James Bond, I mean, Evelyn Salt

My title for this could have been so obvious. "Pass the Salt", "Salty fare", "Salt and Pepper". Really, it was too easy, but I wanted to use a title that represented this movie. She doesn't have the gadgets, the Aston Martin, Q, or anything like that (then again, neither does James Bond these days), but for all intensive purposes, Angelina Jolie is James Bond in this flick, at least in the amount of fighting, death-defying stunts, and always seeming to know what to do. She's a one-woman army, and she is taking no prisoners, at all.

Is Salt a Russian spy as is suggested in the trailer? I'm not going to give it away here, but let me jsut say, it doesn't really matter whether she is or not. What matters is what she's going to do next, and how she's going to do it. What matters is her end result motives. I will say, I was surprised at how little dialogue is in this movie, especially when it gets going. There was a good chunk of time when Angie didn't utter one word. Why? Because of all the frickin' action going on! Kurt Wimmer wrote this movie, and if you know his work (Equilibrium, Ultraviolet), you know he loves his action, as implausible as it might seem at times.

So, what about the action? Well, the director is Phillip Noyce, who brought us Blind Fury, and the Patriot Games/Clear and Present Danger movies (as well as Dead Calm, The Saint, and The Bone Collector), so he should know a little bit more about filming action than the rest. Is the action viewable? ......to me, it's a hybrid. Sometimes it seems really fast, and shaky, but I can see pretty much everything, though not quite as well as I like. It's hard to describe. It's like, they're chasing Salt, and the camera seems to be vibrating, but I can see what's going on. The fights...I can see I would say 90-95 percent of the hits...which is unfortunate, considering I want to see 100 percent of the hits!

The storyline is okay, nothing you haven't see before. I would not say there was anything in there that surprised me, and everything I pretty much called right away. They do try and swerve you a bit with the story, but I've seen too many movies to this point to be swayed by red herrings and the such. That's not to say the story is bad or anything, I was right there to the end with Salt, so it wasn't as if I was zoning out or anything. It's a pretty good espionage flick, with lots going on, so it should keep everyone entertained, at least.

So, that's Salt. See it in the theatre, and buckle in, it's going to be a bumpy ride.

Rating 4 out of 5 stars.

- Stephenstein