It's not perfect, but it's one the year's more ambitious films.

Rating: 6/10 (23 August 2010)

This weekend, I got out to see Salt, a recent Summer action flick.
In the film, Angelina Jolie plays Evelyn Salt, a woman working for the Central Intelligence Agency, who is happily married to a German arachnologist. But Salt's world is turned upside down once a mysterious Russian man walks into the offices of the CIA with information. He states that Salt is a double agent for the Russians. This leads to steadily, and swiftly raising paranoia, none the least of which from fellow agent Ted Winters (Played by Liev Schreiber), and ONCIX agent, Peabody (Played by Chiwetel Ejofor). Salt proclaims she is innocent, but actions later in the movie seem to imply otherwise. Serious deceptions begin to cloud many serious truths, initiating a chain of events that places Russia, and the United States on a course of self destructive collisions.
The plot of this movie is... kind of predictable, to be honest, and on top of that, a little reminiscent. You can kind of think it as a cross between The Fugitive, and the Bourne Identity, with a woman in the lead role normally played a man. There are lots of obvious Boom, boom, bangs! Gunfights, fistfights, car chases, and a couple of over the top, yet strangely awesome death scenes (Which of course, I won't go into detail about). But the movie is actually fun in its simplicity. The action is well staged, fast paced, pretty impressive, and expertly choreographed. It does help the movie.
As does the cast. First bit of praise here goes to Jolie, who continues to prove that not only can she be a pretty capable dramatic actress, but she still knows a thing or two about how to be a sexy badass action star, and carries the film pretty damn well, might I add. Although, I could possibly imagine some people taking her performance for granted, simply because she only makes it look so easy. The rest of the cast such as Schreiber, Ejofor, and Daniel Olbrychski are pretty top notch.
However, I must stress that Salt is a far from perfect movie. I think director Phillip Noyce could have seriously worked out some of the flaws of the movie, maybe even working some kinks out of Kurt Wimmer's script. Some things in the story feel pretty rushed, but it's balanced out by the good things about the movie, the last of which being the techs. The film's technical crew, such as DP Robert Elswit, film editors Stuart Baird and John Gilroy, Stunt coordinators Simon Crane and Wade Eastwood, and Sound Mixers Jeffrey Haboush, Scott Millan, Greg Russell and William Sarokin did their jobs fantastically.
Simply put, I think I've found what will be one of my biggest guilty pleasures of the year. It's predictable, but the action is fun, and pacing is fast. And Angelina Jolie on her own, makes the movie worth a look.
I give Salt **1/2 out of ****