"Salt"

Richard's Review: 3 stars

Movies don't come more "ripped from the headlines" than "Salt." The story of a sleeper agent living in the United States unfolded in real life recently but wasn't nearly as exciting or as silly as its on-screen counterpart.

When we first meet Evelyn Salt (Angelina Jolie) she is an American hero after surviving a brutal interment in North Korea. "Do you know what she's done for her country?" asks her boss (Liev Schrieber). Actually we don't, but she did have a nasty black eye when she was rescued. She's married to Michael Krause -- the world's leading arachnologist -- and is happily riding a desk at an undercover CIA office in Washington. Everything suddenly changes one day, however, when a Russian defector named Orlov (Daniel Olbrychski) shows up with a wild tale of a sleeper agent named Evelyn Salt who is going to assassinate the Russian president in order to trigger a war. Accused, she makes a run for it -- searching for her husband and the truth.

"Salt" has a Cold War inspired plot that even James Bond creator Ian Fleming, no stranger to elaborate plot musings -- he once created a villain who killed his victims with liquid gold -- would have rejected as over-the-top.

Logic flies out the window early on, leaving room only for outlandish plot turns unlikely twists and an ending that can only be described as preposterous.

That said, "Salt" is a lot of fun but it's not a story that will hold up to a great deal of scrutiny. Hitchcock would have referred to it as a refrigerator movie. It seems to (mostly) make sense while you are watching it, but later, when you are home in front of the fridge making a snack and thinking about the film you realize it doesn't hold up. But that's OK when the action is as relentlessly paced and fun as Phillip Noyce delivers here. The escalation from accused spy to fugitive happens very quickly -- it's exaggerated -- but once the action starts it covers for the trite dialogue -- "You're not safe with me!" -- and silly plotting.

The part of Evelyn Salt was originally written for Tom Cruise, who eventually walked away because he felt the story too closely resembled his "Mission Impossible" movies. Good thing too. Cruise would have brought his usual hero persona along with him, taking away some of the down-and-dirty pleasure of the film. Besides it's way more fun to see Angelina Jolie jump from building to building and use dead guys as a silencer for her gun. Cruise would have insisted on less good-or-evil ambiguity. Jolie oozes bad girl vibes and it works very well here. As Evelyn she's two parts bombshell, one part "MacGyver" and all badass. She has more lives than Felix the Cat, but that's all part of the fun.

Less than fun is the end of the movie. There will be no spoilers here, but the preposterous finale makes me think that a.) it was written to set "Salt" up for a sequel -- can "Salt and Pepper" be far behind? or b.) Noyce didn't know how to end it and went for the easiest and least logical way out.

"Salt" is silly fun. A summer spy romp that works as an action film but doesn't bear up to scrutiny. 

"The Runaways" DVD

Richard's Review: 4 stars

Few tales of sex, drugs and rock ‘n' roll contain as much sex, drugs and rock ‘n' roll as the tawdry tale of The Runaways. An underage all girl rock band -- they billed themselves as "Genuine Jailbait" -- spawned from the Sunset Strip's late 1970s seedy underbelly, they imploded in 1979 after four tumultuous years. "The Runaways," a new film written and directed by former video helmer Floria Sigismondi, sees two "Twilight" co-stars leave behind repressed romance for life on the road.

Set back when you could still drink a bottle of stolen booze in the shade of the Hollywood sign without being arrested for trespassing, the movie focuses on two glue sniffing, glam rock obsessed tough girls named Joan Jett (Kristen Stewart) and Cherie Currie (Dakota Fanning). Disaffected SoCal teens, they see an exit from their mundane suburban lives through rock ‘n' roll. Unfortunately their ticket out comes in the form of impresario Kim Fowley, a record producer and self proclaimed "King Hysteria." He cobbles together the band, trains them to be rock stars, convinced that these "bitches are going to be bigger than the Beatles." Before they can play Shea Stadium, however, the band breaks up -- knee deep in ego, drug abuse and bad management.

Sigismondi has made the movie equivalent of an ear blistering blast of feedback. Like the band's two-minute-forty-five-second guitar punk tunes, "The Runaways" is loud, fast and dirty. If you want depth wait for the rock ‘n' roll bio of Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Here Sigismondi leaves behind the surreal feel of her videos and visual art, instead opting for a straightforward (although probably mostly fictional) retelling of the rapid rise and equally rapid free fall of the band. Its "Behind the Music" formulaic but Sigismondi layers on so many other rock ‘n' roll elements that the lack of experimentation in the telling of the tale isn't a minus.

Kristen Stewart is the name above the title star, and she does bring her brooding Brando best to the role of Joan Jett, but this movie belongs to Dakota Fanning and Michael Shannon, who hands in a flamboyant performance.

As Kim Fowley he has a more than a passing resemblance to Beef from "Phantom of the Paradise," and like that character he is campy, dangerous and slightly unhinged. An egomaniac, he introduces himself as, "Kim Fowley, record producer. You've heard of me." It's a bravura performance that could have gone very wrong in the hands of a less committed actor, but Shannon pulls it off with wild aplomb. 

Fanning shines, but in a much more low key way. Low key, but not low wattage. Fowley describes her outer layer as part Bardot, part Bowie but she plays Currie as damaged goods; a young girl with a crappy home life and faraway look in her eye. Fanning quietly gives Currie an unspoken inner life as she slowly falls apart, and whether she's smashing pills with her platform heels and snorting the powder off the floor or rocking it out on stage there is a core of sadness to her that is so real you can almost reach out and touch it. It's the most demanding role in the film and Fanning aces it. 

Kim Fowley described the music of The Runaways as the "sound of hormones raging" and in her film Sigismondi transcends the formulaic aspects of the story by capturing the gritty spirit of in-your-face teenage rebellion.

"Cop Out" DVD

Richard's Review: 2 1/2 stars

It is a generally accepted fact that the law of diminishing returns applies to movie sequels. The further away you get from the source the weaker the film. Now, of course "Cop Out," the new buddy cop movie from Kevin Smith, isn't a sequel. It only feels like one. One with the number 3 or 4 in the title. It is, more correctly stated, an homage to the buddy cop movies of the 1980s like "48 Hrs." and "Lethal Weapon." But it begs the question: When does a movie stop being an homage and start being simply a rehash?

Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan play Jimmy and Paul, veteran NYPD cops. They are the typical wildcard movie cops who cause as much carnage as they prevent. After a drug bust gone wrong they are both suspended for thirty days without pay. The without pay part is a tough pill to swallow for Jimmy, whose daughter is about to be married. To come up with $48,000 he needs to foot the bill for her ceremony he decides to sell his prized possession—a rare, mint condition baseball card. When it is stolen before he is able to sell it he and Paul begin their own investigation, which leads them to an obnoxious drugged out thief (Seann William Scott) and a violent drug lord named after a Louisiana sandwich, Poh Boy (Guillermo Díaz).

 "Cop Out" is Kevin Smith's first studio film and marks the first time in fifteen years that indie overlords Harvey and Bob Weinstein haven't been calling the shots. Not that it seems to have made much difference. Smith's trademarked vulgar humor is firmly in place -- although in smaller doses than usual and without the sweet edge that Judd Apatow brings to this type of comedy -- so fans of bodily function jokes will not be disappointed. No, all the marks of classic Smith are here and the only real difference between "Cop Out" and Smith's low budget work is the addition of more crane shots, bigger stars and higher production value. The only thing missing is a cameo from Silent Bob… and the action and laughs you'd expect from this kind of comedy.

Smith, it must be said, isn't an action director. His ham fisted way with the climatic shootout scenes (that's not a spoiler, you HAD to know this would end up in a shootout) is clumsy and sucks the fun out of the film's latter moments. Worse, it's not nearly funny enough. Smith seems to find the characters much funnier than they actually are, allowing scene after scene to drag on past their breaking point.

There are some laughs, mostly courtesy of Morgan, who, although he is essentially playing his "30 Rock" character, brings an unhinged energy to every scene he's in.

His unpredictability, however, is the only unpredictable thing about the movie. It rehashes (there's that word again) every cliché from the buddy cop genre, including stereotyped bad guys who make Tony Montana look subdued.

According to answers.com the meaning of cop out is "a failure to fulfill a commitment or responsibility," and I can't help but think that the movie's title squares with this definition. Kevin Smith may have been committed to the project, but he failed to fulfill the responsibility of making a good movie.

"The Losers" DVD

Richard's Review: 3 stars

Everything about "The Losers" is exaggerated. Things don't explode, they burst into fiery mushroom clouds. The body count is in the triple digits and why use a machine gun when you can use a bazooka? It has all the elements of a regular action flick, just more and, as an added bonus, one of the bad guys is from Quebec.

At the beginning of the film The Losers are five highly trained special ops soldiers (Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Chris Evans, Idris Elba, Columbus Short, and Oscar Jaenada) -- calling them losers is like calling a tall guy Shorty -- on a mission in Bolivia. Their job is to locate and mark a terrorist's den so the air force can swoop in and lay down a heap of shock and awe. Minutes before bombs are scheduled to drop a busload of underage children arrive at the compound. The Losers try and call off the raid, but the high command -- a man named Max (Jason Patrick) -- refuses. Several very loud noises later The Losers are forced to fake their own deaths and go rogue. When a mysterious stranger (Zoe Saldana) shows up with a proposition they see a way to reenter the United States and get their revenge on Max.

Of course there's more to the story than that. There's next generation weapons, more international locations than a James Bond movie and an internationally wanted bazooka toting bad girl who dresses like a Guess model. This is a comic book movie—it's based on a Vertigo DC series -- with comic book characters and a silly premise. The bad guy is engineering a global conflict to bring peace to the US. Huh? Duct tape saves the day (Red Green would be so proud). Double huh?

It's all a bit silly but since the movie doesn't take itself seriously neither should we. It's a fun ride that while bigger isn't necessarily better. There's a bit too much slo mo -- I think it's time we finally put an end to the "Reservoir Dogs" slo motion shot of the team walking toward the camera -- the ending is clearly set up for a sequel and the supposed good guys seem to take a bit too much pleasure in killing.  

On the upside, however, the cast seems to be having a good time alternately delivering tough guy lines -- "You're going to die very badly" -- and typical action movie one liners -- "Everybody except for PETA wants her dead" with loads of enthusiasm. 

Actor wise as Clay Jeffrey Dean Morgan picks up where his character in "Watchmen" left off, and Zoe Saldana adds to her action movie reputation in a highly physical role that proves that Hit Girl isn't the most lethal female in the theatres this week. Idris Elba provides the closest thing to a fully rounded character, mostly because he isn't saddled with the one-liners the other guys have to spout.