Hugh Kenrick
07-27-2010, 05:15 PM
If you are a fan of implausible, bordering on preposterous spy thrillers, you might like this film.
Salt borrows heavily from Bond flicks, Bourne flicks, Alias TV show and a movie called 'No Way Out' that featured a sleeper agent. Those movies had some basis for their reality, but this has none. The movie tries hard to be Bond or Bourne, but the gaping plot holes and utterly ridiculous story line kills it. It offers nothing more than some rather boring chases, and bad dialogue. Not even Liev Schrieber is any good in this one, and Jolie plays her usual pouty, devoid-of-emotion superspy that can leap tall buildings in a single bound. In fact, the number of seconds the camera focuses on her stare is uncomfortable.
You know the rest: save the world from destruction. No attempt is made to explain motivations of any of the good guys or bad guys except vague world domination scenarios. Salt's own motivation is a blank, it's like they wrote this script as they filmed it, and said 'okay, now we need a twist, we're 27 minutes into the film!' Near the last half hour, it really departs from reality, and I just wanted it to be over.
In short a really bad film, slickly produced, marketed and packaged. Skip it and save your money for a real thriller.
It's remarkable how many BAD films Jolie has done, but she still has a career. She really adds nothing to this one except the lips and the stare.
Salt borrows heavily from Bond flicks, Bourne flicks, Alias TV show and a movie called 'No Way Out' that featured a sleeper agent. Those movies had some basis for their reality, but this has none. The movie tries hard to be Bond or Bourne, but the gaping plot holes and utterly ridiculous story line kills it. It offers nothing more than some rather boring chases, and bad dialogue. Not even Liev Schrieber is any good in this one, and Jolie plays her usual pouty, devoid-of-emotion superspy that can leap tall buildings in a single bound. In fact, the number of seconds the camera focuses on her stare is uncomfortable.
You know the rest: save the world from destruction. No attempt is made to explain motivations of any of the good guys or bad guys except vague world domination scenarios. Salt's own motivation is a blank, it's like they wrote this script as they filmed it, and said 'okay, now we need a twist, we're 27 minutes into the film!' Near the last half hour, it really departs from reality, and I just wanted it to be over.
In short a really bad film, slickly produced, marketed and packaged. Skip it and save your money for a real thriller.
It's remarkable how many BAD films Jolie has done, but she still has a career. She really adds nothing to this one except the lips and the stare.