SALT — ★★ — Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, Chiwetel Ejiofor; rated PG-13 (violence, gore, profanity, torture); in general release
"Salt" is essentially one long chase sequence. Or perhaps a couple of lengthy ones.
The fact that this action-thriller can sustain such a flimsy premise for nearly 100 minutes is impressive. And some of the action in the film is exciting and stacks up with some of the other action scenes we've seen this summer.
Unfortunately, the film completely fails in terms of coherent, compelling storytelling. It's a ridiculously convoluted tale that only gets more ridiculous as it goes along.
It certainly doesn't fare well in comparison to the James Bond and Bourne movies, which it resembles superficially.
Angelina Jolie stars as the title character, a CIA operative named Evelyn Salt.
Evelyn was lucky enough to escape from captivity and torture in South Korea, and since then she's basically turned into a desk jockey.
She's even settled down, with arachnid researcher Mike Krause (August Diehl, from "Inglourious Basterds"). But that peaceful existence is shattered when a Russian defector, Orlov (Daniel Olbrychski), shows up, claiming to have urgent news.
He says that Evelyn is a "sleeper agent," a Russian-trained spy who is going to assassinate Russian President Matveyev (Olek Krupa) while he's in the United States for a dignitary's funeral.
Rather than fight these accusations, though, Salt flees. Thus begins a cat-and-mouse game pitting Salt against her boss, Ted Winter (Liev Schreiber), and a skeptical colleague, Peabody (Chiwetel Ejiofor).
As she proved in both "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" and "Wanted," Jolie can be physically believable in these types of roles. And veteran director Philip Noyce knows how to stage action.
In fact, the better moments here stack up to some of his "Clear and Present Danger" and "Patriot Games" work.
But Kurt Wimmer's script is overly dour and dire, and the whole thing is almost completely lacking in humor. The only laughs are unintentional ones coming from the almost cartoonish characterizations and equally preposterous plotting (including a silly disguise bit that was swiped from the "Mission: Impossible" movies).
"Salt" is rated PG-13 and features strong violent content and imagery (gunplay and shootings, brawling and fisticuffs, stabbings, strangulation, explosive and vehicular mayhem, and violence against women), gory and bloody imagery, scattered profanity, and a scene depicting torture and interrogation. Running time: 100 minutes.
e-mail: jeff@desnews.com