Salt

**1/2 – Angelina Jolie plays a superspy who may or may not be a double agent for the Russkies in this 2010 actioner that is a sort of combination of “Face/Off” and any given Bond film. There’s a whole lot of double-crossing, triple-crossing and quadruple-crossing going on with Jolie, Liev Schreiber and a handful of Russian guys, and one is never entirely sure (even at the movie’s conclusion) who is aligned with whom. That probably works in the film’s favor, as otherwise it would be pretty dull and predicable. The premise is pretty decent but the actual narrative is flimsy at best and only braced by a lot of convenient coincidences and timely text messages. Without those things “Salt” would be crushed under the weight of its own contrived complexity, while simultaneously being rather monotonous and derivative. Chiwetal Ojiofor (the guy who played the bad ass operative in “Serenity”) was probably the bright spot in this movie acting-wise, as both Jolie’s and Schreiber’s performances were nothing to write home about. The action was pretty decent, though. I watched both the theatrical version and the Director’s Cut, and would have to say that I preferred the Director’s Cut, although the changes made were mostly superficial until the very end. Both versions ably set up a potential sequel though, which is somewhat surprising as I can’t imagine there’s a whole lot more fuel left in the tank for this concept.