Jolie Holds the Silliness Together

Rating: Null/10 (3 January 2011)

Salt (2010)
*** (out of 4)
CIA Agent Evelyn Salt (Angelina Jolie) is accused of being a spy for Russia with plans on killing the Russian president to set off a world war. Salt eventually breaks free and tries to prove her innocence while at the same time stopping the real bad guys. In my opinion SALT goes down as one of the dumbest action movies in the history of cinema. The screenplay has so many plot holes that you could fly a plane the size of Russia through it. There are action scenes that are so fake and impossible that you can't help roll your eyes. The idea of Salt being able to get into the White House and down into the emergency area where a nuclear attack is about to begin is just crazy. Every single inch of this movie has cheese all over it but at the same time the thing is simply entertaining. It's hard to believe that someone would attempt to do a film like this because of how crazy it is. At times I had to remind myself that I wasn't watching some sort of spoof as I was waiting for Jolie to utter "Salt. Evelyn Salt." This movie has so many crazy scenes yet director Noyce holds all of them together with some nice style and of course we get a strong performance by Jolie who sells every bit of craziness. One of the biggest action sequences in the film has Salt running away from dozens of cops and eventually jumping off a bridge and onto a moving semi. She then jumps from semi A to semi B where she eventually jumps on a few more things only to take off once again. This entire sequence perfectly sums up the film because the action is nice but at the same time it's so crazy and over the top that you can't help but wonder if anyone was really expecting you to take it serious. The entire story is just downright crazy as this attempt to take over the world and star a war is something that "C" movies from the 50s would be laughing at. If it sounds like I'm being overly hard on the film I'm really not meaning to. The craziness here isn't a bad thing because it's part of the reason SALT is so entertaining. Jolie has no problem fitting the role with that laid back humor and toughness. She even gets to do some dramatic acting in the final few minutes, which I won't ruin. The supporting cast includes nice work by Liev Schreiber and Chiwetel Ejiofor. If you're unable to turn your brain off for 100-minutes then I'd recommend you stay away from this film because it's "plot" will probably be too much for you to overlook. If you can sit back and enjoy a lot of craziness and action then SALT is just the film for you.