If you thought that the running spat between Americans and the Ruskies was over, you’d be very much mistaken. The notion of sleeper cells has become fairly accepted and understood in recent years. Salt takes the concept that little bit further.

There is still a vast amount of mistrust between the two super powers. Those in charge in the Kremlin have created a new programme that brainwashes young children into becoming devoted soldiers of Mother Russia. They are trained to infiltrate US society and seemingly blend in with the community for several years at a time. Then, at the shortest of notice, they can be triggered to take part in a covert mission to attack the US from the inside.

No-one is more aware of these sleeper cells than the CIA. Evelyn Salt (Angelina Jolie) has not only been a CIA agent for a number of years, she has also time and time again proven her patriotism. When a Russian operative decides to give himself up however, using ill health as a reason to come clean about what he knows, Salt’s pledge of allegiance to the flag soon comes under scrutiny. He declares that Salt is actually one such sleeper cell, who has managed to imbed herself inside the CIA.

With her loyalty in question, Salt has no other choice than to run and escape being captured by the system she has worked years for. For her colleagues Ted (Liev Schreiber) and Peabody (Chiwetel Ejiofor), the fact that she’s decided to go on the run doesn’t help her cause. In fact the longer she continues to evade their grasp, the more they start to believe that there may actually be some truth to the claim that Salt isn’t who she claims to be after all.

Brad's such a joker. "Go on Anj, on ya bike!". What a dick.

It doesn’t take this film long to get up on its feet and running. Jolie quickly finds herself in kick-ass mode and shows her male action counterparts that the girls can also pack a punch. The problem is, the further into the film we go, the more androgynous Jolie becomes; in fact at one point she actually takes on the physical appearance of a man. She epitomizes the Ethan Hunt character that Tom Cruise has embraced, as she runs around on her very own impossible mission. The irony is of course is that Cruise was down to initially play the lead in this project originally, presumably when the character was male. It’s no surprise he ultimately passed on the project; not only is it a Mission: Impossible clone, but he’s also signed up to appear as Hunt in a fourth M:I flick, so there would have been a conflict of interest there.

The story does a swell job in trying to keep you guessing as to where exactly Salt’s loyalties lie, but the action sequences are all a bit too run-of-the-mill, offering very little in the way of originality. Director Phillip Noyce is certainly no stranger to the thriller genre; not only did he helm the taut Dead Calm, but he also guided Harrison Ford through both Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger. For the last ten years or so however, he hasn’t really had much to do with the action genre as a whole. This is wholly evident with Salt. If he had directed it a decade or so ago perhaps, Noyce would have had a firm grip on Jolie and her undercover antics. Here though, it presents itself as nothing out of the ordinary, which is a real shame considering his talent.

Jolie obviously stays true to the character, but in doing so leaves audiences with a veritable chill; even if the film was showing in 3D – which it isn’t – wearing the glasses wouldn’t be enough to lift her performance into anything other than the flat two dimensions she delivers it in. And the production team really should have asked themselves this question: do audiences really want to pay to see Jolie look like a man in an action flick? About as much as they want to see Cruise kick-ass in a skirt and curls. Actually, thinking about it...

If they had concentrated more on the story, which had a little more meat on its bones, rather than the bland seen-it-all-before action scenes, Salt would have been a far easier and genuinely more satisfying concept to swallow.