Swanner: Angelina Jolie stars in the new action thriller Salt. In the film Jolie plays Evelyn Salt, a government agent who has been called a Russian sleeper cell by a high ranking Russian government official. Now Jolie must clear her name, or maybe she is this Russian spy and she’s just trying to escape the FBI agents who are trying to bring her back. The film moves like a Bond film and has a bunch of twists and turns that keep this film flying.
Judd: Ridiculouser and ridiculouser can be the only way to describe Salt. The movie gives itself away within the first ten minutes and then continues builds off its transparent premise while trying to distract the audience with more and more outlandish action sequences. If the script’s dialogue added up to more than 10 pages, I would be surprised. And don’t give me that mess about it being “summer popcorn film”. You’ve hit your limit excusing crappy movies with that reasoning.
Swanner: This isn’t a popcorn movie, this is more of an action thriller. Sure, it’s not a perfect movie but it was an exciting, fast moving fun ride. Are you sure that this ridiculous rant you’ve taken isn’t over the fact that you hate Angelina Jolie? If that had been Daniel Craig and the character had been called Edward Salt you would have been all over it like a fat kid on cake. I’d say the movie was a mix of Eagle Eye from last year and a Bond film. Sure, it’s over the top but audiences like movies they can get lost in, and I thought they did some daring things in the film. This isn’t your conventional happy ending action movie.
Judd: I do hate her, and boy is she starting look old, but she’s only the cherry on top of why I disliked Salt. The script was lazy and the direction, outside of the action sequences, was half-assed. I don’t know how many times Jolie stole a hat to change her identity, but I know it was too many times to be acceptable. Hell, in one scene she stole a hat and in the next scene she had a whole ensemble designed to match the stolen hat.
Swanner: She may be on the run but she’s still has to look good. The script wasn’t lazy…you just saw Inception with that complicated script and so your bar is set too high. It was nothing but action sequences. The whole movie is one big exciting adventure and wasn’t it nice that she didn’t have to fall in love to make the film have a romance. This is the way most action thrillers should be … heart pounding action … the end. I did want to mention the film is under 110 minutes long and they use their time wisely.
Judd: She didn’t have to fall in love because she was already in love. The movie was nothing but action and I’ve seen music videos that had more intricate plots. The movie could be reduced to a montage of action sequences and the audience wouldn’t have missed anything.
Swanner:
Judd: ½