Salt

Evelyn Salt is a CIA officer that is accused of being a Russian sleeper spy set out to assassinate the Russian President.  Unwilling to wait on the CIA to clear her name she takes things into her own hands trying to elude her superiors and save her husband.

Well, this wasn't bad.  It wasn't really that good either.  It is a pretty straight forward action adventure flick.  Not over the top in terms of special effects and the plot is totally predictable and a tad spotty.  The casting is OK, from what I understand the role was originally written for Tom Cruise, who turned it down so they re-wrote the part for a female lead.

It is an do-able summer action movie, nothing to run out and see, but assuming you have already seen Inception, I suppose its the best option.

** 1/2 Rentable

Rated PG-13 (for language and violence)

Inception

A group of spies covertly enter into peoples dreams to steal ideas.  When they get caught by one of their targets he offers them their lives in exchange for a plan of his own.  Now instead of extracting information they must try to plant an idea inside someone else in a way that he is convinced it is his own.

I can say with certainty that my summation of this plot is pretty weak.  I don't want to give too much away but still try and get the basic idea across.  So run with me on this.

OK so plot aside, this was one of the most visually stunning movies that I have seen in a long time.  Very high concept and really interesting.  The idea of creating dreams within dreams and controlling that environment -- Genius.


Now, back to the storyline.  Here is were I take issue with this flick.   Again as much of it was delightful eye candy I felt that it seriously lacked any sense of urgency.  There is nothing at stake.  The world will not come to an end if they fail.  Evil will not prevail.  No one will even die.  Someone else will just make more money.  Yes, there is a sub plot that tries to bring in some sort of emotional element, but it still is seriously lacking in any sort of real risk or consequence that makes one care if they succeed or not other than simple curiosity.   Which I guess is enough for some people, but I think they could have upped the ante.

Again visually amazing and the concept is interesting, I just felt that little if anything was at stake.  You know, make me hold my breath.  Oh well, fun enough to see on the big screen I suppose.

*** See it.

Rated PG-13 (for violence and language)

Despicable Me

An evil villain adopts three orphaned girls to unknowingly aide him in his next devious plot to steal the moon.  As he uses them to gain access to the odds and ends he needs to complete his genius scheme, much to his dismay, he finds himself being sucked into their world of ballet recitals and tea parties.

This was pretty forgettable, like a really clever idea that wasn't fully fleshed out.  I loved the concept.  That there is a "villain world" that has it's own businesses, stores and banks.  It was clever and fun.  But the set up itself takes way too long and the main character isn't evil enough nor a successful enough villain for the character arch to really be satisfying when his world is turned upside down by three little girls.

 There are some fun and entertaining moments in this movie but it just wasn't thoroughly developed in a way that made the sentimentality of it memorable or even desirable.  The villain doesn't have enough of an effect on the little girls and they overpower his life leaving things neatly tied up but a little unbalanced.

Cute but not great.

** Rentable

 Rated PG (for violence)