Joe Cornish’s alien invasion action comedy Attack the Block was my favorite film of last year, and it made a bonafide star out of lead actor John Boyega. The Brit immediately capitalized on that film’s success, snagging the lead role in Spike Lee’s HBO pilot, “Da Brick.” Unfortunately that show didn’t go to series, but Boyega isn’t letting that get him down. Variety says he’s just lined up a starring role in a film called Half of a Yellow Sun opposite the underrated Chiwetel Ejiofor and Thandie Newton. Based on a book, the story follows three interweaving storylines set amid violence during Nigeria’s bid to be an independent republic.

Biyi Bandele will direct the film, which weaves together multiple storylines during a decade of turmoil. Boyega will play Ugwu, a houseboy for a zealous university professor presumed to be played by Ejiofor. Newton seems perfect for Olanna, the professor’s beautiful mistress who has abandoned her past life in favor of one with her new lover. And Dominic Cooper is in talks for the role of Richard, an Englishman in love with Olanna’s twin sister. All the while, Nigerian troops close in and all of their relationships are tested. I’m a big fan of this cast, and while Bandele is relatively untested (he’ll make his directorial debut with this film), he has a lot of experience as a playwright and novelist, so film seems like the natural next step in his creative career.

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Funny story: I was going to spend a majority of this review comparing Salt to 1997′s The Saint, a Val Kilmer spy movie in which he plays a master of disguise. The humorous part is – unbeknownst to me until just now – Phillip Noyce actually directed both movies. I guess it all makes sense now.

A brief bit of background: this film was initially conceived as a starring vehicle for Tom Cruise, but when Cruise dropped out and Angie jumped in, it was rewritten for a female in the lead role. Watching Salt, the Cruise connection is obvious; it’s thematically similar to many of his other works (the old “agent on the run” story), and there’s even a motorcycle scene through the streets of Washington, DC. Kurt Wimmer – who directed the really slick Equilibrium and wrote the middling Law Abiding Citizen – wrote this script, and it’s clear to me that he’s a more talented director than writer.

In its new form, Salt aims to be Bourne for the female persuasion. The only trouble is that the politics and motivations on screen aren’t nearly as interesting as the Matt Damon franchise; here, the stakes seem too low for the audience to care. A comically trite scene involving nuclear launch codes seems by-the-numbers instead of suspenseful, and story elements similar to those in “Fringe” and Conspiracy Theory (with shades of the MK-ULTRA Program) felt so overplayed that the film – which only ran and hour and thirty-nine minutes – seemed to drag way longer than its running time would indicate.

The acting was sufficient all around, but I’ll put it this way – if these actors or actresses win any future Academy Awards, clips from this movie won’t be included in the highlight reel. Jolie was incredibly convincing speaking Russian, and brought a palpable intensity and sense of determination to her character that helped her keep my interest for most of the time she was on screen. Schreiber had a consistently good Southern accent (unlike Peter Saarsgard from the recent Knight and Day), but has given much better performances in the past. Chiwetel Ejiofor, one of my favorite working actors, seemed like he was trying but didn’t have much to work with on the script end of things.

In a film like this, I’m fine with ridiculous physics and unbelievable action sequences. This is an action movie, after all, and if John McClane can get away with insane moves, so can Angie. The set pieces are so preposterous that they seem almost like a parody of the genre at times, but the rest of the film is played with a straight face – so it becomes kind of awkwardly obvious that they aren’t kidding. But like I said, it’s easy to get past those moments because they’re such a staple of the genre. Sequences in which Salt leaps across the tops of moving trucks on a highway or jumps wall to wall down an elevator shaft can be overlooked and enjoyed as simply coming along with the territory.

Speaking of genre, Guillermo del Toro once told me (not me personally, but a bunch of us at Comic-Con last week) that he only enjoys genre films if they subvert the genre or works entirely within them. Straddling that line makes them completely uninteresting, and since Salt definitely works within the action thriller spy genre, it’s a totally fine movie. It’s a bit predictable, but it’s enjoyable enough and provides some entertainment during yet another summer of sequels and reboots.

There haven’t been any plans for a sequel announced yet, but I’m actually more excited about seeing a sequel than I was about watching this film for the first time. The ending clearly is clearly a set up for more installments, and since the character motivations were only revealed during the final few minutes, I’d be interested in seeing a film where I can actually relate to the heroine for the duration and where she has a clear cut goal in mind. The ending – and this could be considered a minor spoiler – actually reminded me of the end of The Dark Knight, and just as I’m eager to see how Batman handles his predicament at the end of that film, I’m eager to see Salt handle her embattled position in a sequel if one ever makes it to theaters. Until next time…

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Columbia Pictures have released a brand new poster for Salt featuring Angelina Jolie. I think it’s her anyway; someone appears to have gotten a bit carried away in the photoshop department.

In the film Jolie plays a CIA officer who is accused of being a Russian spy. Liev Schreiber plays a character called Winter, Jolie’s ally and supervisor in the CIA’s Russian office and Chiwetel Ejiofor plays a counter-intelligence officer who is trying to take her down. You can watch the trailer below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHUPQaK0XUc

Salt will be released on July 23rd in the US and August 20th in the UK.

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Angelina Jolie is one of the very few actresses who can actually control her own career. Other actresses still have to fight for decent roles in a climate where there aren’t many female leads to go around (apart from romantic comedies of course). Jolie however has the luxury of turning down parts, as she recently did with Wanted 2 and Gravity. For every action role such as Wanted and Mr. & Mrs. Smith Jolie balances it out with an Oscar-type drama like A Mighty Heart and Changeling.

Next up its time for another one of those action roles with Salt (which originally had Tom Cruise as the lead). In the film Jolie plays a CIA officer who is accused of being a Russian spy. Liev Schreiber plays a character called Winter, Jolie’s ally and supervisor in the CIA’s Russian office and Chiwetel Ejiofor plays a counter-intelligence officer who is trying to take her down. Columbia has released another trailer for the film, which can be seen below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHUPQaK0XUc

Salt will be released on July 23rd in the US and August 20th in the UK.

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Now it all makes sense. Angelina Jolie is being set up by some Russian guy. I’m just glad she replaced Tom Cruise in the lead role as seeing him say “someone’s set me up” again would have been tedious, as he was already set up before in Mission Impossible and Minority Report.

The trailer is just like the Russian trailer we got yesterday…just not in Russian. Enjoy!

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I’m sure Columbia didn’t intend for anyone to see the first trailer for Angelina Jolie’s Salt in Russia (apart from the Russians obviously) but that’s what’s happened. From the trailer it looks like Jolie has returned to the same action form we saw from her in Tomb Raider and Wanted, although as it is in Russian we can’t really understand what’s going on.

Jolie is seen interrogating a man, who mentions the words ‘Salt’, which seems to cause Jolie to panic as she is then seen running out of the building after blowing out a few windows. Then we see her in a number of disguises as she jumps off bridges, crashes cars, and punches people in the face. I can’t wait for the English version so we can understand why she is acting this way. Allergic to salt maybe?

Well I guess we’ve learned some language skills from this trailer. The Russian word for ‘salt’ is spelt a lot like the English word for ‘coat’. It may come in handy if you ever dine in Russia.

As well as Jolie the film stars Liev Schreiber who plays a character called Winter, Jolie’s ally and supervisor in the CIA’s Russian (how ironic) office. There’s also Chiwetel Ejiofor, who plays a counterintelligence officer trying to take her down.

Update: Filmonic reader Austin used his Russian skills and picked this up:

someone is supposed to kill the president and she wants to know who it is and he tells her Salt and she tells him that she is Salt and so he tells her that she is a Russian spy. she denies this.
“who is Salt?”

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Some more images from the set of Salt have appeared online. This time we get a look at Liev Schreiber on set with Angelina Jolie in New York. Liev plays a character called Winter, Jolie’s ally and supervisor in the CIA’s Russia office. One or two images also feature Chiwetel Ejiofor, who plays a counterintelligence officer trying to take her down.

Click here to check out all 20+ images!

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