The anecdote being thrown around about Salt is that it was originally a Tom Cruise vehicle but when he turned down the role to do Knight and Day, Jolie jumped in. The movie itself is full of plot holes and motivations and I lost interest in the "Who is Evelyn Salt?" question about forty minutes in. But since I had read so much (Check out Malinda Lo's post "Salt and the F-word: Femininity") and heard so much about the movie going in, I was committed to watching it.
Think about how often an action movie is headlined by a female. Outside of Milla Jovovich -- who is strangely perhaps the preeminent female action star these days right? -- it's true, they're few and far between. So go see Salt because even though it's mostly mediocre, it's better than watching another Jason Statham retread.
I looked up Angelina's box office grosses to see if she was worth her twenty million price tag. Surprisingly, she pretty much is -- if you don't factor in her non-action oriented movies. I wonder if her upcoming role as Dagny Taggart in Atlas Shrugged will be the great dramatic role she needs or if "Girl, Interrupted" will remain her acting apex.
Also, I couldn't take August Diehl seriously as Salt's loving and caring German husband. He was just too good in Inglorious Basterds as an evil guy. I kept waiting for him to turn bad.
