Steady Salted...

Salt
Starring: Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, Chiwetel Ejiofer,
Director: Philip Noyce
Rating: 3 (out of 5)

Summary: After CIA agent Evelyn Salt is fingered as being a Russian double agent by a ex KGB spy being questioned at CIA HQ by Salt herself. Finding herself as America's most wanted, she goes on the run to find out the truth and stop the assassination of the Russian President...

Every summer season there are a glut of action films starring sexy Hollywood starlets and as quickly as you can say gratuitous topless shot, they will sit in various interviews stating how "different" their character is compared to your usual heroine, that they "kick-ass" as much as the male lead and this time they really hold their own. What you find is that they spend 99 per cent of their time as a damsel in distress and only one soft punch/broken nail away from Kate Capshaw Temple of Doom territory.

Therefore it's somewhat ironic that the role of Salt was originally lined up for Tom Cruise, who instead passed in favour of the dead on arrival romantic action of Knight and Day. Of course the double agent, cold war heavy narrative - as well as the look - are somewhat similar to his initial outing as Ethan Hunt in Brian De Palma's underrated Mission Impossible, but Jolie shows once again that she could rip off Cruise's balls with a quick side swipe along with any other guys wishing to take her mantle as a true action hero.

Director Philip Noyce, used to taut political thrillers such as The Quiet American and Clear and Present Danger, uses all his know how to make sometime director of Hollywood tripe Kurt Wimmer's implausible plot devices as plausible as possible and Jolie, apart from being more than capable in the action stakes, gives considerable acting gravitas to the role of Evelyn Salt. Believe me, Jolie is the star and she commands the camera as if the audience were mere putty in her hands.

In fact, Wimmer and Noyce both seem so enamored with their female spy creation that every other character fades into a background of underwritten stereotypes and finally wide eyed, over acted shouting. The lazily cast Liev Schreiber and Chiwetel Ejiofer attempt to stay on screen long enough to make an impression but struggle to get their odd five minutes of screen time noticed over the numerous slow motion jumps and sweaty gun grapples of the lead.

The action set pieces are, as standard at the moment, straight out of the Jason Bourne book of close encounter punch ups i.e. all shaky cams, cold violent brutality and real stunts. Occasionally Noyce decides to take the CGI route with the more preposterous set peices and this doesn't sit too well with the old school spy games unfolding around them. Salt has more impact when it sticks to what it does best, espionage and trickery.

Despite this, the final third is pure Hollywood hokum of the highest order but Jolie has such a palpable screen presence that you'll be having too much fun to begrudge Salt the odd flight of fancy. On the weekend that testosterone epic The Expendables opens and the loud, excess of The A-Team goes into its third week in UK cinemas, let's borrow a line from Flight of the Conchords and say that sometimes there are simply "too many dicks on the dance floor" and Jolie is ready to blow them all away. In the pro feminist action sense of the term of course.