Salt (Noyce, 2010)

[kaytee]

The new female Bourne...

[ayaa1977]

The new female Bourne...

If anyone can ever pull that off this woul be Angelina Jolie.

[X.]

I like the poster. It practically screams "I want to swallow your salty cum."

[ayaa1977]

IMDb link

Synopsis: As a CIA officer, Evelyn Salt swore an oath to duty, honor and country. Her loyalty will be tested when a defector accuses her of being a Russian spy. Salt goes on the run, using all her skills and years of experience as a covert operative to elude capture. Salt's efforts to prove her innocence only serve to cast doubt on her motives, as the hunt to uncover the truth behind her identity continues and the question remains: "Who is Salt?

Angelina Jolie teams up with Philip Noyce 11 years after their first film together The Bone Collector, probably the film to blame for all those CSI shows, and I can comfortably say that it is a rather successful reunion.

Noyce, the son of an Australian WWII spy himself, seems always fascinated by the spies world and so far he made quite a few good films in this genera. He directed two very successful adaptation of Tom Clancy's novels where Harrison Ford played CIA agent Jack Ryan, 1992's Patriot Games and  1994's Clear and Present Danger.  He also made the highly acclaimed The Quiet American in 2002

Back to Salt, and mind you, the film doesn't work because it has the most tightly written script, or because you buy into the ridiculous plot. Let's face it, the plot holes are too big that an elephant would fall through them. Also the final reveal about the secret villain is plain stupid, unoriginal, and indicates laziness form the part of the writer, not to mention how obvious it was. Don't get me wrong, I don't mean obvious in a way that make sense, I mean obvious that any lazy writer would resort to it as cheap shock for the audience rather than thinking of a more original one. That made the final act rather weak and uninteresting comparing to the build up before it. Those things I mentioned are what's keeping Salt from achieving greatness in my eyes, and they are major problems.

Now that we are done with what is bad about the film, let's talk about what is so good about it, and I'll save the best for last. First of all the film is so fast paced and it never seize to thrill or entertain, because the entire film, save for the first 15 or 20 min, is a continuous chase, and I mean non-stop. There is no fat to trim at all in this 99 min film, this is to the credit of the seasoned director and his editors. Secondly, the action scenes are just breath taking and I will mention three. The first one is the breakout scene, which in part is in the trailer, for Salt after she was accused of being spy. It was very intense and from it we start to appreciate how skilled is this woman. The second one, which is probably one of the most refreshing car chases I have seen in a while, involving Salt running away jumping over trucks in the highway. What was great about it is that it was done old school with stunts and not cheap CGI, and even though it is preposterous unrealistic, it was kickass and a joy to watch. The third one that I want to mention was her breaking into a heavily guarded, and I mean HEAVILY, church, and I won't spoil anymore except that it involves the most awesome hole in the floor.

There is also the love story between Salt and her husband, mostly in flashbacks, and you believing into it is so integral, not only to buy into the plot and motivations, but also, for the viewer, it is so important to read into the psyche of Salt and for answering the film's ultimate question "Who is Salt?". Fortunately the love story is well flushed out and interweaved into the rest of the film, and it is one of the strongest element, if not the strongest, about writing in the film.

One more thing that I would credit to the film is Salt identity and her allegiance, it is really not that hard to figure out who was Salt, but the thing that the film cleverly kept from us is who is Salt now, and the question that the ending left us with is who is Salt becoming. The ever shifting mystery about Salt makes for fascinating viewing and interesting storytelling.

All that and I didn't mention the best thing about the film, one miss Angelina Jolie. If you thought Mat Damon was great as Jason Bourne, think again. This girl is one of the greatest action figure of all time. You know why, because she embodies the character she plays and here you believe one hundred percent that she is indeed Evelyn Salt not superstar Angelina Jolie. The angst, the love, the vulnerability, the rage, and every possible human emotion involved is dug deep in her face and her voice, and if an action hero in a summer action blockbuster films get Oscars, I say they should hand it to her right now and get it over with, because she was that good. The scene of her final wrath is so intense and brutal, and what made the execution of it 10 times more effective is the expression and the shriek she makes while she is doing it. Hats down to you ms. Jolie, you deserve every last piny they are paying you, and all the acclaim.

The film is left open ended, possibly for a sequel, and this is one sequel that not only I will not mind, but I will really welcome. Because Evelyn Salt is one tough cookie that I would like to meet again, on screen of course.

My Rating 4/5.

[ozzylogic]

One for the .KFF

[animatedude]

i want Tom Cruise,where's my Tom Cruise? if this doesn't have Tom Cruise why would i watch it?

[ozzylogic]

Watch Knight & Day. You might find it better than Inception

[animatedude]

Watch Knight & Day. You might find it better than Inception

but i want Salt was set to star Thom i want my thom,i might go to the cinemas tomorrow and ask them why it doesn't star thom cruith and get my ticket refunded.

[fizz]

Boy, that is some lavish praise...is it really that good? I'm almost eager to watch this now on the big screen.

[X.]

Written by Kurt Wimmer, a glorified genre writer, SALT has a conventional story that is stretched to its limits by Jolie's natural charisma and Philip Noyce's efficient direction. The action sequences were the least interesting aspect of the film to me (except, perhaps, the Church scene, which Ayaa has noted in his review). And as sentimental as the love story is -- despite the flashbacks that come thick and heavy, complete with diffusion filters and swoosh sounds -- it works and gives a nice emotional thrust to Jolie's character. The actor who plays her husband is terrific, and will make every nerd in the audience feel good about himself. I guess there is real hope for science geeks after all...

Jolie is really terrific as Salt, though it is sometimes difficult to believe that she can fight, because she looks so frail. (However, despite this, of course she is able to survive a lot of car crashes and beatings.) What is refreshing about SALT is Jolie's character who is tough and unrelenting, and although the movie's marketing is playing the "Who is Salt?" card, making you question her allegiance, audiences are smart enough to know that she is of course the good guy. The politics in the film may seem retrograde (nuclear weapons, US. vs. Russia) until a very contemporary and devious last-minute Middle Eastern connection, which is outed by a hilarious line that I cannot reveal.

I cannot recommend SALT, but it is worth watching for the Jolie+Noyce factor, and for the always awesome Liev Schreiber. You will love him even more in the last act, ha ha...

[fizz]

Ok, that's it. I'm watching this.

[kaytee]

I for one didn't like the movie as much. Yes Jolie can kick ass but the story was contrived and its not like we haven't seen this before. You could predict the story from the word go and that is where my interest in the movie died. It fails to provide anything new, I have seen Jolie kick ass before as Lara Croft and I have seen better crime/suspense thrillers. They tried to pull a Bourne out of Salt but this one is still too bland for my taste.

[ayaa1977]

The actor who plays her husband is terrific, and will make every nerd in the audience feel good about himself. I guess there is real hope for science geeks after all...

He is the German actor August Diehl, perhaps you can remember him from Inglourious Basterds where he played Major Hellstrom the nosy Nazi officer in the bar who crashes the meeting of the Basterds with Michael Fassbender Hicox and Diane Kruger's Bridget. 

I for one didn't like the movie as much. Yes Jolie can kick ass but the story was contrived and its not like we haven't seen this before. You could predict the story from the word go and that is where my interest in the movie died. It fails to provide anything new, I have seen Jolie kick ass before as Lara Croft and I have seen better crime/suspense thrillers. They tried to pull a Bourne out of Salt but this one is still too bland for my taste.

I would agree with you that the story is not the strongest part, and that it follows a template of action thriller to a fault. That being said this is a Jolie that we haven't seen before. Sure she kicked ass before in Lara Croft, Wanted, and Mr. and Mrs. Smith, but none of those roles had the emotional heft that this role carried. This one was the real deal, acting-wise.

As for faulting crime/suspense for having a contrived and improbable convoluted plot, to me it is like faulting porn for having guys with a foot long dicks or girls with double-D breasts. Come on KT, get real.

[ayaa1977]

Boy, that is some lavish praise...is it really that good? I'm almost eager to watch this now on the big screen.

Fizz, I didn't mean to mislead you, and I can't really guarantee that you will not end up disliking it. To me Angelina Jolie's portrait of Salt trumped all the films's other shortcomings. That and the lean mean action packed pacing and the competent direction of Noyce, coupled with the aforementioned action set-pieces and love story.

By the way, and not that it means much nowadays, but Ebert went as far as giving it a 4 stars review. I just read his review minutes before, and he has the same point to make as mine as we liked the film for the same reasons, only he put his review in a slightly better words than mine

[kaytee]

I know from experience that Fizz wont like this flick, he will think it is average probably a 2.5-3/5.