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Mad about movies

City Times takes to the multiplexes to find out what’s in store for movie buffs this week

Salt

AS FAR AS Hollywood’s action outings go, Salt is being hailed as an extremely successful, sans cheese, female version of the Bond films by early reviewers – definitely a compliment to its female lead Angelina Jolie who also secured audience and critic approval with her last action flick, 2008’s Wanted.

Helmed by filmmaker Phillip Noyce (The Bone Collector and Catch A Fire), the eagerly awaited spy thriller also stars actors Liev Schreiber, and Chiwetel Ejiofor in major roles.

The feature follows hard-working and dedicated CIA agent Evelyn Salt (Jolie) as she attempts to prove her innocence after being declared a KGB sleeper agent plotting the assassination of the President of the United States by a defector.

So far, Salt seems to have played to a fairly positive response from most film critics. Kirk Honeycutt from The Hollywood Reporter reviews the 100-minute film as “a slick, light summer entertainment”.

He also adds “Salt is a better Bond movie than most recent Bond movies, as its makers keep the stunts real and severely limit CGI gimmickry.”

Trivia:

· Tom Cruise was initially casted to play the lead in Salt. However, due to prior commitments, the actor was unable to schedule dates and the script was re-penned for Jolie.

· The filming of Salt was temporarily interrupted when Jolie suffered a head injury and had to be rushed to hospital. However, she was discharged the very same day and shooting continued as normal.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice

IF YOU’RE NOT quite that excited about this weekend’s ‘other’ release, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, then you’re not to blame. The fantasy adventure has failed to generate much enthusiasm from movie buffs world over, and with good reason.

Directed by Jon Turteltaub - who’s last two movies with Nicolas Cage, National Treasure and its extremely unnecessary sequel, failed at the box office – the flick features She’s out of My League star Jay Baruchel and Alfred Molina alongside Cage.

Loosely based on Disney’s Fantasia, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is about a modern-day, Manhattan-based sorcerer Balthazar Blake (Cage), his battle against his arch nemesis (Molina) and a would-be powerful wizard (Baruchel).

Renowned film critic Roger Ebert writes in his review of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice for the Chicago-Sun Times that “This is a much better film than Airbender, which is faint praise, but it’s becoming clear that every weekend brings another heavily marketed action “comedy” that pounds tens of millions out of consumers before evaporating”.

Trivia:

· During filming of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, a car chase sequence went awry, which caused two bystanders to suffer minor injuries.

· The first trailer of the film premiered with The Princess and the Frog.

Also releasing this weekend is sci-fi horror flick Splice directed by Vincenzo Natali and starring Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley in a story of combining human DNA with animal genes

davina@khaleejtimes.com