Critics Salty, Sweet on Angelina's Latest

Not everybody's sold on the new action thriller Salt
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 23, 2010 7:36 AM CDT

If you rely on critics for your movie-viewing choices, just flip a coin on Angelina Jolie's new save-the-world thriller, Salt. They're about evenly split:

  • Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: "When exploited properly—as Salt does, keeping her human and vulnerable, so that the character's amazing ability and ingenuity continue to surprise—this thing that Jolie does is, well, very cool. Making us believe in the woman who can do anything, and I mean anything, is Jolie's distinct contribution to today's cinema."
  • Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: "Salt appears to have been assembled in the same food processor as most mainstream action films. So much of its fights and chases share a generic sameness both in their sloppy construction and where they’re situated."

  • Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: It's a "damn fine thriller" even if it is "gloriously absurd." Ebert thinks it's "exhilarating to see a genre picture done really well."
  • Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: "Not the worst of the summer, but a long way from the current state of the art. And not to pour you-know-what on the wound, but Jolie's days as an action heroine may be behind her."
(More Angelina Jolie stories.)

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