Movie review: Salt

I picked up the Angelina Jolie spy thriller Salt at a Redbox machine this evening, not expecting much. But it turned out to be a lot of fun - a smart, fast-paced, action-packed movie loaded with amazing stunts, most of which seem to have been performed for real, not generated in the hard drive of a computer. 

People sometimes underestimate how hard it is to turn out a product like this. No, it's not Shakespeare and doesn't try to be, but a lot of skill goes into bringing the over-the-top story to life in a more-or-less believable way. (Emphasis on "more-or-less," since suspension of disbelief is definitely required.) The filmmakers show considerable ingenuity in advancing the plot mainly through action, and in providing essential exposition as briskly and painlessly as possible.

The movie underperformed at the box office, perhaps hurt by an uninspired title and the inherent difficulty of selling a female action hero. But if you're in the mood for a swift ninety minutes of chases, explosions, and plot twists, Salt is worth a rental. It captures much of the fun of the Die Hard series, doesn't talk down to the audience, and, thankfully, is not freighted with any social, political, or moral message.  

My only caveat is that Jolie herself, while excellent in the part, looks alarmingly thin. Angie, for God's sake, eat a cheeseburger or something. 

Comments

[Kevin]

Gotta love cheeseburgers! Speaking of which, I wonder, do we know very much about cheeseburgers (or any food) featuring in the astral plane, afterlife, summerland, heaven, etc.? I don't recall anything from the host of material I have read...

[Kevin]

Which reminds me, back before Ted Haggard's sex scandal, I recall one of the anchormen at one of the major networks taking an interest in Haggard's mega church. During that segment on TV, I recall Haggard telling people that "in heaven, you can eat all the ice cream you want."

I like ice cream, but... my expectations of the afterlife are quite beyond eating ice cream.

[Michael Prescott]

"do we know very much about cheeseburgers (or any food) featuring in the astral plane"

If you've ever had a dream in which you were eating a meal, you know it's possible for consciousness to create a very convincing simulation of this experience. So there's no reason why consciousness could not create the subjective reality of eating - or even drinking whiskey and smoking cigars, as the communicator "Raymond" famously alleged - in a realm of pure thought.

However, as you became aware that the experience was self-created and not fully real, you would probably lose interest in it. (I suspect that for the same reason you would eventually lose interest in your entire "heavenly" environment - at which point it would be time either to move to a higher plane or to reincarnate.)

[psd to oscommerce]

Salt is one of the great movie with best of script. And Angelina Jolie just looking stunning in this film. The action sequences are so great and the performance of her also marvelous. I really love this movie.

[dmduncan]

That's a good looking cheeseburger.

[Jim Winn]

Thanks for the review, I passed up this movie because it seemed like it was going to be garbage, I have a feeling it did not do well at the box office because it was too simular to some of her other movies.

[Art]

She was pretending to be someone she wasn't. Sound familiar from the preceding thread?

[Roger Knights]

"I wonder, do we know very much about cheeseburgers (or any food) featuring in the astral plane, afterlife, summerland, heaven, etc.? I don't recall anything from the host of material I have read..."

Someone famous, I think an Indian, said (approximately), "To an Indian, a heaven without mangoes is inconceivable."

[BenSix]

...it's possible for consciousness to create a very convincing simulation of this experience...

Which begs the question, Michael, what did you think of Inception?

[Michael Prescott]

I haven't seen Inception yet. I'm always late to the party when it comes to new movies. But I'll get to it sooner or later ...

[Leo MacDonald]

Has anyone seen the free video about the Scole experiment yet? Its on the web on right here

http://www.vimeo.com/18714325

[Sandy]

Thank you, Leo!

[Zerdini]

Yes I've seen it - not very interesting. Simply a rehash of the SPR's report plus some italian EVP.

Constant repetition of driving back and forth to Scole but very little of the actual Scole sitting plus simulated phenomena overlaid with audio tracks.

I wrote to Monty Keen years ago pointing out that the light phenomena was nothing new and had all been done before!

[Zerdini]

Regarding spirit lights, as I explained to Montague Keen, they are nothing new in Spiritualism.

Walter Jeune produced spirit lights through his mediumship which varied from the size of a pea to four or five inches in diameter.

"On several occasions", said Ernest Oaten, " I have asked that one of the lights be placed in my open hands. I closed my fingers round it and I declare that it felt as solid as a cricket ball."

Sir William Crookes stated ... "I have seen a solid, self-luminous body the size and about the shape of a turkey's egg, float noiselessly about the room.

"Not only is science unable to explain them, but unable to produce anything like them,"

Helen Duncan also produced spirit lights "at a number of successive seances, each one larger than the last, until on the final night the light was like a huge Chinese lantern, probably the size of a football. It was full of opalescent colours which seemed to be in continual motion..."

Because the SPR investigators had little knowledge of the cases described above they made claims which could not be justified..

[Zerdini]

To which should be added:

"There is no new thing under the sun" - Ecclesiastes v.9 ........or as Ambrose Bierce puts it: "There is nothing new under the sun but there are lots of old things we don't know."

[Paul]

Michael
I think your illustration about our perception of the reality of our dreams and the connection with Raymond Lodge and others about eating, smoking and drinking in the 'afterlife' is a very interesting point. I hadn't considered that before.

Paul

[Sandy]

Zerdini, I agree that it isn't the most exciting documentary, but it does have one redeeming feature. There's a clip of Arthur Ellison. I just keep watching that clip.

[Zerdini]

Hi Sandy,I have letter from Ellison asking me about OBE's etc from someone in the USA - it's not you is it?

[Sandy]

I don't live in the US.

[Zerdini]

My mistake, Sandy. Sorry to read about your current misfortune regarding your studies.

[Sandy]

Thanks, Zerdini.

[Art]

We recently saw the movie RED (which we found out stands for retired extremely dangerous!) and we enjoyed it a lot. There are a ton of famous people in it. Helen Mirren, Morgan Freeman, Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Mary Louise Parker. It was a lot of fun!

[Matthew C.]

I went to Netflix and, unfortunately, Salt was DVD only and not "Watch it Now".

We still have a DVD membership with netflix so maybe I'll put it in the queue. . .

[Michael Prescott]

"We still have a DVD membership with netflix so maybe I'll put it in the queue...."

In the meantime you might like the Millennium trilogy, which is available for streaming:

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Girl who Played with Fire
The Girl who Kicked the Hornets' Nest

The first film (Dragon Tattoo) is especially good - a remarkably intelligent, mature thriller. Very dark in tone, though. (Contains graphic violence and fairly explicit sex.)

[Leo MacDonald]

Zerdini do you think fraud took place at Scole just wondering? I find it hard to think it did with three professional magicians, James Webster, Professor Richard Wiseman and Professor Arthur Hastlings. Not just that but even though they were in complete darkness in most of the sittings the fact is that even if all the sittings were done in broad daylight. Skeptics would say well the investigators got fooled by qualified magicians (the mediums). That is what happened with DD Homes all his seances done in broad daylight but was still assumed to be a clever magician instead of a physical medium.

[Fred Seton]

I agree completely, man. "Salt" was a smartly written script and it seemed to lose none of its punch when the title character was changed from a man to a woman after Jolie expressed interest.

It is a shining example of an excellent "popcorn movie."
It entertains, entertains, and entertains.
And my definition of "entertaining" is Making Me Forget I Have A Hundred Degree Fever When I Am Watching This Movie.
That's what a good Popcorn Movie should be: a violent dose of antibiotics that lasts two hours.

[Generic Viagra]

I had never heard or even read about this subject until and unless I didn’t read your article. You write so well and with every line you make me feel inquisitive to learn and know more. I guess that’s the true trait of a great writer which you surely are.

[Michael Prescott]

Glad you liked the review, Fred. I don't like too many contemporary popcorn movies, but that one was fun.

Oh, and thank you, Generic Viagra, for your kind and totally un-spamlike words.

[Bruce Siegel]

"I had never heard or even read about this subject until and unless I didn’t read your article."

I agree, Michael—you're a lucky man to receive accolades like this!

I do think, though, that the sentence is improved by removing "and unless". Then it becomes clear that Mr. (or Ms.) Viagra used to write for Groucho.

[Tattoo For Girl]

Hiya : )
Why do people (society generally) still pre-judge people who have body art. women especially?
I am a twenty six year old F, have got 10 tats, many of which can't be noticed on my every day travels. 5 - 6 during the summer are pretty much constantly on display. I don't struggle for attention and i also have a loving boyfriend WITH NO TATTOOS .I get the impression that a majority of people think that tattooed persons are blind, as we get stared at, even when we return a glance many people keep on looking. When will society improve?

[Art]

I believe tatoos exist for two reasons. #1. for the soul to experience duality and separation. It makes people stand out from other people and causes people to be separate, unique, individuals.
#2. The initial pain of getting the tatoo imprints on the soul the parameters of the physical body, bits of information like pixels on a TV screen and the more pixels the clearer the picture.

[Michael Prescott]

I believe you're replying to a spambot, Art ...

But if we're on the subject, I think tattoos are increasingly popular because they appeal to the right hemisphere of the brain, which is involved with pattern recognition and visual imagery. In preliterate societies, tattoos are common. In literate societies, they are much rarer, because literacy encourages left-hemisphere dominance. In today's increasingly postliterate (or illiterate?) society, tattoos and other right-brain motifs are making a comeback.

Personally I detest tattoos.

[Zerdini]

Zerdini do you think fraud took place at Scole just wondering? I find it hard to think it did with three professional magicians, James Webster, Professor Richard Wiseman and Professor Arthur Hastlings. Not just that but even though they were in complete darkness in most of the sittings the fact is that even if all the sittings were done in broad daylight. Skeptics would say well the investigators got fooled by qualified magicians (the mediums). That is what happened with DD Homes all his seances done in broad daylight but was still assumed to be a clever magician instead of a physical medium.

[Zerdini]

Unfotunately my answer did not appear so I will send it a bit later when I have time.

[Sandy]

Michael, I agree. Tattoos are just icky. Thinking back to my late teens when I would dye my hair blue and wear this tiny little kilt with my doc martins, I'm so glad that I never got a tattoo. A lot of my friends did, but I'm too afraid of needles to even get my ears pierced.

[Ben]

Icky?!
Surely you like http://c2508872.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/cat-bellybutton1.jpg”> this one!

[Sandy]

Your link doesn't work, Ben.

[Michael Tymn]

Michael,

Living in Hawaii, where many people wear nothing but tank tops and shorts, I ponder on the tattoo epidemic daily. Like you, I think they are disgusting and almost feel like vomiting when I see tattoos covering a large part of a person's body. Your explanation makes sense and is consistent with the TV programs about prison life, where all of the prisoners seem to be covered with tattoos. I think they are the "mark of the beast."

I'm sure many women have tattoos because Angelina Jolie has them.

[Sandy]

I don't know what your link was to, but you reminded me of a story.

I used to work part-time as a commercial artist while I was working on my first undergraduate degree. One day this girl showed up where I worked and asked my boss, a very shy guy named Doug, if he would design a unique tattoo for her. Doug told her that he would try to think of something and would call her when it was ready.

Doug really wanted to see that girl again, but he was too nervous to work on anything so I came up with a nice design on his behalf. She came by the next day and was very pleased with the drawing of this black cat I did with the specifications she had in mind. I thought that was the last we would see of her. Doug was too nervous to say much all. He just turned red and stammered like an idiot. So she paid for the drawing and left.

We were all shocked a few weeks later when she walked back into Doug's life. She went into Doug's private office and showed him the tattoo. I don't think he was quite ready for that tattoo. It was a cat that draped over her shoulder and onto her breast. She took off her shirt to let him see the full effect.

Doug came out of his office rather flustered. He did date her a few times after that, but things never really worked out for them. I just remember him commenting on the day she showed him the tattoo that as much as he didn't like tattoos, he was willing to make an exception for that one in particular.

[Felipe]

I was actually really, really curious to hear Zerdini's response to the question above -and the Scole experiments. (if you get a chance to repost your "vaporized" comment, which is a huge pain in the rear end when it happens - I'd love to hear your thoughts)

FWIW - I've been reading some of the various books recommended here, and elsewhere on mediumship and afterlife research, and in some ways I think the more you learn, the more ambiguous it all becomes.

In David Fontana's book, (Is there an Afterlife) he gives the Helen Duncan facts what seems to be a pretty fair and balanced view....and then seems to side with the idea that she did have genuine abilities, even though she was occassionally prone to cheat.

However - reading some of the information online from the same accounts he describes in the book, there are significant disparities in his version of what may have happened.....and more damning and pretty straightforward evidence that she cheated often. (including many of the links posted by Michael)

Even the ship sinking was NOT, apparently an unknown....it seems to have been a general public unknown, but close relatives were aware that it has sunk, according to numerous online accounts, even making that very easy to explain as fraud or collusion. (and the sailor hat she was found to have as well during one of the police raids - neither of which were mentioned in the book)

I do find it's an uneven journey in trying to define what is real - and what is simply contrived wishful thinking and delusion - and I find it troubling to read how many of the pioneers in this field believed someone like Duncan was genuine. (big names - to me - all discounted as a result)

There are some patterns that are unsettling to me - elsewhere I read today about William Roll's OBE experiences (also I believe in Fontana's book, although it may have been another) as evidence that he believed his experience was genuine, and evidence of a spiritual self.

Yet - when I pulled up interviews Roll has done on the paranormal online and specifically cross referenced it for OBE's, he describes his experience much the same way Susan Blackmore has her's - as powerful, but patently false in the facts of what he saw while "out of body" - and believed it to be a simple hallucination.

Finding a genuine, unbiased and altogether credible source is not easy I'm finding. (I even signed up for Gary Schwartz's new online newsletter and ecourse "upsell" ....and being an internet marketing professional myself, I can tell you - if this is the road prominent paranormal research is going, we are in trouble..:-)

[Zerdini]

Zerdini do you think fraud took place at Scole just wondering? I find it hard to think it did with three professional magicians, James Webster, Professor Richard Wiseman and Professor Arthur Hastlings. Not just that but even though they were in complete darkness in most of the sittings the fact is that even if all the sittings were done in broad daylight. Skeptics would say well the investigators got fooled by qualified magicians (the mediums). That is what happened with DD Homes all his seances done in broad daylight but was still assumed to be a clever magician instead of a physical medium.

I will try to attempt to answer your question, Leo.

First regarding your statement about D.D.Home viz. “That is what happened with DD Homes all his seances done in broad daylight but was still assumed to be a clever magician instead of a physical medium”

Daniel Dunglas Home did not do all his séances in ‘broad daylight’, many, if not most, were in subdued light.

Regarding Scole:

The three ‘professional magicians’ - how qualified were they to judge?

James Webster is a Practising Surgical Chiropodist and Podiatrist, Administrator of 'The Abu Trust', full member of 'The Scientific & Medical Network', past member of 'The Magic Circle' and Associate of 'Inner Magic Circle'. James has over forty years researching into all aspects of the paranormal with present emphasis on Survival, Spiritual Science and Philosophy (his words!).

Professor Richard Wiseman started his working life as an award-winning professional magician, and was one of the youngest members of The Magic Circle. He is based at the University of Hertfordshire, where he holds Britain's only Chair in the Public Understanding of Psychology.

Professor Arthur Hastings is Research Director of the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology and is also a semi-professional magician, and has been known to do magic for Institute events and celebrations.

According to Professor Fontana, Hastings, in his written verdict submitted to us, insists that the phenomena at Scole could not be produced by sleight of hand or trickery. In his own words: “The behaviours described in the Report are not ones which can be produced by magicians under the close conditions of the Scole investigation, and some can't be produced under any conditions".

Brian Dunning of Skeptoid wrote: "skeptical psychologist and author Richard Wiseman sat in on one seance, taking charge of some photographic film, which failed to be imprinted while in his control. But rather than coming away impressed and spreading the word, he summed it up to me in six words: 'It was a load of rubbish!'"

Brian added: “One of the investigators, Alan Gauld, wrote critically of how he discovered this locked box could be quickly and easily opened in the dark, which allowed for easy substitution of film rolls. This box was provided by the mediums. Whenever any other sealed container was used, no images ever appeared on the film. Yet even while acknowledging these facts, the authors of the Scole Report still maintain that the film images are most likely evidence of the supernatural.

“This same principle explains why we don't see articles from the Proceedings of the SPR, like the Scole Report, republished in scientific journals. A scientific investigation of a strange phenomenon assumes the null hypothesis unless the phenomenon can be proven to exist. But the authors of the Scole Report, with complete credulity, did the exact opposite: Their stated position is that the lack of disproof means their seances were real supernatural events. But a primary feature of good research is the elimination of other possible explanations, at which the Scole investigators made no competent effort. Many of the investigators expressed that they were not very convinced by what they witnessed, and it is to the credit of the Scole Report authors that they fairly reported this. But this raises the question: Why then write such a lengthy and credulous report, making such obvious conclusions that these phenomena were real? The lesson to take away from the Scole Experiment is a simple one. Although we all have preconceived notions, we have to put them aside and follow the evidence when we investigate.”

July 28 2008 Michael Prescott wrote when reviewing “21 days in the Afterlife”:

“In a long discussion of the Scole phenomena, he does not include the bizarre end of the experiments - which were abruptly concluded after the "spirit communicators" claimed their transmitting station had come under attack by hostile forces! Rather suspiciously, the termination of the work occurred just as researchers were planning to introduce infrared cameras into the séance room.”

[Michael Prescott]

From what I've read of Scole, at least some of the phenomena must have been paranormal *if* they were reported accurately. For instance, David Fontana, in his book "Is There an Afterlife?", reports that participants could silently "will" the small globules of light to approach them and to perform specific actions, and that the globules, which were studied at very close range, behaved in ways that would be impossible for ordinary physical objects or projected beams of light.

On the other hand, the inability to use IR photography and the questions surrounding the photographic images can only raise doubts.

I don't know why anyone still quotes Wiseman as a serious authority, though, or why we would take an account published in "Skeptoid" (whatever that is) at face value.

[Zerdini]

The Scole Report authors asked Wiseman to prepare a tamper-proof box, which he did, for holding the films. Nothing appeared on the films.

Skeptoid: Critical Analysis of Pop Phenomena is an award-winning weekly science podcast. Since 2006, Skeptoid has been fighting the good fight against the overwhelming majority of noise in the media supporting useless alternative medicine systems, psychics preying upon the vulnerable, the erosion of science education in the classroom, xenophobia of advanced energy and food production methods, and generally anything that distracts attention and public funding from scientific advancement.

Brian Dunning describes himself thus:

By profession I am a computer scientist, both as a Silicon Valley CTO and as a consulting engineer. My only academic credential that bears any scrutiny is in Writing for Film and Television from University of California, Los Angeles. I also have a credential that doesn't bear any scrutiny — and you'll find it at Thunderwood College. I'm also a member of the National Association of Science Writers.

I've written a few books and numerous technical articles. I decided to put this experience to good use, and created the Skeptoid podcast. I'm also one of the featured bloggers on SkepticBlog, the official blog of the prospective TV series The Skeptologists which I host.

I have a great wife, two terrific kids who are smarter than me, a cat who's dumber than me, and some assorted koi who haven't yet been evaluated. We all live happily on the beautiful and sunny southern California coast.

*******************************************************************************
I take this approach 'audi alteram partem' - 'hear the other side' which doesn't mean I have to agree but, at least, listen!

[Zerdini]

I don't doubt that some of the phenomena were paranormal e.g. 'spirit lights' but, as I pointed out to Keen, they were nothing new in the history of mediumship.

[Leo MacDonald]

Thanks for this excellent food for thought post Michael. I just want to say a few quick things, there is a category mistake i get from a quite a few spiritual people and that is that because cannot be created or destroyed that it applies to consciousness. WRONG we know that matter is energy so that energy is just for the maggots, worms etc that eat your body when you are buried. So it would have to be some quantized energy packet that quantum physics talks about like the many world interpretations where is a conservation of energy. Materialists always mention Gilbert Ryle a behaviorist book on substance dualism trying to discredit the ghost in the machine argument. I would say that the ghost in the machine argument obviously doesn't make any sense if there is a little man in the brain of instead the soul as similiar to the physical appearance of the physical body.

For their to be afterlife there obviously would have to be a different type of matter that the soul is, dark matter if you will that would be indestructible. Also the laws of the physics would be different. That is what you have if you think parallel universes is true. I wouldn't trust anything Brian Dunning says regarding the paranormal he is very closed when it comes to it. Also by the way the Norfolk Experiment are coming on today continuing the work of the Scole experiment.

Let's admit too even if the experimenters used infrared red against the wishes of the medium group the fact would still be that the skeptics would say that these mediums were just master magicians deceiving and fooling the researchers. Example, of this would be DD Homes would skeptics still think was a master magician even those most of his seances were down in broad daylight.

[Sandy]

Zerdini, do you know anything about the Felix Circle in Germany? Their blog looks interesting.

http://felixcircle.blogspot.com/

[sbu]

The critizism of the scole experiment seems valid enough, Leo: http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4179

Unless a new round of investigations is able to address some of the shortcomings mentioned by the critics, the Scole experiments can't be taken seriously. As a minimum the investigators should be allowed to select the location of the experiments. Not the mediums.

[Leo]

DD Homes experiments were never taken seriously even though his seances were down in broad daylight. Plus if two magicians are on record stating the phenomena produced cannot be done by sleight of hand/trickery.

[sbu]

That's not an excuse for sloppy testing of mediumship in the Scole Experiment 100 years after.

[Michael Prescott]

It's been a while since I read about Scole, but didn't they bring in a couple of magicians who sat in on some sessions and then said they could not duplicate what they saw?