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Sometimes fortune smiles on a movie.
For instance: In 1979, The China Syndrome, a story about a meltdown in a nuclear plant, hit theaters (March 16) just before the Three Mile Island disaster (March 28).
Salt happens to arrive just when America found out we had a slew of Russian spies in our county – more than a little similar to the plot of the movie. Maybe that helped fuel the picture to a nice opening. Well, that and Angelina Jolie. About the film Inception (Movie Man No. 886 [last week], an 8) still won the week as patrons returned to try and figure things out. But Salt’s $36.5 million was a stronger than expected second.
Jolie is one of the few women who can pull off action movies – in fact, the best. (Anyone who saw Scarlett Johansson “fight” as Black Widow in Iron Man 2 [MM #876, 7] knows that.) Jolie is the rare female who can draw men and women into theaters – the latter for a tail-kicking woman role and the former for, well, she’s Angelina Jolie. Between her do-my-own-stunts skills and her exotic looks, she comes through on both sides of the aisle. Salt was originally planned for Tom Cruise, but his career has been careening lately (and this summer’s Knight and Day hasn’t righted him). The Movie Man must confess that he was ready to pass on Salt. It started out really good, however – a strong 7. While it faded, the Movie Man decided to keep it there, a waffling 7 but still a 7. The plot (spoilers) Agent Ted (Liev Schreiber) fetches agent Evelyn Salt (Jolie) from a North Korean torture camp as spies are exchanged. Back in the U.S., Jolie is ready to celebrate her wedding anniversary with her bug scientist of a husband when a Russian defector arrives at CIA headquarters. Telling a convoluted story about brainwashed, trained, deadly Russian children sent to America decades ago to wait for Day X when a mass execution of higher-ups will begin, he’s dissed – until he names Jolie as one of the Russian spies. Agent Peabody (Chiwetel Ejiofor) wants to detain her, but Schreiber thinks she’s okay. When there’s hubbub in an elevator, Jolie is soon fleeing with wild abandon into the city. The plot the defector described was to kill the visiting Russian president. Quickly, Jolie infiltrates funeral proceedings, appearing to do the deed. She winds up with former Russian cohorts then is given the ultimate task – kill the U.S. president. She seems intent on doing just that, with Schreiber and Ejiofor always lurking and seeking her. What works Jolie looks like she could whip your behind. She wields guns well (as seen especially in Mr. and Mrs. Smith [2005, MM #616, 6]) and is believable. Also impressive are her co-stars, Schreiber and Ejiofor even though keeping up with her onscreen is no easy feat. There are some super – if ridiculous – action scenes, including... Best scene ...Jolie has miraculously managed to escape from CIA headquarters. But, instead of just disappearing into the crowd and the scene fading, there’s a 10-minute sequence where it seems like she’s about to be caught several times. It was nice to see an extended chase that was actually thrilling. What doesn’t work In this sort of action movie, you don’t want to think too much which is a good thing. Some of the feats Jolie pulls off are laughably dumb: She makes a rocket launcher out of a fire extinguisher; she leaps from speeding truck to speeding truck; she’s shot at 10,000 times with getting hit; she fells scores of armed macho men with ease. Some of the action has jiggle-camera-itis, a little nauseating. The rating Salt is an okay PG-13 – no sensuality, mild gore, but a ton of action shoot-’em-up. Summing up Salt was better than the Movie Man expected. Action/Jolie fans will really like it. Next up Dinner for Schmucks. |
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