Cruel Summer--Salt, Predators

SALT
ACTION/DRAMA/THRILLER

Simply stated story--Evelyn Salt (Angelia Jolie) is a CIA agent married to a good man, and has a dog. She is about to celebrate her anniversary when a defector tells her that she is a Russian spy and she is supposed to kill the Russian president when he comes to New York. The people she trusts don’t trust her in an instant, and she has to prove her innocence and stop the assassination. The action sequences are fantastic!!

Angelina Jolie is amazing. She can take a beating and give one as well. She is a very good actress, but when it comes to action movies--she is the BEST. Producers should pair Ms. Jolie and Michelle Rodriguez (Machete) in a female buddy action movie, because these women can pull it off. Liv Schreiber as her friend and boss Ted Winter gives a good performance. The amazing Chiwetel Ejiofor (2012, Four Brothers) is very good trying to capture Salt at all costs, but knows something is not quite right. I do hope there is a sequel and I hope Ms. Jolie keeps doing action movies.

PREDATORS
ACTION/ADVENTURE/SCI-FI

This film is more of an official sequel to the original, than the film Predator 2 made in 1990. It stars Oscar winner Adrien Brody and in this year, Slice as Royce unwillingly become leaders of a bunch of killers, mercenaries and convicts trapped on an island where they are hunted by-–you guessed it--Predators!!! That is basically the story, but it is very action packed and suspenseful. It is amazing how the aliens know the group’s weaknesses and take them out one by one.

People, it is a ‘body count’ movie, which simply means actors are there to be killed off by the monster or slasher to keep the movie going. The cast is very good--Topher Grace (70’s Show and Spiderman 3), Alice Braga (Repo Men) Laurence Fishburne (CSI, Matrix movies), and Danny Trejo (Machete). I don’t know why it didn’t make money--it was very good. Maybe it took too long to make. Watch it when it comes out on Blu-Ray and DVD.