Rated PG-13
1 hour 40 minutes
Storyline:
As a CIA officer, Evelyn Salt swore an oath to duty, honor and country. Her loyalty will be tested when a defector accuses her of being a Russian spy. Salt goes on the run, using all her skills and years of experience as a covert operative to elude capture. Salt's efforts to prove her innocence only serve to cast doubt on her motives, as the hunt to uncover the truth behind her identity continues and the question remains: "Who is Salt?"
Directed By: Phillip Noyce
Starring:
56%
My Grade:
B-
Hollywood, Ithink, believesAmerican movie goers to be mildly stupid. More and morethese days we are seeing films that don't make us think in any powerful way. More and more we get story lines that don't challenge us and make us go "wow". Because more and more these days, Hollywood is only concerned with making a shit load of money off these movies and you can't do thatwith Independent films with deep and haunting realistic life tales. They have to give us movies like "Salt" because this current generation of film goers can only maintain an attention span in a theater if things are blowing up and characters are pulling off ridiculous stunts that make us say "Damn! That was tight!" Now I'm not saying there aren't anymore thoughtful storyline based films anymore, of course there are. What I'm saying is, that today's audiences don't really know about them because they get no advertising. And no, I'm not saying America is stupid, I'm just saying I think Hollywood believes that we are.
So "Salt" is not some terrible movie. Don't let the above paragraph fool you. That was just a rant. Let's not forget why we usually go to the movies, especially during this time of year. We go to be entertained. That is what summer movie season is all about. Of course we aren't going to get a ton of movies over the summer that have profound stories, and who really cares? Yes occasionally we will get some gems, i.e. Toy Story 3 and Inception. Butaction movies at their true core are just there to wow to us and brake the barriers of realism. I don't think anything that happens in Salt can possibly happen in real life, but why would you even think that? I'm sick and tired of people going into movies like this and walking out laughing smugly saying "Psh, that could never happen, that movie was so unrealistic". Maybe those film goers are the stupid ones. Because typically those people are incapable of sitting back and taking a movie in for sheer entertainment. This is not a movie to watch closely and pick apart. Just sit back, shut the hell up, and enjoy. Action movies are notorious for being unrealistic...that's why they are action movies! I say the more unrealistic, the better! I don't want to go to a movie like this and just see crap I can watch on the news, I want to be blown away.
So how do you review a movie like this then, if you are someone who thinks like I do? I review it based off how much it entertained me...not how much I might think it would entertain the public. I can't speak for everyone, because everyone enjoys certain things differently. So did Salt entertain me? For the most part, I would say yes it did. There is a storyline thrown in the movie that I think get's a little to complicated and a little to confusing that takes up more screen time than need be. The story was awful, but again...I didn't care about that, the more stupid the story the better sometimes the action of the film can be. The problem here is that this stupid story was to involved in the film. Not really a bad thing normally as long as the story is cool and mixes well with the action. But here it was all over the place and just not really all that coherent. It was choppy and didn't come together well. It was more of a distraction than anything. They tried to make the story hip and smart but actually it came off as a muddled mess of stupidity. When mindless action movies like this have to big of a story, it takes away from what we are there to see in the first place: all that cool shit blowing up. I want to reiterate, I did not care that the story was bad...just that it took much time away from the stunts and effects. And ultimately the entertainment. You knew exactly how the story would end. You knew exactly who the "bad person" really was in the end before that was even revealed. Blah blah blah.
When there is moments of suspense and action on the screen in Salt, it is so over the top and ridiculous. I loved it. This woman must be a cyborg or something, because she feels no pain at all. She jumps from one semi truck to another on a busy freeway. She jumps off a freeway overpass. She leaps down an elevator shaft like she's spiderwoman. She shoots off her gun and throws grenades like it's no ones business. They must have some intense training there in this make believe land of the movie CIA. The action was insane and COMPLETELY implausible! That's why the action was so damn fun to watch! Angelina Jolie commands the screen no matter what role she's in. I'm a fan of hers when she's doing serious drama, but you know what? She can carry her own in a film like this too. If there's any reason to see Salt (ha) it's because of Jolie. She's bad ass in this movie, plain and simple. Action heroes don't always have to be men. Not a lot of female actors can portray the bad ass character, but Jolie is one of the best at doing so.
Look, Salt is by no means a great movie. Salt is a entertaining movie. That is why I give it a B- grade, because it entertained me. There was just enough action to go around to keep me glued to the screen. It's a rare feat these days to get an action film like Inception where there's a brilliant story to go a long with incredibly tense and awesome scenes of action. When we get films like that, relish them. For the most part, we will get film's like Salt. There sole purpose is to wow us and not win Oscars. Why can't people just realize that? Why does every movie have to have some high standard of excellence before you go into the theater? This is why I hate most critics. They are so full of themselves when they review movies like this. Truth is, they have no clue what American audiences find entertaining. Remember...we are all stupid...right?
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