Angelina Jolie has played a wide variety of characters in her movie career – from Lara Croft to Mrs. Smith to the Tigress in the animated hit “Kung Fu Panda”. But her latest role may be the toughest of them all, because she may be a Russian spy. Or maybe not.
That’s the premise of “Salt”. At the start of the film Evelyn Salt is a CIA agent, with an ordinary life, a husband and a dog. But then a Russian defector walks into CIA Headquarters in Washington D.C. and tells everyone of a plot to assassinate the Russian President who’s in NYC to attend the funeral of the Vice President of the United States.
The man says the person who will do the killing is a Russian spy named…Evelyn Salt. Then the craziness begins. I really can’t tell much more of the plot without giving anything away.
There are a lot of twists and turns in the script, but, after seeing “Inception”, any movie is easier to follow than that. Unfortunately the trailer gives away a little too much of the plot.
“Salt” is pretty short, only an hour and forty minutes, but there are no lulls in the action so every minute is fun to watch. The action scenes, and there are plenty of them, are very entertaining, starting with a chase scene that was shot near my hometown. I got to see Angelina do some of her stunts in that scene live when it was filmed last year. And the scene comes out great on the big screen, and will be fun to watch again (and again) on DVD. There are also plenty of extras, including an alternate ending.
Jolie gives a believable performance, and keeps you guessing as to whether she good or bad right to the end. And she does a great job in all of the fighting scenes. Liev Schreiber plays her boss at the CIA. He’s very good as well, as is the supporting cast.
One of the few negative things about the film is that there are too many flashback scenes. They break-up the flow. Fortunately most of the surprising moments happen in present day.
“Salt” is rated PG-13 for loads of action violence and some strong language. It’s o.k. for older kids who are use to seeing people getting shot in movies. But “Salt” is mainly meant for adult spy/action fans. If you like the James Bond and Bourne movies, and especially if you’re an Angelina fan, you’ll love it.
On The Official Kid Critic Report Card, “Salt” gets a B+. It was one of the best action films of 2010.