MOVIE REVIEWS: SALT

IN THEATERS

SALT

Director Phillip Noyce teams with screenwriters Kurt Wimmer (Equilibrium) and Brian Helgeland (Mystic River) to craft this thriller starring Angelina Jolie as dedicated CIA officer Evelyn Salt, who is accused by a defector of being a Russian spy. With each attempt Salt makes to prove her innocence, her mentor, Winter (Liev Schreiber), only grows more suspicious of her true motivations. The longer she eludes capture by ambitious CIA agent Peabody (Chiwetel Ejiofor), the higher the stakes get. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Director: Phillip Noyce

Cast: Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Andre Braugher

Release Date: Jul 23, 2010

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and intense sequences of action

Runtime: 1 hr. 31 min.

Genres: Action/Adventure, Suspense/Thriller

Review:

Excessively ludicrous and obnoxiously stupid Salt is an action dud of massive proportions. Phillip Noyce directs this seemingly endless parade of shoot out, getaways and plot twist with dead set seriousness that can best be described as oblivious. Oblivious to the abject silliness of the entire proceedings with characters so poorly executed it hard to take any of them very seriously. Taking herself just as seriously is Jolie, whose stone cold demeanor makes you think she really believes this character is somehow grounded in reality. More surprising is that her action sequences are surprisingly unconvincing throughout and she shoots, punches and jump kicks with all the passion of a coma patient. Liev Schreiber is saddled with a character who given some of the most banal dialogue in recent memory. Poor Chiwetel Ejiofor just doesn’t seem to have any luck with summer blockbusters, in last year’s 2012 he got to be the scientist who was wrong all the time, as he’s given the unenviable task of simply looking confused throughout. The entire ordeal makes the Bourne movies look like real world documentaries and the Mission Impossible movie look incredibly plausible. Somewhere Tom Cruise thanking his lucky stars that he passed on Edwin A. Salt and it was redone as a vehicle for Jolie otherwise it may have proven the actual nail in his blockbuster coffin something which Knight and Day isn’t.

D