Salt
Director: Phillip Noyce
With: Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Daniel Olbrychski, etc.
Angelina Jolie is our major, if not only, female action-movie star. She has played Lara Croft, of video game fame, and other kick-ass assassins, as in Wanted. And, none of these has proven any better than the films starring males in similar roles.
So it is with Salt. Evelyn Salt (Jolie) is a CIA operative who is revealed to be a Russian sleeper agent. Or, is she? Suddenly, she is hunted by her old friends in the agency (Schreiber), and on the run.
The plot revolves around a deep-cover plot to start an atomic war targeting Mecca and Tehran, and make the world think that the US is responsible. More ridiculous than this are the escapes she brings off, which I guess are no harder to believe than the male equivalents.
Noyce, however, is the director of superior movies like Dead Calm (1989) and Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002). I expect more from him. But, I guess he was after a big payday, and he might get it with this one. Loud, fast and brainless, but mostly fun in a non-nutritious kind of way. And, Jolie really can deliver the goods, silly as they are. If you like it, the door was left wide open for endless sequels, a la the Bourne movies, which are better in my opinion.
A popcorn flick, and no more. But, maybe that’s enough on a hot day.
C