Director: Philip Noyce Screenplay: Kurt Wimmer, Brian Helgeland Cast: Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, Chiwetel Ejiofor, August Diehl Time: 100min Age Restriction: 16V

Genre:
Thriller/Action

Summary Review:
Salt is Angelina Jolie’s best action movie to date, with a thrilling, twisted storyline that will keep you guessing to the last scene.

Synopsis:
There has been a plethora of espionage-themed action/thriller movies out in recent years, along the lines of the Bourne movies and Salt is another such film. But it is one of the better ones and it seems fresh.

Angelina Jolie plays Evelyn Salt, a skilled and respected CIA agent. One day she is interviewing a Russian defector in the high-security CIA offices when he accuses her of being a Russian KGB agent, who’s been planted to kill the US president.

Her CIA colleagues regard her with suspicion and wish to interrogate her, but Salt is not about to let herself be detained when they have just been informed that there is someone trying to kill the president.

She runs and escapes through a series of breathtaking stunts, which characterise the entire film and the rest of the movie revolves around Salt and who the real spy is.

Salt will keep you guessing right up to the last minute – as soon as you think you’ve figured it all out, a new twist is thrown into the works.

Angelina Jolie did all her own stunts, which is very impressive, and having a female lead in an action-packed thriller like this is a twist in itself. Salt is by far her best action film to date (the Lara Croft movies being lame comic-like films and Wanted being too far-fetched). Admittedly, if it had been a male actor in the lead role, this movie may have become transparently clichéd.

But thanks to its fast-paced, thrilling and intriguing storyline, Salt is gripping and entertaining.

Director: Christopher Nolan Screenplay: Christopher Nolan Cast: Leonardo Di Caprio, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Marion Cotillard Time: 148min Age Restriction: 13V

Genre:
Sci-fi/Thriller

Summary Review:
Inception is a must-see film, setting new standards in creativity, special effects and just plain awesomeness.

Synopsis:
Extraction is the process of stealing people’s thoughts, secrets or ideas, by entering their dreams and gaining access to the deepest vaults of their subconscious.

Mr Cobbs (Leonardo Di Caprio) is the most skilled extractor on the planet. Mr Saito (Ken Watanabe) hires Cobbs and his associate Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) to do something much more difficult, though.

Mr Saito wants them to introduce a new idea into someone’s mind – this is called inception.

But Cobbs has his own mental baggage and a dark secret that threatens to sabotage the entire project.
Inception is an intensely complex film, but is also very fast-paced and if you miss even one line of dialogue, you could lose the plot completely.

This complexity also means that there isn’t much time for the new relationships between the characters to develop, so in one scene they’ll be complete strangers and in the next scene they’ll be treating each other like they’ve known each other for years.

But that is something you just accept, because Inception is so extraordinary. Not only will it keep you thinking throughout, the brilliant cinematography and special effects used to create the different dream worlds is ingenious.

A friend of mine recently studied Plato’s theory of The Cave and how that idea was reflected in The Matrix Trilogy of films, and there are definitely some philosophical comparisons that can be drawn with Inception.

Marion Cotillard plays one of the strangest antagonistic characters of all time, Joseph Gordon-Levitt gets to trade his nerdy image for some super cool action moves and there are refreshing slashes of humour at the most unexpected moments, which gives some relief to the tense rollercoaster ride of the story and adds a hint of charm and humanity to Inception and its characters.