knight and Day).  However, Angelina Jolie makes a great fit for the role.  She shows that a woman is just as capable of filling the secret agent spy shoes as a man.  If anything, she injects more emotion into the role than most James Bond type of spies played by men have.
The plot does start out similar to that of the first Mission Impossible film.  Jolie plays a CIA officer named Evelyn Salt who is accused of being a Russian spy, and her own people now have to go after her.  She's left to fend for herself without the help of those she works with.  Salt is constantly on the run and manages to find various ways to narrowly escape each predicament.  While this is similar to the aforementioned film, the difference here is that there's a possibility she really just might be a Russian spy after all.  We see things take place that indicate the accusations might be right. 
If you like movies with a twist or two, this has multiple ones... going back and forth to confuse the viewer as to Salt's true identity.  The plot itself and some of the action that occurs are rather implausible but this is really a movie made to entertain, not meant to be perfectly realistic.  At least the action is pretty consistent and we get decent chase scenes that will keep your attention through what is thankfully not a long film.  The pacing is good and it's worth checking out one time even though it won't be remembered for long.  Another actor or actress could have dulled down the movie but Angelina Jolie does solid work here and kicks some ass too.

Recommendations: The Shawshank Redemption (1994), Se7en , 25th Hour

http://www.examiner.com/movie-in-philadelphia/danny-porcaro

Salt

"Salt" was directed by Phillip Noyce.  It stars Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, and several other people who are far less familiar to the general public that the aforementioned actors.

Angelina Jolie plays Evelyn Salt.  She works for the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency).  As it turns out she is accused of being a Russian spy.  Also, as it turns out she adamantly denies this. So she proceeds to go on the run, like only Angelina Jolie, or any other action movie star in the history of movies can.  Of course the fate of the United States is in some kind of peril and things are not as they originally appear.  They very rarely are, in case there was any shred of doubt out there.  Oh yeah the Russian president might be assassinated...just might.

It's true.  Angelina Jolie is an action star.  And a darn good one, at that, which works out great for "Salt" because she's running the show, hence her name being the only one on the movie poster.  For some reason people are under the impression that an action star needs to be a man, but that is a falsehood and Angelina has at least 4 different paychecks to prove it.  She is a great actress, and given decent material to work with can produce some great characters.  And for the record "Salt," when compared to "Wanted" is the better action movie by far.  Maybe I'm just not into bullets that curve and looms of destiny....Another thing that I would like to add into this paragraph: I want to thank Mr. Tom Cruise for not taking the lead role in "Salt" as originally planned.  After seeing Angelina Jolie as the lead I just cannot picture Tom Cruise as Evelyn Salt.  The wonderful other half of this blog wanted me to mention Liev Schreiber in this review, so I will because I told him I would and if I don't then I'm a liar.  Liev Schreiber is a good actor.  He worked well with Angelina Jolie in "Salt" and had some good lines.  I, however do not have many movies to judge him by.

The laws of science or anything..."Salt" is way too good for all of that.  All laws of science or logic in general are completely rejected in this movie and that's how things should be because this is in fact an action movie.  Salt at one point jumped from an overpass to a passing truck.  The whole jumping on top of a truck thing occurs a couple other times and her adrenaline is still pumping and is pretty unscathed when you consider what just happened.  They are several other scenes even more impressive than this, but I don't want to spoil everything.  And through it all Angelina Jolie still manages to look great.  Which is another level of impressive.

The cinematography as a whole was nothing too special.  There were a lot of close ups of people and of car chases, etc as well as some nice aerial shots of Washington DC and other locations.  At times however, it seemed like the camera was moving to fast through a scene and spinning out of control. 

The score for "Salt" didn't really do much for me.  That is a generalization, I'm sure there were exceptions.  It came off as a little cliched action movie score, which is weird because James Newton Howard composed the score and he co-composed the score for "The Dark Knight."  Unless of course Hans Zimmer did the majority of the score for that movie and James Newton Howard just snuck his name on it. 

The movie was well paced, which is basicly my way of saying that my ADD didn't kick in quite yet.  And in that time we get the pleasure of some semi-cheesy lines...but the movie as a whole is so entertaining you can ignore the uninspired lines of dialogue in parts. 

I need to say this...Near the end of the movie I think I spied some horrible CGI (Computer Generated Imagry) of a plane.  It must have been...something horrible attacked my eyes for about two seconds.

After the filming of the last scene wrapped up production I'm assuming Phillip Noyce, at the top of his lungs, so everyone in the vicinity could hear, yelled "Sequel!"  This is purely speculation and not fact, from a reliable source like People Magazine...don't judge.

So basically I thought this was a good movie vehicle for Angelina Jolie and I was thoroughly entertained for slightly over an hour and a half.  There's action, there's twists, and probably most importantly the lady who's face is on the poster.  If you like her or action movies in general, then by all means see it.  But be frugal, because we are in a recession.  Although I guess Regal Cinemas doesn't believe that since they are continuing to boost their ticket prices up each year.  Not award-winning material...obviously...but yeah...just watch it...it'll be at the very least fun.  2 and half stars out of 4

-Joseph Sbrilli

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Salt

So who is Salt? Or more specifically, Who is Evelyn Salt?

You might as well be asking who is Jason Bourne? Yeah, well Salt is kind of like Bourne. Grim, driven, and unbeatable. And totally  humorless.   She's also Mata Hari mixed with MacGuyver. And to top it all off,  she's someone who will look you right in the eye before blowing your brains out.

Salt never met a vehicle she couldn't operate - cars, vans, and motorcycles? No problem. She's adept at making a bomb out of household cleaning agents, and when called for, she can mix up a delightful cocktail using spider's venom. She's all girl, and all killer.


Salt never saw a building she couldn't escape from or break into. These include several very famous buildings - like the White House in Washington DC, and St. Bartholomew's Church on Park Avenue in New York. Despite getting herself captured and placed into the custody of the CIA, or the FBI, or even the NYC Police, this never seemed to be a problem.  It was never a question of will she escape. Instead it was more like, how quickly will she escape.


So who or what is Salt? It is a preposterous new action thriller that opened today. Directed by Philip Noyce (The Patriots Game) and starring Angelina Jolie and Liev Schreiber, this thriller rushes along its 100 minutes in break-neck fashion. You either hurtle through the air with Jolie in a vehicle, or watch her leap from one moving vehicle to another, or simply watch her defy gravity with some parkour moves that might seem better suited to Tony Jaa (Ong-Bak) or one of the District 13 films.


Evelyn Salt may be a Russian spy, then again she may not be. We are told she was trained since childhood in one of the schools the Russians used to operate. You know the kind - the kind that would make a Russian more American than most Americans.  What was the line used in the film ..." Idioms, idiosyncrasy, and ideaology". By the way, the idea of such a school seemed like a lift from novelist Nelson DeMille's The Charm School .  The truth of this bit of fancy, is she or is she not the spy/assassin contains many, many twists and turns. No one is quite what they appear to be - but isn't this the case in every spy thriller?


If nothing else, this film is filled with thrilling action set pieces. Lethal weapons like grenades and powerful automatic hand guns find their way into Salt's hands as easily as you or I picking up a cell phone.  But Noyce went a little too fast on the editing console. The hand-to-hand combat whizzes by so fast, you really don't see the punches hitting the target's body. Instead you see the bodies flying.

The script has holes-a-plenty. The most egregious is when the Vice President of the United States is being laid to rest in a funeral service in the aforementioned St. Bart's. We see the crowds gathered in the streets, we see a massive amount of security measures by the Secret Service, the FBI, and the NYC Police Force. We see Salt flitting here and there in the crowd watching the arrival of the Russian President, who comes to pay his respects, along with his own security detail.


Right after that is when we then see Salt on the Lexington Avenue subway train arriving at the 51st Street station. Which made no sense at all as we had already seen her on the street outside the church. Which made no sense at all as we had already seen her in her hotel room (The Waldorf Astoria Hotel is right next door to St.Barts) rlooking down at the church.

We'll get to the acting in a minute, but before that, Jolie's looks are present and accounted for. She can turn heads as well as snap your neck (literally - not figuratively), but the production has almost shut down her sex appeal so they could amp up her talents as a kick-ass  femme-fatale. She doesn't snap off any one-liners, and she certainly knows how to play at being tough. I think she did a great job at convincing us to ignore her looks and to pay attention to those hooks and jabs she could deal out. Liev Schreiber, is once more a character you'll admire for a while even though he doesn't get the girl. That's why they call it acting. In my view the honors must go to Chiwetel Ejiofor as CIA Agent Peabody who is out to capture Jolie's rogue Agent Salt. He's not only good in every scene he's in, but he more than steals a few of his scene. If you watch carefully, you'll notice TV veteran actor Andre Braugher in a short cameo as the Secretary of Defense.


But without hammering away at the plot holes, the less than credible twists and turns, and the fact that it was the Russians  (whatever happened to glasnost and perestroika) as the opposition rather than aliens, a drug cartel, or Al Quaeda, the film is still exciting.  As the film ended, people were kind of surprised, because there was that the open-ended finish which leaves you with the question of - will there be a sequel in 2012 or 2013? As we filed out, the audience was kind of quiet - not the kind of silence you have when a film stinks, or not the eerie glumness when a dramatic movie leaves you kind of beaten up emotionally. No this was more like ... huh? Did you like it? I'm not sure.

Me? I'm sure that the film will satisfy the action fans, and disappoint those expecting a more cerebral spy thriller. Which leaves me somewhere in between those camps. As in what was that ... all about?

Recommendations: Chak De! India

Last updated: 2010-07-24 10:08:57 by JustMeMike