Angelina Jolie definitely worth her 'Salt'

When Angelina Jolie reportedly said she'd like to make a female James Bond movie, she probably meant something like the cutting-edge 007 series reboot "Casino Royale."

Instead, "Salt" is closer to "Quantum of Solace," the most recent Bond thriller riddled with standard-issue action movie conventions - preposterous stretches of common sense, over-the-top stunts, inane dialogue and supposedly trained gunmen who can't hit squat with machine guns.

Jolie may not exactly be in Jason Bourne's league, but she holds her own in a role that requires much more motion than emoting.

"Salt" originally came with the prerequisite male action hero named Edwin A. Salt (a-sault, get it?) with Tom Cruise up for the role. When Jolie entered the project (reportedly after turning down an offer to be a Bond girl), Edwin became Evelyn Salt, a blonde CIA operative with a will of steel, one tough cookie who refuses to crumble.

We witness that in the opening sequence when she's tortured by North Korean interrogators who strip her down to her modest, PG-13 essentials and mercilessly beat her. But she doesn't break.

Freed during a prisoner exchange, Salt marries a nerdy spider expert named Mike Krause (August Diehl) and goes about her CIA desk job under Ted Winter (Liev Schreiber), a tough, by-the-book kind of guy who has an obvious soft spot for Salt.

"Utilitarian is the new sexy," he tells Salt, who has no idea she's about to prove him right.

Everything changes when a Russian defector named Orlov (Daniel Olbrychski) wanders into the CIA office with information about a massive Russian conspiracy called "Day X," a plan to destroy the United States by slipping sleeper agents into key government positions and taking over the government at a predetermined moment.

He identifies Evelyn Salt as one of them.

Faster than you can say "faster," Salt ingeniously escapes CIA headquarters in New York with the aid of household chemicals and a fire extinguisher. She goes on a wild chase that involves climbing outside of buildings and jumping from overpasses and trucks to elude her CIA colleagues Winter and Peabody, a thankless reactive role performed by Chiwetel Ejiofor.

Is Salt really a Russian spy? If she's not, why is she running?

Australian filmmaker Phillip Noyce directs "Salt" with the slick professional sheen he brought to his respectable but unexceptional espionage thrillers "Patriot Games" and "Clear and Present Danger," both based on Tom Clancy novels.

Noyce understands the needs of a typical Hollywood action movie and apparently doesn't mind sacrificing character depth and motivation for the sensational payoff of a quick pace and constant movement. But he should have been bothered by the overuse of cheesy flashbacks to illustrate every plot point discussed by the characters.

The action sequences are the movie's showcase moments, and this is where Jolie shows her stuff as a committed athletic performer willing to look haggard and abused while executing slick martial arts moves. Jolie has already racked up an impressive roster of female action figures from the "Tomb Raider" adventures, "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" and the crazy, bullet-bending thriller "Wanted."

Now as a female James Bond in this new movie, it's clear she's worth her "Salt."

"Salt"Rating: 2#189; starsStarring: Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Andre BraugherDirected by: Phillip NoyceOther: A Columbia Pictures release. Rated PG-13 for violence. 100 minutes