Not quite Bourne with boobs, but almost.

Rating: 7/10 (27 December 2010)

(This is a review of the Unrated Director's Cut of Salt. I haven't seen the original theatrical version or the Extended Cut.)
Salt is a fun spy/action movie. It had lots of exciting scenes, a credible action actress, and at times, it's downright thrilling. It even had me guessing at what direction it was going, at a few points. Salt is also derivative of lots of other movies. Primarily the Bourne series and the Mission Impossible movies, but also the Bond films, Tom Clancy's series, and The Manchurian Candidate. It didn't bother me much that Salt borrowed liberally from so many other films. As they say, there's nothing new under the sun. The one real issue that I did have with Salt was that the last part of the movie tries to be entirely too clever, and loses a lot of its credibility and falls apart, as a result. But, as I can't really go too much into that without spoiling the whole film, I'll just content myself to saying that while I didn't really like the turn the movie took towards the finale, it wasn't enough to ruin the movie for me.
I love Angelina Jolie in these kinds of roles. She's a born action star, and there are very few actresses who would have been as successful in this role as she was. She almost makes you believe that her character could beat the crap out of and outsmart every other police officer, agent, and soldier that she came across, without missing a beat. It seemed like she did most (if not all) of her own stunts and (brutal) fight scenes, and given the fact that she had just given birth to twins a few months before, I was beyond impressed.
The ending completely leaves itself open for sequels, and I'd love to see Jolie return for the role. All we need is a story that doesn't lose itself in shennanigans that would feel right at home in an over-the-top spy movie from the 60's, and we could have a really solid franchise on our hands.