Salt

The lead role in Salt was originally supposed to be played by Tom Cruise. He turned it down as reportedly being too close to Mission Impossible and the film was re-written to accommodate Angelina Jolie playing the role. That there are no signs of this fairly major re-write is a credit to both the writers and Jolie's performance - one of the few leading ladies who can handle both serious acting and serious action.

She plays Evelyn Salt, CIA agent who is accused of being a Russian sleeper agent and goes on the run in order, purportedly, to try and save her husband, who is being help prisoner by the bad guys. She's pursued by her boss (Liev Schreiber) and counter-intelligence agent, Chiwetel Ejiofor. There follows the usual mix twists and turns, some more predictable than others involving plots to assassinate the Russian president and launch a nuclear attack. There's not much here that is original - the opening is lifted almost straight from Die Another Day. There's latex masks from Mission Impossible and whole vibe they try to take from Bourne. There's also a (franchise launching?) end sequence which makes no sense - surely there was a much simpler way to sort out guilt and innocence? And I struggle to believe that the White House bunker would be that easy to penetrate by one person, not matter how good she is!

That said, this is not a bad film. Director Philip Noyce (The Quiet American, Patriot Games, etc...) handles the action well. There are some great sequences, the customary chase through the traffic is better handled than most and the "take down" of the Russian president is possibly the highlight. As mentioned above, Jolie handles the action with skill and is ably supported by Schreiber and Ejiofor. So right up until the final chopper journey, this is well-handled gripping spy-thriller, its just the great one that it aspires to be.

Overall - 6.5/10 This so desperately wants to be the female Bourne that it hurts. Its not, but it's a solid spy-thriller nonetheless.