Twists for twists sakes. Not as clever as it thinks it is.

Rating: 7/10 (21 January 2011)

One thing that is true of Angelina Jolie is that she is a talented actress. Another thing is that she is a stunningly beautiful actress. The latter is to such an extreme that sometimes i find myself so entranced that i forget I'm watching a stinker of a movie. Now, I'm not here to trash Salt, yes its silly, yes its not as clever as it thinks it is but ultimately , its one of the better action films that Angelina has appeared in. Whats frustrating about Angelina Jolie in action films is not that she doesn't make the character believable, the contrary, you can tell she's committed and full throttle in every scene and her off screen enigmatic persona really adds a layer of intrigue when she plays characters like this, no its that the scripts often let her down. In Tomb Raider she was every inch Lara Croft but the films stank. In Wanted she played the calm, cool hard faced assassin to perfection while matching the boys in the physical action stakes, but the film was awful. In Mr And Mrs Smith, she played it for laughs with some strong action set pieces thrown in but the film didn't have the legs. Time after time, Angelina is let down by those around here not being up to her level. Salt, while being one of better action films (not saying much) is still bogged down by over indulging itself, throwing twists in for twists sakes.In a way, it feels like the film is a few years too late and we've seen the same twists done so many times ,we are fully expecting them. From Phillip Noyce i can be forgiven for expecting something a little more cerebral and engaging but ultimately Salt just feels like an attempt to start a franchise.