Anthony's Film Review

The action may be standard, but I was quite amazed by the plot twists...

The action thriller movie Salt is like a familiar culinary dish that still hasn't lost its blandness. You don't watch this movie with the expectation of originality in style or content. The only reason to check it out is if you still have an appetite for exciting, fast-paced action mixed with suspense and surprises even after seeing other similar movies. That's what I think will determine if you will like this movie. And if you are in the mood to see it, I can tell you that it's above average overall, even though the premise is entirely average.

Basically, this is a movie that centers on a character who is on the run, very much like Harrison Ford in The Fugitive or Tom Cruise in Minority Report. Angelina Jolie is CIA agent Evelyn Salt, who returns to duty after being held captive in North Korea and freed during a spy swap (very much like another movie, the James Bond film Die Another Day). Her latest task is to interrogate a Russian agent who intends to defect and details a plot to assassinate the Russian president during his visit to the United States. The interview moves along just fine until the agent reveals a very unexpected fact: the person behind the plot is named Evelyn Salt.

This immediately sets off a rapid chain of events. Salt has to act quickly to escape capture by other CIA agents, including her superior Ted Winter and an agent named Peabody, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor. Salt also scrambles to find her husband, fearing that his life may be on the line. All of this is happening in a string of action scenes taking place within CIA headquarters, on a busy highway, and at Salt's apartment building. During the action, there are questions that float through the audience's minds. What is happening? How could Salt be set up like this?

The answers to such questions are given as the story moves along, and they are astonishing revelations. Each time something new comes to light, there is a change in perspective about the characters and the events occurring thus far. And just when you think you know it all, there are more twists thrown your way, even during the climactic action scene. It's enough to bump my rating for this movie from a 7/10, which indicates a pretty good movie that's average to slightly above average, to an 8/10 for being quite good.

Interestingly enough, the movie just happens to be set in today's time. You would think that a thriller like this one about evil Russian spies would be classified as a Cold War thriller. Although the story could be set in the Cold War, it still works as one set in the present, because the film was released just as news broke out about the discovery of Russian sleeper spies in the United States (most notably a young woman named Anna Chapman). Of course, it doesn't matter if you notice this or not. The important thing is that Salt delivers plenty of thrills in its 100-minute running time, definitely something to enjoy if you need another dose of action movies.

Anthony's Rating:

For more information about Salt, visit the Internet Movie Database.