Salt

I recently watched this Angelina Jolie action movie. It tells the story of an undercover CIA agent who is outed as a possible deep cover Russian spy. Her fellow CIA pals are played by Liev Schreiber and Chiwetel Ejiofor.

The film starts with her incarceration by the North Koreans, who believe her to be an American spy. She is tortured for 2 years, and then traded back to the Americans. The action starts soon after.

While I liked the film for the most part, there were a few aspects that I didn't. The flashbacks with her fiancé - husband, I don't think they really helped the film. He was a fairly minor character, and I didn't care about him at all.

Also, fairly early in the film I figured out the main plot, which is always a discouraging thing. I hate when that happens.

And some of the 'stunts' in the film were just plain impossible for a normal person to have pulled off.

It was originally supposed to be Tom Cruise in the lead role. But as they waited for him to sign, they thought Angelina might also fit, and she got it. Go figure.

All in all, a decent flick. Probably not one I will see again. But they did set it up for a possible sequel.
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Kick Ass

The title alone sets this movie up to be disliked by some people. But it's not a bad movie at all.

The movie is about a young man who wonders aloud to his friends why there are no super heroes out there. When reminded by his friends that no one has super heroes, he says that he means normal people that go out and try to help people. He endeavors to do just that.

After donning a makeshift costume, and heading out into the night looking for a lost kitten, he runs into a gang fight. After saving the life of the lone guy getting beaten, Kick Ass is born.

There are other heroes that take their cue from Kick Ass. Big Daddy is a Batman wannabe, and his daughter is the brutal Hit Girl. There has been some debate about some of the dialogue that the 12-year old actress uses in the film. At one point, she uses the dreaded 'C word'. Apparently, in the comic book that this movie is from, the character uses this word, and the director was unsure about how it would be for such a young girl to use it. So he had her film the scene using other, less offensive swear words. Then the actress' mother asked for the director to shoot it once using said uber-offensive word, and they kept it.

Other than that controversy, the film is a decent actioner. It has some decent humor, and even some emotion. All in all, I really enjoyed this film a lot.