The Angelina Identity...

Rating: 4/10 (25 November 2011)

A Russian defector, under interrogation by the CIA, exposes one of the agency's top operatives--a beautiful blonde veteran--as a Russian spy; she maintains her innocence, but escapes security anyway to warn her husband of the impending danger. Is she a spy, trained by the Russkies as a child into overthrowing the US government--and if so, where do her sympathies lie after her husband is abducted? Cold War revisionist balderdash, 'written by' Kurt Wimmer though seeming cobbled together from various (and familiar) action-adventure clichés. In the lead, Angelina Jolie shows up; she narrows her eyes in suspicion, she purses her famous lips in concentration. After rolling off an overpass onto a semi, Jolie's extraordinarily lucky Evelyn Salt is grazed by a bullet yet still manages to leapfrog through heavy traffic, later riding a police van off another overpass onto a taxi-cab (where she ridiculously walks away, unnoticed and unharmed). There's no logic to the film (not even crazy logic), and a character twist in the extended final reel is predictable. Those of us who were rooting for Jolie in her earlier, "Girl, Interrupted" days might be excused for giving up hope she'll become our next great movie star. She's the perfunctory stunt-woman here--and if that isn't Jolie but an actual stunt-woman on the screen, then she had even less of a reason beyond her paycheck to show up. *1/2 from ****