Salt

Reviewed by Mike Kamrowski

I just got around to catching the latest flick from director Phillip Noyce (The Bone Collector, Patriot Games) and, to be honest, I was pleasantly surprised. I hadn't heard much about Salt, safe for the fact that Angelina Jolie was starring as some kind of hot, ass kicking secret agent, so I didn't really have any expectations. The trailer looked solid and the movie ticket was only $4.50 so I figured "what the hell?" Here's what I thought.

First off, Salt was written by Kurt Wimmer who brought us the excellent Law Abiding Citizen. While Salt didn't have the appearance of his previous work, the story was well written, fully thought out and full of great twists (remind you of anything?). The story follows CIA agent Evelyn Salt (Jolie) and her boss Ted Winter (Liev Schreiber) as they interrogate Russian defector Vassily Orlov (Daniel Olbrychski). Orlov gives them some pretty interesting information, revealing that sleeper agents, trained in Russia and sent to the U.S. as children to replace already existing citizens, are going to kill the Russian President in the coming days: the particular agent in question is Evelyn Salt.

OH. SHIT. But that's Jolie!

You can guess where it goes from here- I really don't want to reveal too much because of all the twists and no-fucking-way moments, but I will say this: Jolie beats some serious ass as Evelyn Salt. It was impressive really, certainly reminiscent of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Mr. & Mrs. Smith. The action was almost non-stop, the fight scenes were well choreographed and the car chase scenes were fast and surprisingly funny. In one particular scene, Jolie is locked in the back seat of a police SUV and somehow manages to kick out the cops on either side of her. She ends up with a taser, shoots the driver in the leg with it and, crippling the poor bastard to nothing more than spasms, uses his head to steer the car. Each time she hits the taser, his leg pounds on the accelerator. I have to say, that's one thing I've never seen in any movie prior to this one. An interesting concept and one that had the audience rolling with laughter.

The film is well shot, really well shot in fact, and the story was great all the way until the end. So many twists and unexpected moments greet the audience in Salt that I'm hoping for a sequel, which could happen due to the open ending that Wimmer left us with. The climax tied up most of the loose ends and I walked away satisfied... except for the utter lack of naked Angelina Jolie scenes :(

3.5 out of 5 stars