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On July 23, 2010 a crime and mystery film, Salt, starring Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, Chiwetel Ejiofor, is released in the United States theatres.

After watching the movie I got the sneaking suspicion that maybe, just MAYBE, there will be either a sequel or a series made of this movie. It is good enough for a series base and intriguing enough to continue on for another picture. Angelina Jolie has proven herself time and again on the screen. Her genetics and her own inherent talent have made it a great adventure to watch her movies because there is always plenty of action. The character foundation of CIA agent Evelyn Salt (Angelina Jolie) starts at the first frame when she cries out in a repetitive mantra, “I’m not a spy” whilst enduring persecution and torture at the hands of the North Korean’s captors who show no mercy. We come to the next stage and Jolie is Evelyn Salt, a CIA operative that has a Russian defector walk into her office and tells everyone that she is a Soviet double agent. Jolie is on the run and the action heats up.

About this time, the question comes into play. Is she on the run from her boss and internal affairs at work, has she kicked into high gear on an assignment that has her carrying out an assignation on the Russian president that just happens to be coming to New York, or is she trying to rescue her husband that the Russians have taken hostage? The action and intrigue keep you on the edge of your seat as you follow the twists and turns of the plot. Thankfully for this summer movie there is a plot, unlike some other movies that really flopped this summer.

Aussie director Phillip Noyce (Clear and Present Danger, Rabbit Proof Fence) does a superlative job of combining the prerequisites of modern action film-making – shaky cameras and rapid cuts – with the traditional need to actually know what’s going on, creating a string of chase sequences that are realistically thrilling.

This spy adventure movie is a feral, roller coaster ride in more ways than one. Making the allegory solid is the freeway pace, the frantic moves (and stunts), a plotline that supports frenzied battle and impetus designed to keep us deducing without break until the finishing breath. The impetus of the drama begins when Russian defector Vassily Orlov, played by Daniel Olbrychski “Break Point” saunters into CIA headquarters with an aspiration to spill the beans. Russian expert Salt, in crisp bureaucrat attire, after having been liberated in a spy exchange thanks to the political efforts of Mike Krause (August Diehl), a great admirer of hers, is chosen to interrogate the stolid old warrior.

Salt is in a hurry – she has a plane to catch. The visible signs of the tribulation she suffered are not-quite-healed cuts and abrasions on her face. Orlov presupposes his own disciplined pace as he discusses correlations between field agents, leading to the startling conclusion that she, Salt, is a double agent working for the Russians.

Her agency associates, watching from behind two way glass and listening to the conversation during the interrogation, freeze up upon taking in this little tidbit from their walk-in defector. Agent Ted Winter (Liev Schreiber, “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”) and agent Peabody (Chiwetel Ejiofor, “2012″) go into high security mode. This involves detaining Salt for questioning and deep investigation. The charge may be inconceivable, but these are chaps who recognize the concept of a “mole” and what it could mean to the country and the agency.

Her own actions from that moment on would advocate that Orlov’s charge is true. She goes on the run. The full reserves of the agency are put into motion as she navigates the corridors of the building, the streets, parking lots and latticed freeways. When she’s finally surrounded on a bridge, she yells that she can’t be taken because of a desperate need to get to Mike who has not answered his phone and may possibly be in immense jeopardy.

But her insistence on this as a motive for her run, which has turned continually more frantic (and exhilarating with the accumulation of more agents chasing her) holds a faint echo of her insistence to the North Koreans that she’s not a spy. Can you trust her integrity? The agents can’t decide. They had witnessed the extent of her daring and skills to elude the men and surveillance assets of the whole agency. Actually, the fun is just starting and the chase is on.

The chase makes for a frenzied action spy story on par with director Philip Noyce’s “Clear and Present Danger”, “The Bone Collector” and “Patriot Games”. In fact, along with the collaboration of screenwriter Kurt Wimmer (”The Thomas Crown Affair”, “Law Abiding Citizen”), he’s outdone himself right along with his star, Jolie.

Little birds are saying that the role that Angelina Jolie has done so well was originally written for Tom Cruise. There are tell-tale signs that this may be true from the looks of the design and staging of the close combat sequences. Jolie put her athleticism to an extreme workout to make the fight concepts of this film credible.  She is in even better shape than when she was making her other movies that had strenuous athletic requirements such as the “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider” series. The babe is superb, but she isn’t a pumped up male star.

The piece is put together utterly professionally, from sets that had to have involved tremendous physical and safety challenges to the extraordinarily fine lighting of cinematographer Robert Elswit in the dark recesses of a Russian hideout to the up to the minute technology in the high tech warren of cells and corridors of agency structures. James Newton Howard’s score is on a proper pulse with the exigency of the events and scores with significant musical ingenuity.

There is so much exhilarating stunt work and intuitive connection going on in this movie that the gender limitation recedes in importance if you permit it to. This is tremendous movie making, and at one hour forty minutes know that every minute is worth watching. The fast paced action doesn’t take a hiatus as it delivers luscious espionage, intrigue and marvelous entertainment.

Salt is directed by Phillip Noyce, written by Kurt Wimmer, Brian Helgeland, and produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Sunil Perkash. The movie is distributed by Columbia Pictures.

You can watch the official trailer below.

Click Here To Download Salt