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

Fight Club

I go to my local video store. I enter the “Favorites” section, and come across a movie labeled “I am Jack’s Movie”. Striking a curious spark of interest in me, I grab the dusty movie and head home. When I pop the DVD in, what do I find? The fabled, the infamous, one-of-the-best-movies-no-ones-ever-seen. Fight Club.

Fight Club is centered around an unnamed narrator (Edward Norton). We quickly learn that the “Narrator” is a struggling insomniac that has no one there for him. He soon discovers support groups (testicular cancer, brain tumor’s, etc.) are the tickets to the train for his ecstatic high. When he discovers that another woman is doing the same thing, the “Narrator” confronts her and they agree to split up support groups. Yet the all changes when the “Narrator” meets Tyler Durden. Tyler shows the “Narrator” how to live life to the fullest, how society is crumbling and someone needs to take a stand. Tyler and the “Narrator” then open the door with an underground boxing gang called “Fight Club”. Soon Fight Clubs are popping up all over the nation, and it seems as if the “Narrator” has finally found his place in life. Yet Tyler has bigger dreams for his new army of the Average Joes. Dreams that would affect more than just the pitiful lives of his followers.

With Brad Pitt and Norton giving phenomenal performances, this movie was just great to watch. That being said, there is one thing that needs to be pointed out. The plot, which starts out so fantastically, ends with a question mark. Expect a somewhat of a twist.

3 stars out of 4

“The first rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club. The second rule is YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT FIGHT CLUB.” These words will go down as one of Brad Pitt’s best lines.

Daybreakers

(WARNING: THIS MOVIE ISN”T FOR THE FAINT OF HEART)

Those Spierig brothers are at it again (Undead, 2003)! And this time, these aren’t your average Twilight vampires. They won’t protect you from werewolves. These vampires will slash, bash, and gash just to get that last drop of human blood, or die trying.

The year is 2019. 10 years ago, a plague has transformed much of the world’s humans into blood-sucking vampires. Now, only 5% of the human population remains. Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke, Training Day) is a vampire scientist (yes, I know, great original vampire name) trying to find a blood substitute for the dwindling human blood supply, because if the vampires do not get the required amount of blood, they would mutate into demonic winged creatures called subsiders and have an uncontrollable urge for human blood. He has no one to turn to with his prospects for finding a cure to save humanity. With his brother Frankie (Micheal Dorman, Walnut) is the army and a human hunter, and with the company he works for being a house for human cattle, it seems that all Edward can do is wait for the Vampire race to die out. While on his way home, Edward ends up in a fender bender with an SUV containing some of the last free humans. Soon after, the police arrive and Edward hides the humans in his car, proving to the humans that he is a trustworthy vampire that will help them with their cause. After making contact with a human woman who was in the SUV, Edward sets up a meeting with a human that has discovered a possible cure to the vampirism. And with the whole vampire population on the brink of world wide famine, could this human know the cure?

This movie was crazy! The directors gave the audience some good ol’ fashioned vampires that don’t play footsie with humans. And with bodies exploding, heads being ripped off, guts flying through the air, it’s nice for people who don’t really enjoy the gore genre to have a great actor as a companion through this demonic hell. Ethan Hawke was at the top of his game, and with costars such as Sam Niell (Jurassic Park I and III) and Isabel Lucas (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen), the chemistry between these vampires were a thousand times better than the supposed vampire chemistry in the Twilight series.

However, the special effects weren’t as up to date with technology as some movies, such as Avatar and Transformers, are. Also, some of the scenes were just rushed through, while other seemingly unimportant scenes were dragged on far too long.

Overall, this movie isn’t a must see, yet a great movie for fans off blood spewing, gore splattering action. But if you’re looking for a sappy human-vampire love story, you’re looking in the wrong theater.

2 1/2 stars out of 4

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Harry Potter is back and more bad-ass than ever! In the sixth installment of the Harry Potter series, Harry, Ron, and Hermione, face more danger than ever before in the corridors of Hogwarts, including a new enemy, hormones.

Its dark times in the wizarding world. People are disappearing from their beds at night, no one knows who to really trust anymore, and Death Eaters are running loose. Even muggles are starting to notice something is wrong when a perfectly fine bridge falls to pieces as if it were made of Popsicle sticks. And still, life goes on. This year, as Harry becomes more attuned with the other gender, we see friends fight and fall in love with each other. We notice Harry’s certain liking of someone close to him, and we find out the truely dark and twisted path the boy called Tom Riddle followed until his transformation into the most dark wizard of all time, Lord Voldemort.

Director David Yates (Director of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix) truly received the best acting out of his three tremendously talented lead actors and finally gave the series time to slow down and allow the characters to mature more. He also sets up the mood for the final two movies (that's right, TWO more movies, although there is only one book to go) and gives the audience sense that soon, and I mean by next year November soon, all hell is going to break loose.

3 1/2 stars out of 4