Salt

Move over Jason Bourne, your time has past. Meet the new face of bad-ass spies, Ms. Evelyn Salt.

Salt starts out with CIA agents Salt (Jolie) and Ted Winter (Liev Schreiber) about to punch out for the day when a Russian man walks off the street and says he has knowledge about Russian Spies. The man then goes into a story of how the Russians have developed a system to take children in, “Americanize” them, and create the ultimate spy. Then he drops a bomb-shell. He explains that the Russian President will be assassinated by a Russian spy tomorrow during the funeral of the U.S. Vice President. The name of that spy is Evelyn Salt. Salt then performs a miraculous escape, while trying to reach her husband, who she believes to be in danger now that she is suspected of being a Russian spy. Which leaves you wondering throughout most of the movie as Salt runs from the Secret Service and CIA, “Who is Evelyn Salt?”

Now, was Salt a good movie? Yes.

Was Angelina Jolie pretty amazing doing some of her “death-defying” stunts? Yes.

Did Salt do anything different from other action/spy movies? No, and that’s the Achilles heel of Salt. We’ve seen enough cliche’ car chases to last a lifetime. Climbing on outside walls was already perfected by Matt Damon in The Bourne Identity and Spiderman, so please no more of that. And Jolie already did the stunt of jumping on fast moving objects in her surprise hit Wanted. So, in a nutshell, for action fans, this is just Hollywood throwing up old stunts, and putting a pretty face on it. Plus, with an ending that is somewhat of a cliff-hanger, you have to wonder if there will be a second Salt. For our sake, lets hope not.

2 stars out of 4