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3 Stars***

Angelina Jolie continues her consistent spell with action movies that really show character; (Wanted being the exception) you feel you really get to know Evelyn Salt in this fast paced chase movie.

What’s it all about?

A Russian spy walks into their offices and offers a vital piece of information: the President of Russia will be assassinated during his forthcoming visit to New York City to attend the funeral of the recently deceased U.S. Vice President. The name of the assassin: Evelyn Salt. Concerned about the safety of her husband, who she cannot contact, she goes on the run. Winter refuses to accept that she is a mole or a double agent but her actions begin to raise doubts.

Written by Kurt Wimmer and Brian Helgeland, the screenplay must have raced off the pages as it’s almost one continuous chase scene. It’s just the locations that move across the northern part of the US. The excellent twists add to the fun of this movie. You may guess one of them, but you certainly won’t guess all three (expert twist guessers who are disallowed.)

Of course we know that what the star actress does on screen is impossible to all but a few mere mortals on this earth. I mean, how many of us can easily jump from the tops of moving trucks to cars moving at high speed, land safely without a scratch to show for it apart from the bullet in the stomach. The slug doesn’t slow this girl down at all. It’s great the way she manages to move quicker than the speed of a bullet fired at her from close range by a secret service agent, who we would wish to believe has received fire arms training to quite a high level.

The music by James Newton Howard is also exceptionally dependable. Once you see this guy’s name you know what the music will be like. Strong thumping background music that’s good enough to stand alone, but not intrude so much into the movie that you miss the acting.

It’s a good 100 minutes worth the ticket price and proceeds from those tickets will easily outweigh the $100million budget. I’m sure by the time we get to DVD extras they’ll have seen why they paid the star so much money.

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