SALT

this is the new movie, "SALT" review! for you who love action and drama, i think this will entertain you.

A typical Hollywood spy thriller often delves into exploring and showcasing the impossible, without caring too much about how realistic the plot or its character looks. It’s different that the lead actors in these films play their roles convincingly and thus make these films believable...

Coming back to the archetypal espionage thrillers, the dare devil spy of the film is a killing machine who can bring down whoever and whatever he wants within a couple of minutes. Is he a superhero? No, but a man blessed with super stunt abilities? Yes.

Bond films, Mission Impossible, Bourne Identity are classic examples. An overdose of action and style is good enough to keep us entertained and once that’s done, one doesn’t give much importance to the loopholes in the plot...Salt being a classic example.

When CIA agent ‘Evelyn Salt’ (Angelina Jolie) is accused of being a Russian spy deployed to assassinate the Russian president during his visit to the US, Salt flees in order to prove that she’s innocent. As CIA believes Salt is guilty, she jumps across the tops of speeding vehicles on a freeway, dives from a helicopter, rides a bike manically and uses all her possible ‘training’ to escape from the clutches of whoever thinks she is a culprit. But, things are not as they seem. There is more to this conspiracy than meets the eye. In agent ‘Salt’s’ style, no body is, who they say they are. Who exactly is ‘Evelyn Salt’ then!

We are told, the film was originally offered to Tom Cruise before it came to Jolie as Cruise had prior commitments. No wonder Cruise didn’t take it. After all, Mission Impossible and Knight and Day were on the same lines. The script was rewritten for Jolie and it is the actress who infuses that spark in this otherwise formulaic action thriller.

Angelina establishes herself as the queen of action once again. She proves she is no less than a man when it comes to playing an out-and-out ‘action-oriented’ character. We quite liked the actress in ‘Wanted’ too. Scarlet Johansson (Iron Man 2) or any actress who wishes to be a femme fatale can take up some coaching from Jolie on how to get that body language right. Jolie as Salt, speaks less kills more and does it all in style. She shows no qualms in letting go of that iconic sex appeal as she gets into the skin of her character by actually getting all daring and dirty!

If you are looking for novelty in films, there is nothing new about ‘Salt’ except for its attempt at letting a female protagonist tackle the bad guys on her own. The film’s climax has its share of twists and turns which aren’t too predictable but not jaw-dropping either.

Salt has some hair-raising action scenes and solid performance by Jolie but it suffers as far as the script is concerned. There is no depth to the characters and no insight into their lives as a result of which the audiences can’t connect to what they see onscreen. The post Cold War paranoia seems half baked and thus its effect on the story insipid.

If you like Angelina Jolie, this one’s quite an entertaining popcorn film. By popcorn, we mean the 'regular' salted popcorn. Don’t expect a caramel or cheese in it! If expecting logic? You can give this one a miss.