A Russian defector walks into CIA headquarters and tells agent Salt (Angelina Jolie) that she’s actually a Russian spy that’s been brainwashed to kill the Russian president.  Once Salt is told this information, she immediately escapes the building and goes about her mission.  But is Salt really going to assassinate the president, or is she setting up an elaborate ruse to smoke out other potential sleeper Russian agents?

Salt starts off in the best way possible with Angelina Jolie in her underwear being tied up.  The rest of the movie doesn’t ever match that level of awesomeness; although the part where she takes off her underwear and puts it over a security camera comes close.  Angelina looks hot as ever and is constantly changing her looks (demure blond wife, sexy Russian babe, feisty pixie do, straight-up transvestite, etc.), all of which are easy on the eyes.  I mean if you’re trying to start a female Bourne Identity franchise, there’s no one better suited to the role than Angelina.

This movie has its share of ludicrous scenes.  I think my favorite part was when she hijacks a police car.  She tazers the cop behind the wheel and every time she squeezes the trigger, he hits the accelerator uncontrollably.  I also dug the scene where Salt makes a bazooka out of a fire extinguisher and a table leg too. 

A lot of the movie is dumb (apparently Lee Harvey Oswald was actually a deep cover Russian spy like Salt) or just plain bizarre (it takes place in “The Present Day” but apparently Russia and America are still in the grips of the Cold War).  Phillip (Patriot Games) Noyce’s assured direction helps to ground the ridiculousness in reality.  He also stages the action rather well too, like the scene on the freeway where Jolie jumps from tractor trailer to tractor trailer to avoid capture.  And while the film is far from perfect, at least Noyce doesn’t rely on that herky-jerky camerawork nonsense during the action scenes.

Jolie is fun to watch and the supporting performances are solid too (Liev Schreiber and Chiwetel Ejiofor are good as the suits in pursuit).  The action is plentiful as well, but Salt is missing that certain spark to make me cave in and give it the full Three Stars.  Why is that?  I don’t know.  Maybe it was all the constant flashbacks.  Maybe it was because Salt leapfrogs her allegiance once too often.  Maybe it was the protracted finale.  Maybe it was just the preposterousness of the whole deal.  Maybe it was because Jolie never got naked.  Yeah, I think that was it.