Movie Review: Salt 2010

SALT, poses one question whose answer has serious ramifications for the nuclear aged world and which will, in my humble opinion, entrance the viewer to watching through to the credits for its resolution.  Who is Evelyn Salt? However the mystery and dissembling agendas of this piece just barely make up for the unoriginal and lax dialogue and lack of character empathy I experienced throughout.
Angelina Jolie is, of course, stunning even in her various disguises and exhibits feminine strength and vengeance that is titillating but the convoluted plot, that begins well, is rather far-fetched and full of political agenda and fanatical terrorism. Espionage is notoriously sexy and Jolie handles this mission with her usual savvy and professional detachment.
Some of her survival kit inventions are indeed interesting and different to conventional machine gun overdoses.  Who doesn’t want to see an athletic woman try to undermine national security with a glue gun and ball of string but the attempts at pace are distracted by sitcom clichéd flashbacks of sprouting love between Salt and her target, German academic husband (played August Diehl) that are shallow and saccharine as they attempt to form back-story and sympathy.
The cinematography is grey scale and macabre and the casting choices, somewhat obvious and spoilery, especially that of Liev Schreiber and Andre Braugher roles is unfortunately brief.  Still it is spies and moles and conspiracy, handled in a different light and worth the watch but not the purchase.  There is one vertigo inducing scene and an adorable dog plus spiders if that's your thing.
A story of the C.I.A. suspecting one of their own but not the conventional and idealistic agenda of clearing the hero’s name, it detaches from this sentimentality and skewers the perspective of right and wrong.
Hopefully the Russians will take this as pure entertainment and the Americans, once again, laugh at the incompetence and heavy handed methodology implied.
This film is another look at the ‘dark’ action hero with a personal agenda and weak allegiance and zero introspection.  Salt is a breed warrior designed to be an autonomous drone and the attempts at making her appear ‘normal’ are uninventive and stereotypical.
Two and a half stars for this production, directed by Philip Noyce and running at 100minutes long.

A Movie Review of Knight and Day (2010)

Knight and Day

Tom Cruise, the ageing, diminutive star of high tension drama and adventure, leads this cast with a practiced and familiar character, Roy Millar, a secret agent, supposedly framed and declared ‘rouge’ by his fellow patriots.  Yes, this has type casting all over it as the bicep-ed hunk of ‘Mission Impossible’ and intense, invasive and confident romantic of ‘Days of Thunder’ or ‘Top Gun’ reappears for this superman, good guys versus bad guys romp of violence, catch phrases and sexy damsels in distress.

However obvious the casting may be, begrudgingly, it is also perfect and the tried and tested action/adventure hero and unsuspecting blonde companion receives a refreshing breathe of fresh air with re-invigorating dialogue that is both witty and potent and a small injection of the ridiculous to add hilarity and likeability to this quirky, larger than life hero.

The plot is modern and simple enough to follow but with enough grey areas and dissimilitude to keep the audience guessing and wanting to believe.  In many ways it’s a parody of conventional films in this genre as it takes what the viewer expects and laughs at itself saying, ‘Yeah. We’re going to use this device but we refuse to be subtle and will tweak it for originality’.  It credits the audience as being modern, movie connoisseurs, mocking the audacity of far fetched scenes and typical clichés just far enough for the conventional action lover to still switch off and enjoy but for the bored, seen everything, nay-sayer to appreciate as well.

The ‘devil may care’ and matter of fact way Cruise handles the impossible situations and heavy bullet use, car chases adds levity and pace and the banter between Cruise and Cameron Diaz (the beautiful blonde, underachieving, small town, thrill seeker) is endearing and comical.

The story is moved along realistically using a funny and faux-pas device of drugging the damsel to allow time passage and to add a reality to her character – most women don’t become brave, stealth soldiers overnight no matter what handsome interloper shakes them out of their safe reality.

The cinematography is crisp in the action scenes and humorous and affective in single person perspective shots.  The 109 minutes of James Mangold’s directing is a pleasure to watch and holds the spectator’s attention and interest.

In conclusion this film doesn’t claim to be some epic love story nor deep intellectual critique on society or politics; it is merely fun and thrilling and delivers an enjoyable and memorable production of crazy antics and addictive characters for all the family.