“Salt” DVD, Blu-ray Movie Review

“Salt”

DVD, Blu-ray Movie Review

Directed by Phillip Noyce, written by Kurt Wimmer, 99 minutes, rated PG-13.

By Christopher Smith

“Salt” stars Angelina Jolie as Evelyn Salt, a resourceful CIA agent who initially looks petite, blonde and pretty next to Liev Schreiber’s towering Ted Winter, a fellow agent, until her life takes a sudden turn for the worse.

And when that happens, she grows into a rampaging she-monster from hell who can’t be stopped, regardless of what you hurl her way. Not that anything is easy for her here. Salt has her work cut out for her in this movie, and director Phillip Noyce is wise enough to show us the toll it takes on his main character.

The story goes down like this: While in the middle of an interrogation, Salt is called out as a Russian spy by the very Russian defector (Daniel Olbrychski) she’s questioning.

Cue the drama! Now on the run, Salt is forced to morph into a woman whose name also should have been allowed to morph, though into something with a bite. You know, like Patty Pepper Spray. Or Tammy Tabasco. Or Kat Cayenne. Is there nothing that can stop this woman? Nothing that can take her down? Since Jolie has the lead, audiences know the answer.

Noyce based the film on Kurt Wimmer’s script, and what they’ve created is pleasantly absurd, the perfect throwaway that offers steam, heat and a seemingly bottomless taste for action. It’s a fun movie, so much so that you have to question the critics who slammed it because they found it “ridiculous,” “cheesy,” “an action vehicle that moves fast but thinks slow.”

Oh, please. Will there be anyone walking into this movie not expecting to suspend disbelief for the entire movie? That’s the film’s point, that’s what put people into seats, and that’s what Noyce, Jolie and Schreiber deliver with aplomb.

And that they do so with aplomb is what makes the movie so good. Yes, this could have been a train wreck--we’ve all been to action movies that are so dull, they make you want to reach for a noose and call it a life. But “Salt” is sleek and engaging, and the key reason for that is Jolie herself. She brought everything she had to this part, which mostly is physical as she does most of her own stunts. There’s no phoning it in with Jolie. She's like Madonna that way. What you see is what you get.

Add to the mix Chiwetel Ejiofor in a small yet key role as another of Salt’s colleagues and you have a movie peppered (sorry) with actors who know how to pull off a brisk movie that doesn’t lag.

As for the film’s ending, it’s an absolute set-up for a sequel, and the good news is that there still is a story to tell here. Beyond the fact that Salt’s character is compelling enough to flesh out even farther, who doesn’t want to see more of Jolie being the female equivalent of 007? Think that’s a stretch? When you see Jolie leap from bridges onto moving semis, or when you watch her rapidly scale an elevator shaft with no equipment other than her hands and feet, or when you see how she ingeniously gets a cop to drive with the help of a stun gun, there’s truth in that statement.

Jolie knows it, she owns it, and many who see it might want a bit more of it.

Grade: B+