*** Official SALT Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[Robert Crawford]

This thread is now designated the Official Discussion Thread for "Salt". Please, post all comments, links to outside reviews, film and box office discussion items to this thread.

All HTF member film reviews of "Salt" should be posted to the [COLOR= rgb(68,112,140)]Official Review Thread[/COLOR].

Thank you for your consideration in this matter.


Crawdaddy

 

[Steve Christou]

Originally Posted by Tim Glover /forum/thread/302468/official-salt-review-thread#post_3713900

 

[EricW]

just one question - why would the old russian guy walk in to the CIA in the first place? to draw attention to the assassination plot? also, right from about 15 min in, i just kept thinking 'please dont have leiv schreiber as a russian, please!'.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Eric: The old Russian guy walked into the CIA to activate Salt, his sleeper agent. By doing so in such an explosive fashion, it kept all of the attention on Salt -- allowing the rest of the plan to go off without being noticed. More importantly, it forced Salt's hand because he would know immediately whether she was a valuable asset by whether she stayed and pleaded her innocence or escaped and pulled off the assigned mission. Finally, by making her public enemy #1, it provided Schreiber's character a patsy to explain how the president's entire cabinet was mercilessly slaughtered. Presumably he would have killed the president too in order to keep his secret had he been given the chance.


The big question: If Orlov hadn't tested Salt's loyalty by killing her husband, would she have turned on him? The spider venom says yes, but her affection for the old man says no.

 

[Tim Glover]

took in a second viewing of Salt and liked it a little more. Flaws remain and IDK, just not a fan of the actor who plays Ted. I know he's been in some good movies and is considered to be a good actor. Just something about him I don't like. Gosh, I realize that is WAY subjective and should have no bearing on the film but it does play a role.

Angelina is really good at these action type films. Jason Bourne she is not but pretty dang good. I liked the back story and this is one of those rare moments where maybe an additional 15 minutes would've served the film well with some added depth to the backstory. The flashbacks were quick and kind of wanted a tad more.

Again, she lights up the screen EVERY moment and makes you pay attention. Not many actors can do that. She's underrated as well. There's one moment near the end that is just bad ass:




When she corrals Ted with her handcuffs and jumps off the stairs to strangle him. Just a cool and bad ass move. Way cool.





A good film. Worth your time and hard earned money.

 

[Paul D G]

Replying to the above spoiler:


this text is to fill up the preview area on the index page. this text is to fill up the preview area on the index page. this text is to fill up the preview area on the index page. this text is to fill up the preview area on the index page. this text is to fill up the preview area on the index page. this text is to fill up the preview area on the index page. this text is to fill up the preview area on the index page.

While that looked good, all I could think about just before that happened was - what the hell kind of ineffective handcuffs are those? Handcuff an assassin with cuffs that have a three foot chain on it? How does that restrain anybody? I think it would have looked cooler to have normal style handcuffs and have her leap over the balcony while encircling his head with her arms. Then with her feet against the wall push out as hard as she could thus strangling him with her standard issue three inch cuff chain.

 

[cineMANIAC]

this movie was just another Bourne-type high-tech thriller, only faster moving and less believable. Cookie cutter stuff

 

[EricW]

it was solid but too hollywood to rise above its genre, i think only Jolie made it better than it would have otherwise been, and not just because she's cool, but because she's a she i mean imagine if Cruise had done this as planned, it'd be "just another movie".

 

[Michael:M]

WARNING: I'm not spoilerizing text, since this is the discussion thread.


Yeah, the look on Salt's face, and her whole posture, when she killed Ted was nearly orgasmic: it was a really vivid, stark moment, and it's something that (for me) distinguishes this from the Bourne movies. Salt isn't as "nice" or good as Bourne: her loyalties came down to the man she loved, not about country or the greater good or a moral code. She's a badass killing machine that let her heart be won, and anything that violated that love is getting taken down.


The movie's not perfect - it's fairly predictable, actually. I'm horrible at guessing plot twists, and I saw Schreiber's flip coming a long way. Unlike an above poster, though, I like him as an actor, though he does carry an air of menace about him.


Loved the music, too - it was almost another character. James Newton Howard did a great job aurally matching the movie's visual tone.


It's a solid, if unoriginal, action/thriller, and Jolie acquits herself very well as a superspy.

 

[brentl]

I have to say I was pretty disappointed in the flick, it seems everybody is trying to do the Bourne things, and that certainly didn't happen here.


AJ is too thin, it's that simple, actually it worries me a little, and to think she can handle a bunch of 200lb men is silly.


The jumping vehicle to vehicle almost made me walk out of the theatre, it wasn't just a small stretch(or jump) it was huge.


I will agree that the one shot I loved was AJ over the banister to choke out her boss was very cool.


I'd probably give it a solid C.


Brent

 

[Andy_G]

I thought it was fun. It didn't try to be anything more than it was.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Originally Posted by Adam Lenhardt


The big question: If Orlov hadn't tested Salt's loyalty by killing her husband, would she have turned on him? The spider venom says yes, but her affection for the old man says no.

The big answer: yes, she would've "turned" on her master. The fake killing of the Russian president proves that she'd turned well before Orlov killed her husband - Salt had no intention of doing Orlov's dirty work.


Affection? Faked. Salt may've been trained by the bad Russkies, but by the time of the movie's events, she'd moved on. There's no evidence in the movie that she ever intended to fulfill her "destiny"...

 

[Pete-D]

I had a good time with it. For an action/spy popcorn movie it's fun. The action scenes are visceral and intense, a throw back to the days of Die Hard with the modern sensibility of the Bourne movies thrown in.

I think though this is a movie that was probably needed one more re-write, it just felt a tad undercooked. The relationship with her husband could've been fleshed out more (the actor playing him was dull too). The president was really dull as well.

The movie could've used maybe an extra 5-10 minutes I think, it ended a bit too abruptly and the whole "wait for the sequel!" thing is getting a little grating to me.

Still if you're looking for a solid action film mixed with a suspense thriller, this is definitely a fun ride, and Jolie is likable. Salt is a bit more rounded and more human of a character than Lara Croft for sure. Though I can't help but wonder if the movie would be more interesting if Salt was actually a "bad guy" or someone that turned out to be a total bit of gray.

 

[Paul.S]

Originally Posted by Michael:M :

There has been significant discontent with the album release of Salt, limited to download-only availability and reportedly leaving out the film version of the choral mix in several cues. The latter problem is particularly irksome for Howard collectors after The Last Airbender; labels apparently now seem content to respond to challenging economic times by omitting or using sampled variations of choral accompaniment on albums in order to save money in reuse fees.

Ouch. I prefer packaged media and this is likely a sign of the (bad) times: a major score composer's work owned by a major record label (I surmise Madison Gate Records is a Sony imprint since "Madison Gate" is a reference to the main entrance to the Sony lot--Madison is the re-titled name of the street it's on, a reference to the Madison Avenue address of Sony corporate in NY) of a major studio film (whose parent company is a co-owner of the CD patents) is apparently only seeing release via download and Amazon On Demand CD-R (which as of this typing is also not in evidence on Amazon).


Doing a search within the Music category at Amazon for "Madison Gate Records" turns up a few soundtrack CD-Rs, all of Sony properties so it looks like Madison is a new banner under which Sony Pictures scores are getting released.

 

[Tim Glover]

Originally Posted by Colin Jacobson




The big answer: yes, she would've "turned" on her master. The fake killing of the Russian president proves that she'd turned well before Orlov killed her husband - Salt had no intention of doing Orlov's dirty work.


Affection? Faked. Salt may've been trained by the bad Russkies, but by the time of the movie's events, she'd moved on. There's no evidence in the movie that she ever intended to fulfill her "destiny"...

Well said Colin.

 

[Edwin-S]

I've never been a fan of the Russkies, but even I found this film insulting to them. The U.S. M.I.C doesn't need Russian boogeymen to start wars. Other than the tired, insulting, Russian sleeper cell premise, the movie moved at a good pace, had plenty of action and Jolie requitted herself quite well as a "spook". She was not quite up to Damon's level as Bourne, but she did a fair job, even if a lot of her feats were unbelievable at times.

 

[Bill Cowmeadow]

I had a good time at the movies with this one. Angelina Jolie was great, in this 'escapist action flick'. Thoroughly entertained.

 

[MattFini]

If it weren't for INCEPTION, this would've been the best movie of the summer for me (so far).


Angelina is absolutely fantastic (and believable) in this, and I found its breakneck pace to be far more exciting than the Bourne films (although I think that's because the crappy third film killed my enthusiasm for that series).


The storyline kept me wondering (although it turns out I was right) and the action setpieces were rousing. The aforementioned final kill is one of the greatest things I've seen in recent memory.


I wasn't expecting much, but this was a great action/thriller and I'll be picking up the Blu-ray on day one.

 

[Brett_M]

Great pedigree on paper but poorly executed for me. They gave it no space and went for action over story. I could care less about her husband because they did not give enough energy to the backstory. The rest is fluff -- on par with Die Hard 4. Laughable. Bourne is compelling because the things he does are possible. A film that did it right was Spy Game, a totally underrated spy thriller. Characters we care about are hard to write so go with what works -- high action thrill-ride. That's all well and good -- I love action movies. I like Jolie but she needs to gain about 20 pounds. To shoplift a line from Seinfeld: "you don't have to fight her -- just wring her neck."

 

[Robert Crawford]

Originally Posted by Brett_M

Great pedigree on paper but poorly executed for me. They gave it no space and went for action over story. I could care less about her husband because they did not give enough energy to the backstory. The rest is fluff -- on par with Die Hard 4. Laughable. Bourne is compelling because the things he does are possible. A film that did it right was Spy Game, a totally underrated spy thriller. Characters we care about are hard to write so go with what works -- high action thrill-ride. That's all well and good -- I love action movies. I like Jolie but she needs to gain about 20 pounds. To shoplift a line from Seinfeld: "you don't have to fight her -- just wring her neck."

As you stated, Salt is a totally different type of film than Spy Game. They have little in common except both films involves the CIA. The Borne movies had an advantage of being taken from an adapted source so the eventual scripts had a little more to work with when it comes to character development. I think Salt is a fine action film without much pretense about it being just a fun summer action film. By the way, I love all three Bourne films and wishes a fourth one is eventually made.






Crawdaddy