Movies incorporate high-speed chase scenes as a shot of adrenaline – to get viewers hanging on the edge of their seats, buggy-eyed and chewing their fingernails.
A good movie chase might include a rockin’ soundtrack – or eerie, tension-filled silence.
It might jerk and shake all over the screen, as if the cameraman is jogging right along with the pursuers or the pursued. Or it might be smooth as silk, flowing with razor-edge precision from start to finish.
The best movie chases make your heart race right along with them.
The chase is on this week in Reel Deal, with flicks representing the best, worst and what’s to come in hot, big-screen pursuits.
At a theater near you
Please, please pass the “Salt.”
I know, too much of it is not healthy. Piling it on could cause a heart attack. But I love it anyway. What can I say, it’s a weakness.
With Angelina Jolie’s “Salt,” who needs pepper? The simple spice has never had so much kick.
In “Salt,” directed by Phillip Noyce, Jolie plays CIA agent Evelyn Salt – who, as the film opens, is being beaten and bloodied by North Korean captors.
She endures and returns to a corporate desk job cover and her future husband. But then a Russian agent waltzes in and casts a shadow of doubt over Salt’s identity, and she’s on the run.
Chased by her comrades in the CIA, Salt – and we, the captivated viewers – are chasing something else: the truth.
Whether highway hopping across tractor-trailers or laying waste to a room full of armed agents, Salt hits her target with such skill and finesse that you’ll find yourself forgetting to take a breath at times.
The versatile Jolie is equal parts sexy and scary as Salt. As an action hero (or villain?), she stacks up with the best of them here – from James Bond to the Terminator.
Liev Schreiber and Chiwetel Ejiofor play the agents who can hardly keep up with the enigmatic Salt.
The film just sprinkles on suspense – from the appetizer course right through the main course and dessert.
It made me want to wipe my mouth and ask for seconds.
On DVD
There’s too much cliché and not enough chase in “The Bounty Hunter,” starring Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler as ex-spouses on opposite ends of the law.
The thrill is often in the chase.
Movies incorporate high-speed chase scenes as a shot of adrenaline – to get viewers hanging on the edge of their seats, buggy-eyed and chewing their fingernails.
A good movie chase might include a rockin’ soundtrack – or eerie, tension-filled silence.
It might jerk and shake all over the screen, as if the cameraman is jogging right along with the pursuers or the pursued. Or it might be smooth as silk, flowing with razor-edge precision from start to finish.
The best movie chases make your heart race right along with them.
The chase is on this week in Reel Deal, with flicks representing the best, worst and what’s to come in hot, big-screen pursuits.
At a theater near you
Please, please pass the “Salt.”
I know, too much of it is not healthy. Piling it on could cause a heart attack. But I love it anyway. What can I say, it’s a weakness.
With Angelina Jolie’s “Salt,” who needs pepper? The simple spice has never had so much kick.
In “Salt,” directed by Phillip Noyce, Jolie plays CIA agent Evelyn Salt – who, as the film opens, is being beaten and bloodied by North Korean captors.
She endures and returns to a corporate desk job cover and her future husband. But then a Russian agent waltzes in and casts a shadow of doubt over Salt’s identity, and she’s on the run.
Chased by her comrades in the CIA, Salt – and we, the captivated viewers – are chasing something else: the truth.
Whether highway hopping across tractor-trailers or laying waste to a room full of armed agents, Salt hits her target with such skill and finesse that you’ll find yourself forgetting to take a breath at times.
The versatile Jolie is equal parts sexy and scary as Salt. As an action hero (or villain?), she stacks up with the best of them here – from James Bond to the Terminator.
Liev Schreiber and Chiwetel Ejiofor play the agents who can hardly keep up with the enigmatic Salt.
The film just sprinkles on suspense – from the appetizer course right through the main course and dessert.
It made me want to wipe my mouth and ask for seconds.
On DVD
There’s too much cliché and not enough chase in “The Bounty Hunter,” starring Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler as ex-spouses on opposite ends of the law.
The concept – “Arresting your ex: Best job ever!” – is certainly intriguing, but beyond movie-poster-slogans, the writers simply fail.
Butler is Milo Boyd, a has-been cop turned bounty hunter with a gambling problem who seems to both hate and painfully pine for his ex-wife, Nicole (Aniston).
Nicole is a journalist on the trail of a hot story involving a suspicious suicide and potentially dirty cops. Her scoop gets sidetracked when she’s charged with assaulting a police officer – bumping a police horse with her car – and skips her court date to track down a source.
And so Boyd gets the job that makes his heart skip a beat, and horns stand out on his head. He gets to track down his ex-wife and take her to jail for skipping bail. And he gets paid to do it.
So far, so good.
When Milo’s chasing Nicole – or the bad guys are chasing both – there’s a certain energy and excitement that sorely lacks from the other 90 percent of the flick, which stews in sarcasm and cynicism and cranks out clichés.
The two eventually find a way to work together – and even start to hash out what sent their roller-coaster marriage south – but their on-again, off-again, love-hate relationship just gets old on screen, and puts the brakes on this chase flick.
Jason Sudeikis (of “Saturday Night Live”) is in it for laughs as Stewart, Nicole’s hapless, hopeless, lovesick co-worker who wants to be Woodward to her Bernstein, but elicits more groans than chuckles.
The goons out to settle Milo’s gambling debt – on the same day he’s arresting his ex and fending off a crooked, killer cop – are just useless. They do little but eat up screen time.
Hot pursuit? More like lukewarm.
Trailer Time
Fast cars. Guns. Mad men.
Trailers for “Drive Angry 3D,” starring Nicolas Cage, and “Faster,” starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson don’t have much more to say.
In “Drive Angry 3D,” Cage is a felon pursuing the bad guys who murdered his daughter and stole her baby. Oh, and it’s in 3D. It races into theaters Feb. 11.
In “Faster,” Johnson is looking to avenge the death of his brother during the botched bank robbery that led to his imprisonment. And he likes to drive fast. And shoot people. It kicks into high gear Nov. 24.
Robert McCune is editor of The Independent in Massillon, Ohio. Call him at 330-775-1124.
