SALT

Another Tuesday, another $5 matinee.  This weeks pick was the new Angelina Jolie flick, Salt.  Typically, this is not the type of movie I'd go out of my way to see.  I feel like if you've seen one of these cookie-cutter action movies, you've seen them all.  It's usually cliche, predictable, and I find it pretty boring.  Salt was cliche, perhaps predictable...but boring it was not.

I found myself pleasantly surprised in the flow of the movie, and the many twists and turns that it took us on for just over an hour and a half.  Jolie plays Evelyn Salt, who aside from being as resourceful as MacGyver and good looking as, well, Angelina Jolie....is also a top notch CIA officer and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.  At least it felt that way.  She's basically a superhero without the cape.  Jolie is able to jump from truck roof to truck roof, to moving car, from window to window and down elevator shafts without so much as a twisted knee.  I broke my ankle stepping in a divot.  Needless to say, I'm envious.

The plot is basically inconsequential.  I don't know that there's anything you need to know except that Salt is on the run, half the CIA is trying to catch her, and there's going to be some broken glass along the way.  The plot has holes big enough to drive a truck through (with Angelina Jolie riding on top of it).  Doesn't matter, you're in this for the action, and the movie delivers, all the way down to the sequel enticing ending.

Two things I'd nitpick about:  1. Angelina Jolie doesn't run like a superhero/trained badass.  I can't explain it, except that when she's running for her life, she reminds me of someone keeping a steady 5.0 on the treadmill at the gym.  For example, Matt Damon, in the Bourne movies, RUNS like someone being chased, and looks natural doing it.  2. For about 60% of the movie, Jolie is in some god-awful blond wig that makes her look like a hippy housewife from the 70's.  There's simply no way for anyone watching the movie to ever believe that was her natural hair, and I thought it looked awful.

Those couple of things aside, I can say that I enjoyed the movie.  I don't think it's necessary to run out and see it in the theater, I'd recommend waiting until hit the DVD circuit in a few months - but it's worth a rental for sure.  3.5 out of 5.  For what it was, it was done well.